9 December 2005 - Media Release

Senator Fielding sides with the Government and sells out sport

Senator Fielding this afternoon sided with the Government and supported John Howard's ideological agenda that will not only strip students of vital services on campus but will severely undermine investment in sport in Australia.

Thanks to this arrogant Government and Senator Fielding's sell out, sport in Australia will suffer.

Under VSU:

The Labor Party, supported by a similar amendment by Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, put forward a very sensible amendment that would have saved student services and saved sport.

The Government and Senator Fielding chose to ignore this sensible approach and instead arrogantly vote for their ideological agenda which will mean an end to essential services on university campuses.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

7 December 2005 - Media Release

NCA fails to consult AGAIN

Once again the NCA has shown it is incapable of administering the planning for a pocket of residential land in Deakin and Forrest fronted by State Circle.

The latest debacle has seen State Circle residents AGAIN ignored as the NCA has failed to ensure developers conduct even the most basic consultation requirements.

Not only has the requirement to consult in relation to the construction of a display unit been ignored, but the display unit is designed to sell a development that is yet to be assessed and approved.

This makes a mockery of the NCA's previous commitments to improve consultation after a parliamentary inquiry found extremely poor practices.

It also raises the legality and/or ethics or advertising a development for which an application is yet to be received.

One can only conclude that the developer is at risk of misleading investors OR the NCA has already given the wink and nod to the developer in contempt of the rules and the surrounding residents.

Until the final development has been considered, residents consulted, and works approved or rejected, the site should be made safe and work should cease.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

1 December 2005 - Media Release

Kemp fails to defend volunteerism

In question time today Senator Kemp failed to defend volunteerism under his Government's changes to the welfare system.

People with a disability and single parents will no longer be able to undertake important voluntary community work to satisfy their 15 hour per week activity requirements to qualify for their welfare payments.

This change will impact heavily on community sporting organisations along with schools, charities and other community groups who cannot operate without volunteers.

Volunteer participation in sport and recreation has already dropped.

Despite Senator Kemp insisting that volunteers are integral to the success of programs such as the Active After School Communities Program which he said would “cease to exist without volunteers,” he failed to guarantee such programs would not be affected.

The Government is contradicting itself – on one hand they purport to encourage volunteerism in sport and recreation amongst other worthy endeavours, on the other they enforce changes that will undermine volunteerism, the lifeblood of community organisations.

Contact: Taryn Langdon 0417 148 059 or 02 6277 3334

1 December 2005 - Media Release

Howard gags debate on workers rights

The Howard Government has this morning gagged and guillotined debate on the most significant changes to workplace law in over 100 years.

This is an arrogant abuse of the Senate by the Howard Government. It has prevented the ability of the Senate to have a thorough and exhaustive debate on Howard’s extreme IR agenda.

Opposition Senators have been given only 39 minutes to consider some 337 amendments before debate on them begins. This is outrageous and does not allow enough time for the amendments to be even read.

The Howard Government is clearly terrified of scrutiny and knows that they can never win this argument.

They may be able to ram through their extreme laws, but they will never convince Australians that this legislation is good for them.

The Howard Government couldn’t care less about Canberra families and the far reaching affects that this legislation will have on their day to day lives and today’s behaviour in the Senate by Government members is proof of their absolute contempt for Australian workers.

Contact: Adina Cirson 0418 488 295 or 02 6277 3334