This week's stories: Ill, Legal Substances...Foreigners Bring Foot In Mouth Disease...That Showed Em...Government To Build Radioactive Dump...Outsourcing Works, Say Companies...Quotes of the Week.
The full bench of the Industrial Relations Commission has upheld Qantas' decision to sack an employee for using the internet for illegal purposes. The employee had tried to buy amyl nitrate via email. Amyl nitrate is not illegal. (Financial Review, July 10). A 17 year old girl is set to be deported back to the country she fled after being kidnapped at 14 by a gang that tried to force her to run drugs. Ruth Cruz has appealed to the Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock. Mr Ruddock has criticised Ms Cruz's supporters for making her case public. He said that "I don't make these decisions other than with a full brief of all the facts," he said. This seems to contradict a statement Mr Ruddock made which was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald on June 19. Mr Ruddock said on that occasion that it was naive to expect him to read the files of every person that he allowed to stay in Australia. The people Mr Ruddock helped in that case had made large donations to the Liberal Party. (The Age, July 13, Sydney Morning Herald, June 19). The 53 Vietnamese boat people detained on Christmas Island two weeks ago have been cleared to appeal for temporary protection visas. This contradicts claims by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock that they could be economic migrants. John Howard stated that he was prepared to spend whatever was necessary to stop the boat people setting foot on the Australian mainland. Some reports put the cost as high as $10 million. Because the boat people managed to enter the 'migration zone' and are therefore eligible to access Australia's Refugee Review Tribunal and court system, the same rights they would have received had they been processed on the mainland. (The Australian, July 15, Herald Sun, July 9). The Federal Government says construction of a national radioactive waste dump could begin within 12 months, after it 'compulsorily acquired' land in Woomera. (ABC News Online, July 7). The Australian Tax Office spent $860 million over 5 years outsourcing their IT needs to the EDS company, compared to the original budget of $480 million. Outsourcing is promoted as cheaper and more efficient than having work done in-house. Opponents say it is a form of 'corporate welfare' and is used to undercut wages and conditions. (The Australian, June 5). Quotes of the Week: "To initiate a war of aggression...is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole". The Nuremberg Tribunal (trial of Nazi war criminals after World War II). "Military industrial corporations like General Dynamics, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin experienced a sharp rise in their stock prices in the immediate wake of the September 11th. attacks. They were to be the prime benficiaries of the immediate increase of $48 billion dollars and the five-year increase of $120 billion in the military budget proposed by the Bush administration with the crisis mentality created by September 11". ( From "Making War at Home in the United States: Militarisation and the Current Crisis", by Catherine Lutz, 'American Anthropologist' Issue 104 (3) 2002). anarchist news service write to James, PO Box 503, Newtown NSW 2042 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] contact us to get ATNTF emailed directly to you. If you like All the News That Fits, forward it on to people or lists who might be interested in it, or post it on your local Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.org. Some other Australian anarchist contacts: Love and Rage is an anarchist, non-profit record label. Our CD is available by mail order. 20 songs for $10 within Australia, $15 in New Zealand, $10 in the USA, $10 in Canada, 5 pounds in Britain, or 10 euros in the rest of Europe. 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