Unprecedented Times

Earlier this year NSW Labor MPs supported legislation that effectively criminsalised non-violent forms of protest. Now you can go to jail for 2 years and face a $22,000 fine if you obstruct pedestrians on any road that the Coalition Minister decides by regulation. 

The Coalition has used Blockade Australia as a scapegoat to manufacture consent for anti-protest legislation that threatens the long-term integrity of the environmental movement. Coalition members described the climate protestors as violent and "terrorists. Eco-terrorists; Green terrorists" (Source). They weren't. Despite what you might think about the strategic value of their actions, the protestors at the centre of the debate did not engage or plan to engage in any form of violence. It is not surprising that the Coalition seized an opportunity to suppress the democratic freedoms of all citizens in perpetuity. Nor is it surprising that they tried to use the bill to undermine NSW Labor. What is chilling though is that the Opposition did nothing to stand in their way. In fact, the Hansard record shows that many Labor MPs were passionately in favour of the anti-protest bills. 

This Saturday the 23rd of July Newtown SEC is Hosting a Housing Policy Summit

Join branch members, policy experts, public housing residents, and the Shadow Housing Minister to discuss the future of public housing in Sydney. https://linktr.ee/newtownlabor

Westmead Branch Secretary, Prabir Maitra, invites you to 'Healing after COVID: reuniting a divided city'

Ed Husic MP will deliver this years’ lecture on Saturday 6 November 2021. The Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation and Federal Member for Chifley will discuss his perspective on 'Labor's plans to build back better in a post-pandemic world. 

Rank-and-file survey highlights a perception amongst branch members that NSW Labor is failing on multiple fronts. 

A survey initiated by the Campaign for Labor Party Democracy (CLPD) has confirmed that branch members are deeply concerned by Head Office's management of NSW Labor. 145 party members from dozens of branches responded to the survey between July and October 2021. Branch members are dissatisfied with the party's lack of internal democracy, education & training strategy, the accountability of elected party officials, and the party's relationship with women members. 

We cannot allow fossil-fuel corporations to hijack action against climate change

Bringing people along with Labor’s climate change policies requires local strategies that give workers a real say over the future of their jobs and communities. We cannot afford to repeat the failures of ‘top-down’ solutions which ignore the specific desires of workers on the ground. A ‘one size fits all’ approach only allows fossil-fuel billionaires to divide working class communities along geographic and industrial lines. The task for Labor is to develop a way of harmonising systemic climate policies with local decision making.