Australia and Oceania

Freedom is not an impossible dream

Submission to the Presiding Judge, Auckland High Court
The Appeal to be heard on 28 June 2010 at 11.45 am

(New Zealand has been modeling itself on the British social class system with tragic consequences)

Appellant
Anthony Ravlich
Chairperson
Human Rights Council Inc. (New Zealand)
10D/15 City Rd.
Auckland City.
Ph: (0064) (09) 940 9658.
www.hrc2001.org.nz

Next Monday the Auckland High Court will be hearing my appeal against a sentence in the Wellington District Court on 2 February 2010 where I was convicted and fined $200 for failing to file an election expenses return after standing as a candidate for the Human Rights Party (1) in Auckland Central.

An ignited fight for reproductive freedom won abortion decriminalization in Victoria, Australia.  The struggle continues as labor, the left, and feminist movement join together to win full reproductive rights in the land down under.  Debbie Brennan’s multi –faceted eyewitness account of the historic national march for abortion rights in Sydney will be part of her presentation.

The Balibo five were Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and Tony Stewart

Indonesia has banned the film Balibo,
which depicts the deaths of six foreign journalists in East Timor, the

ABC - May 4, 2009

Police have launched a major operation at a forest protest camp in the Upper Florentine Valley in southern Tasmania .

The group Still threatened Still Wild says one of its members has been arrested.

Police have set up a command post in the exclusion zone where Forestry Tasmania contractors are working.

7th February 2009 The Daily

Japanese whalers have accused anti-whaling protest ship the Steve Irwin of ramming their fleet a second time.

The Sea Shepherd ship had rammed the Yushin Maru 3 as the Japanese vessel tried to transfer its catch to the mother ship, Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement on Friday night.

The Steve Irwin earlier rammed the stern of Yushin Maru 2 as it was hauling on board a minke whale.

By NICKY HAGER and ANTHONY HUBBARD - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 14 December 2008

Police teams set up to identify terrorism threats and risks to national security are spying on protest and community groups, including Greenpeace, animal rights and climate change campaigners, and Iraq war protesters.

Police officers from the Special Investigation Group (SIG) have carried out surveillance and used a paid informer to gather information not just about planned protests but the personal lives and sexual relationships of group members.

Oct. 22, 2008 gmanews.tv

MANILA, Philippines- Foreign and local participants of the People’s Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights kicked of the event on Wednesday with a protest rally in Manila against the lack of protection for migrants worldwide.

A GMA News report aired over QTV’s Balitanghali said the
activists rallied at the Rajah Sulayman Park in Malate even as the
Manila City government revoked their permit to stage the event there.

With the theme,"Migrant workers are human beings, not commodities," the

By Jeannette Andrade Philippine Daily Inquirer Sept. 29/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- Some 50 residents of a squatter colony trooped Monday to the Commission on Human Rights compound to protest their impending eviction from a government lot in Quezon City.

The protesters, all clad in black, sought the intervention of CHR commissioner Leila de Lima as the local inter-agency committee, headed by the Quezon City police district, gave them until Saturday to stay on the 1,500-square meter property.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.