With Darrel Lea executives under scrutiny for slashing pay and conditions over Easter, ACTU President Sharan Burrow claims that family life will suffer for workers as a result. Archbishop Wilson of Adelaide agrees saying that the related consumerism may be destructive to Australian society.
The crisis in the Solomon Islands following Monday’s tsunami continues to mount, with this morning reports of an outbreak of diarrhoea among survivors. Drinking water is scarce, there is fear of a cholera outbreak, and at least two-thousand people remain without shelter. The Wire spoke with humanitarian aid group UNICEF on the situation in the Solomon Islands, and with seismological expert Professor Gary Gibson on the danger for Australia.
As the Australian Defence Force helps with the clean up in the Solomons after the Tsunami there, ADF personnel are also cleaning up in East Timor’s capital, Dili. Just days out from presidential elections political tensions between rival parties spilled into violence yesterday as members of the ruling Fretilin party were pelted with rocks. East Timor has experienced significant social unrest since ousting Mari Alkitiri as Prime Minister last year and the fledgling nation continues to struggle with its independence. International organisations, including the militaries of several countries have kept guard over the increasingly violent situation in East Timor. Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury is a senior lecturer in the school of international and political studies at Deakin University and is in East Timor as an election observer for the Victorian Local Governance Association. He spoke to The Wire from the capital, Dili.
An incident two years ago in far North Queensland has sparked a report from the Transport Safety Bureau criticising the Civil Aviation Safety Authority over a plane crash where fifteen people died. Yesterday the authority responded with an announcement of a new range of initiatives to improve safety in regional airlines and focus on education and training for pilots.
