Unprecedented Times

By Nick Daniel

Australia was shocked in June this year by tapes revealing that then-Victorian Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade, and ALP factional warlord, Adem Somyurek, was engaging in industrial scale branch stacking. These revelations were likely less shocking to members of the Party. While many were disappointed that this had occurred, we were not surprised. The practice of branch stacking is, after all, part of the everyday activity of the great Australian Labor Party.

By Katarina Butler

The Coalition's proposed cuts to tertiary education pose a major threat to Australia’s economic recovery from COVID-19 by decreasing public funding in a sector that employs thousands. In the face of increasing economic inequality, further polarisation between working people and those with wealth and power will invariably accompany these exclusionary  policies. Member of the Young Left School Student Network, Katarina Butler, on the future of tertiary education.

By Rodney Kelly

250 years ago several artefacts, including a shield and 40-50 spears, were stolen from the Gweagal People of Botany Bay. They now sit in museums scattered across the globe.

Rodney “Murrum” Kelly, Gweagal Warrior, writes on the campaign to bring them home.

By Zac Gillies-Palmer

In 1915 the New South Wales Parliament passed a series of amendments to the Aborigines Protection Act. The amendments  granted disturbing new powers to the Aborigines Protection Board, most notably the authority to remove Aboriginal children from their families without parental consent or court orders. This movement towards ‘assimilation’ ultimately led to the removal of thousands of Aboriginal children from their families. We remember the children affected by these horrific practices as The Stolen Generation.

By Simonne Pengelly

There’s nothing quite like a by-election in the middle of a pandemic and following close on the heels of a bushfire disaster to remind us all of the complexities of modern campaigning and that, these days, the election cycle never really stops.