Australia and Oceania

By Inquirer Bureaus Philippine Daily Inquirer July 29, 2008

MANILA, Philippines—A Central Luzon-wide transport strike, effigy-burning and protest rallies in key urban centers outside Metro Manila erupted Monday, even before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo could deliver her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Congress.  read more »

Sun Jul 13, 2008

SYDNEY (AFP) - Thirty-seven people were arrested at a climate change protest in Australia on Sunday when they blocked a railway line delivering coal, police said.

Organisers said as many as 1,000 people attended the protest march from Newcastle to the nearby Carrington coal terminal, where some demonstrators broke through a fence and chained themselves to a stationary coal train.  read more »

May 21, 2008 

CANBERRA, Australia: (AP) Kangaroos and Tasmanian devils are beloved Australian icons that are tugging the nation's heartstrings for very different reasons. While authorities are cutting the population of the former, they are struggling to prevent the latter from dying out altogether.

The juxtaposition underscores Australia's challenges, failures and differences in opinion on caring for its unique fauna.  read more »

April 30, 2008 news.com.au

A PROTEST by cab drivers which has caused mayhem in Melbourne's CBD appears to have ended with cabbies having their demands for safer conditions met.

Driver representative Mohammed Jama and Victorian Taxi Directorate general manager Peter Corcoran said safety screens would be made compulsory in taxis and introduced by Christmas.

Pre-paid fares will be compulsory between 10pm and 5am each night, and the State Government will cover all medical costs for a driver stabbed and left for dead this week.

Mr Jama said he was happy with the result and drivers could remove the screens if they did not want them.  read more »

Wednesday March 05, 2008
By Jarrod Booker New Zealand Herald

Consent has been given for the restaurant to be built on the site at Motueka, near Nelson, but a group calling itself Uniquely Motueka is standing in the way.  read more »

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By Carmel Crimmins

MANILA (Reuters) - Thousands of people streamed into Manila's financial district on Friday calling for the resignation of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in a colorful outpouring of placards, prayers and chants.

Police estimated between 13,000 and 15,000 people had gathered, but independent estimates put the crowd at over 25,000.

Priests in white cassocks recited the rosary, university students shouted "Fight for Truth" and office workers from nearby high-rise buildings sprinkled confetti.  read more »

February 18, 2008 abs-cbnnews

Militant groups on Monday launched protest actions against the annual joint RP-US military exercise Balikatan ’08 as well as the continued presence of US troops in the country.

Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said the joint RP-US war games were launched under the "auspices of the onerous and one-sided Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between two countries."

"Many incidents of human rights violations were documented in these actual combat areas where previous war games were held," Ocampo said in a statement.  read more »

By Penny McLintock Tuesday February 12, 04:24 PM ABC

Thousands of people have marched across the lawns of Parliament House to protest against the Federal Government's intervention in Northern Territory Aboriginal communities.

Aboriginal people from across the country and non-Indigenous supporters gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy near Old Parliament House to hear leaders speak against the intervention.  read more »

By Sebastien Berger Telegraph 28/01/2008

An anti-apartheid activist has rejected one of South Africa’s highest honours in protest at poverty in the country.

John Minto, a New Zealander, led demonstrations against a Springbok rugby tour of his country in 1981, some of which turned violent.  read more »

Jan. 22, 2008

CANBERRA, Australia (AP)- Environmentalists again clashed with Japanese whalers Tuesday in the Antarctic Ocean, with Greenpeace activists failing in a risky attempt to prevent the fleet's factory ship from refueling.  read more »

Sat Dec 8, 2007

SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands (AFP) - Thousands of migrant workers have rallied in pouring rain in the Northern Marianas to protest a new US labour law that denies them the right to change employers.  read more »

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta December 08, 2007

Dozens of transvestites and activists staged a peaceful protest at City Hall on Wednesday, demanding the city administration investigate the death of a transvestite following a raid by public order officers.  read more »

itv.com Nov. 17, 2007

Thousands of protesters have formed a humpback whale figure on Sydney's Bondi beach to raise awareness of the plight of the endangered species.

The protest came as Japan confirmed it will go ahead with the controversial killing of 1,000 whales.

Japan's whaling tradition has long caused tension with New Zealand and Australia.  read more »

MANILA, Philippines (AP)- A Philippine congressman who had been targeted by Muslim militants was among three people killed Tuesday night when a bomb exploded at an entrance of the Philippine House of Representatives, police said.

Rep. Wahab Akbar, a former member of a Muslim rebel group that signed a peace accord with the government in 1996, died at the hospital, his chief of staff said.

Metropolitan Manila Police Chief Geary Barias said a lawmaker's driver and a congressional staff member also were killed. Seven other people were wounded, including two congresswomen.  read more »

Nung Aljani/MindaNews Thursday, 01 November 2007

ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/31 October) --Hundreds of Subanon farmers, women and youth, trooped to different government agencies here Wednesday to protest the alleged encroachment of their lands by the Zamboanga City Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (Ecozone) in the mountain barangays of Patalon, Labuan and Limpapa.

The Subanons allege that 9,000 hectares of the 15,000 hectare Ecozone are their ancestral domain.

The group first staged their assembly in front of the Ecozone Office in Barangay San Ramon then proceeded to the regional office of NCIP and the Office of the Sangguniang Panglungsod (City Council).  read more »

July 20, 2007 Aotearoa Imc

Hospital workers around the country are standing strong as Australian cleaning contractor Spotless Services continues to lock them out of their workplaces.  read more »

Jul 14, 2007 Taipei Times

The Philippine government, already under fire for a poor human-rights record, is coming in for more criticism as it implements a new anti-terror law many fear could be used against political opponents.

Hundreds of people held a protest yesterday against the Human Security Act that allows detention of suspects without charge for up to three days and provides for up to 40 years in jail for anyone convicted of terrorism.

The law willl come into effect tomorrow.  read more »

July 14, 2007 The Australian

INDIGENOUS people will never agree to the abolition of the permit system in the Northern Territory nor the land rights they fought so hard to earn, a Sydney protest has been told.  read more »

July 13, 2007 ABC News

Police will investigate whether officers used excessive force at a violent protest today outside federal Education and Science Minister Julie Bishop's Perth office.

Activists claim police pepper-sprayed and hit them with batons when about 50 of them delivered a letter of protest over a proposed nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.

Ms Bishop says she called the police when the group barged into the foyer of her office this afternoon.

Police say the protesters were throwing rocks and bricks at the building.

A policeman and several protesters received minor injuries.  read more »

June 17, 2007 ABC NEWS

Activists have converged on a drilling rig off the Western Australian coast to protest against plans to build a major gas plant.

The protesters say a Japanese project will destroy one of the world's last wilderness areas.

Arriving in boats and seaplanes, the activists hung banners on a drilling rig at the Maret Islands, north-east of Broome.

Japanese company Inpex is using the rig to assess the area for a liquefied natural gas plant to service one of Australia's biggest reserves, the Browse Basin.  read more »

The Associated Press May 30, 2007

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian marines shot and killed three people on Java island on Wednesday during a violent protest over a plot of land allegedly owned by the force, a local government official said.

The land in Pasuruan in east Java is also claimed by villagers, said Muzammil Syafi'i, the deputy district chief.

He said the marines had killed three people and wounded eight others, but gave no more details.

Syafi'i said the dispute dated back to the 1960s and concerned a 3,600-hectares (8,895-acres) plot that the marines wanted to use as a location for military training.  read more »