(25.04.2024)
Students have set up camp at Australia’s University of Sydney on the back of pro-Palestinian encampments and demonstrations that have swept through United States institutions and led to mass arrests and cancelled classes, writes Daniella White for The Sydney Morning Herald.
„No more deaths, no more bombs …free Gaza,“ state Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri told the crowd.
„A temporary ceasefire is just the bare minimum of what must happen, and the Greens have been unequivocal in their calls not only for a ceasefire but for a lasting and just peace for Palestine.“
One of the speakers, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe, spoke of how she had been in police protection in recent weeks and had been trapped in her home for five months.
#NoVaccinePassports #NoGreenPass #NoAlPaseSanitario #NonAuPassVaccinal #PassaporteSanitarioNao #Freiheit #nejtillvaccinpass #GeenQR #Freedomrally
„I see it as a day of freedom, it‘s a freedom day,“ New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Dominic Perrottet told reporters in Sydney, the state capital. „We are leading the nation out of this pandemic but this will be a challenge.“
Sydneysiders were plunged into lockdown in late June, and restrictions now reach across two states and the nation‘s capital, affecting over 15 million people.
Sky News confirmed the temporary ban and a spokesperson said „we support broad discussion and debate on a wide range of topics and perspectives which is vital to any democracy“.
NSW Police Force Commissioner Mick Fuller told local media Channel 9 that police had to expect a protest this weekend. He warned that people protesting anywhere in Sydney over the weekend will be met by „up to 1,000 police“.
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Meanwhile, Fuller confirmed on Thursday that he had made a formal request to the federal government for Australian Defence Force (ADF) assistance with the ongoing COVID-19 compliance operation, requesting for 300 ADF personnel to boost the operational capacity of NSW Police.
There is a COVID crackdown in Sydney. In scenes the city hasn‘t seen before, Defence Force troops will be sent into the suburbs, to curb the runaway virus. They‘ll be checking on households. As residents wake up to harsh new rules on masks and travel.
Australian soldiers are joining local police in New South Wales to enforce a coronavirus lockdown in and around Sydney as authorities try to tamp down the latest outbreak of cases linked to the more infectious delta variant.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she is disgusted by the behaviour of thousands of anti-lockdown protesters who marched through Sydney’s CBD on Saturday.
Raising the Warragamba Dam wall will inundate thousands of Indigenous sites, including ancient rock art, creating an impact on heritage akin to the destruction of the Juukan Gorge, traditional owners say.
Supporters of Julian Assange spent another Friday evening informing the people with important information we are not getting from the establishment media.
Legendary Australian writer and film-maker, John Pilger, has returned to Australia to seek urgent help, both government and public, for the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Pilger‘s public speech at Sydney Town Hall yesterday was informative and painfully moving. Assange, he says, has not only been a victim of persecution from the US and other states, from which he was granted political asylum – or, a place to remain arbitrarily ‚holed-up‘ for 6 years, according to two UN rulings… What troubles Pilger more is the „Vichy journalism“, of which he gives numerous examples, that has served to aggregate lies and smear that would demolish public support for Wikileaks, and deflect us from reading the content of their publications. If we would only read them now, we might be skeptical about journalists describing a war hawk as „the icon of our generation“…
This is an abridged version of an address by John Pilger to a rally in Sydney, Australia, to mark Julian Assange‘s six years‘ confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.