Communist Party of Australia

Guardian #1951 – 1st March, 2021 – click here for index.

Australia gets Zucked: Facebook’s gangster move

Last week, social media giant, Facebook, restricted the Australian public from posting or accessing a range of information from external websites, particularly news sites, after an Australian parliamentary committee ordered big tech companies to pay for shared content from large publications. A massive division in Australian opinion followed, with many expressing outrage at Facebook, while others blamed the Liberal government for pushing a policy which largely bends the knee to the news mogul, Rupert Murdoch. Facebook then reversed the news ban after the Australian government amended the media bargaining code. more ...

Murdoch empire must be stopped

Last month, the Senate’s Environment and Communications References Committee held an inquiry into “the state of media diversity, independence and reliability in Australia.” The inquiry came off the back of a tremendously successful nation-wide petition spearheaded by former ALP Prime Minister Kevin Rudd calling for a royal commission into Australia’s media landscape, which amassed more than 500,000 signatures. more ...

The struggle for health, work and the other rights

A year has passed since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which also acted as a catalyst for the deepening of the capitalist crisis, bringing much suffering to the working class and other popular strata all over the world. More than 100mil people fell sick, more than 2mil people lost their lives, millions more are faced with the dramatic deterioration of their living conditions and the social impasses of capitalism, such as unemployment, the sharpening of exploitation and repression. more ...

A New Accord?

“Governments create the environment that enables business to prosper and create new jobs,” said Anthony Albanese in a speech to Queensland TAFE earlier this month. more ...

Safety must come first – Don’t abolish the Family Court!

On Wednesday, 17th of February, a Bill passed the Commonwealth Parliament to merge the Federal Circuit Court with the Family Court of Australia. The move has been broadly criticised by community advocates, legal scholars, and survivors of domestic violence. It is a decision which seems at odds with the government’s commitment of $140 million in resources for federal family law cases in 2020. The merger process is set to begin within six months. more ...

Qld Labor govt’s misguided crackdown on juvenile crime

The Queensland Labor government announced on Wednesday, 9th February, that it will be cracking down on juvenile crime, a move many legal advocacy groups have immediately and roundly condemned. This announcement comes in the final year of QLD Labor government leader Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Youth Justice Strategy Action Plan 2019-2021, which was supposedly enacted to address the structural causes of “juvenile crime.” more ...

Fairer NDIS for all

On Saturday 20th of February, approximately 100 people gathered at the State Library of Victoria to fight independent assessments and for an improved, more accessible, and fair disability service. The rally was organised by an independent, grassroots campaign called “Fairer NDIS For All.” more ...

History of East Timor and Australia

The 19th of February marked the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin by Japanese fascists in 1942, which resulted in the deaths of around 250 people. Less well known in Australia is that on the same day, Japan also began a bombing campaign on the island of Timor. This became an invasion and occupation which resulted in well over 40,000 deaths at the lowest estimate, mostly Timorese civilians of both the East and West of the island. more ...

Afghanistan, India and the Tapi Gas Pipeline

Since 9/11 the US has used the pretext of its “Global War on Terrorism” to develop a military position within GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova) to establish geopolitical control over the Eurasian corridor, in which the Silk Road Strategy (SRS) grants access for major US corporations to this region. Controlling this Eurasian corridor also secures access over the region’s extensive oil and gas reserves, “protecting” pipeline routes and trade. Less discussed in the media is Central Asia, where the US has set up army bases in positions that guarantee the protection of existing and future pipeline routes. more ...

The frontier imposed on Cuba for more than a Century

The administration of President Joe Biden intends to close the US prison at the illegal Guantánamo Naval Base (GNB), before the end of his term, according to information confirmed by Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, reported by news media from Washington. more ...

When US can’t beat China

Friday’s G7 summit and the Munich Security Conference were seen as US President Joe Biden’s debut on the international stage, and one of his brightest slogans was “America is back.” Bringing US allies together to meet the “challenges posed by China” has been a feature of the new US administration since it took office, but the message from the two Friday meetings suggests that closer US cooperation with its allies is bound to result in mutual influence and compromise, rather than a unilateral hijacking of its allies by the US over their China policies. more ...

Supreme Court rules in Uber drivers’ favour

After four court wins in four years, GMB Union will now consult with Uber driver members over their forthcoming compensation claim. more ...