Media2010-08-05Communists to stand for both HousesThe Communist Alliance (CA) will stand a team of two candidates in NSW for the Senate, and also a candidate for the House of Representatives in the Seat of Sydney in the August 21 poll. The Communist Alliance is a newly registered electoral alliance made up of the Communist Party of Australia and expatriate Communist parties active within migrant communities here (eg the CP of Lebanon, the Iraqi CP) as well as a number of individuals. The CA’s candidates for the Senate are Brenda Kellaway from Newcastle and Geoff Lawler from Wagga. Brenda, granddaughter of veteran Australian Communist leader Edgar Ross, has consistently participated in the struggles of workers from an early age. She is a school-teacher and folk-singer, well-known in the Hunter for her work in support of saving the rail link into the city, preserving public land and open space from the ravages of developers, and in support of peace and an end to the war in Afghanistan. She has fought for ordinary Australians, regarding both local and international issues, for over three decades, and also completed her University degree whilst being a single mum. Brenda has also organized large concerts in Sydney and Newcastle to raise funds for the victims of war. She was the founder of the Central Coast “Let’s Barter” scheme in 1997, it was then called “The Odd Job Exchange”. Since then she has been active in the Peace Movement and on Anti-Privatisation campaigns and is currently a member of the Hunter Valley and Community Progressive Forum in Newcastle. Brenda joined the Communist Party in 1975. Geoff Lawler has been Riverina regional organiser for the LHMU (Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union) for 25 years and was Secretary of Unions Riverina based in Wagga until 2009. Geoff is also head boxing coach at the Wagga Wagga PCYC. His present job entails looking after the interests of workers across a third of the State, from Wollongong to Bourke and beyond. He recently scored a significant wage increase for cleaners on the several campuses of Charles Sturt University. Asked to comment on the cry often heard in conservative quarters “The Communists! I thought they were dead!”, Geoff said: “Today, forty percent of the world’s people live in countries where the Communist party either is the government, or takes part in the government. Forty percent. That is anything but dead.” Denis Doherty, the CA candidate for the seat of Sydney, has lived in the Sydney electorate for over 20 years. He is a well-known community activist. Denis is a teacher by profession and a committed unionist. Denis is best known for his peace work. Brenda Kellaway said “Communist MPs would fight to expand the public sector of the economy, with corresponding increases in employment and economic stability, to reduce our bloated military budget and instead to spend that money on helping our public schools, expanding Medicare, improving our public hospitals and reversing the flow of GPs from country areas.” “We have a good spread of unionists, community and peace activists in this team for the 2010 election” said the candidate for Sydney, Denis Doherty. “We have candidates from Wagga Wagga, Newcastle and Sydney with good community profiles for fighting for the interests of the ordinary working people of this country,” he said. Contact info:
2010-08-02Brenda Kellaway on YouTube
Check out Brenda Kellaway’s YouTube video Unemployment/Full employment. 2010-07-30Health for the Inner West“The key to overcoming the current crisis in our health system is to change the health for profit approach to a system where prevention and early intervention are the priorities,” Denis Doherty, Communist Alliance candidate for the seat of Sydney, said in Sydney today. “Unfortunately both Liberals and Labor want to make our public system more and more dependent on big-business health providers. Both these party's policies lead to a run-down public health system. “The Communist Alliance supports a nationalised public health system with high quality, free and accessible medical and dental treatment for all Australians. “Recently, local member and Federal Minister for Housing Tanya Plibersek announced nine new beds for our greatest local health asset, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH). “Nine beds? That’s a pathetic number compared to what is really needed,” Denis Doherty said. “RPAH has just one part-time palliative care specialist. This means that cancer patients, AIDS patients, and people with chronic illnesses have difficulty receiving the proper pain and symptom management and care they desperately need. Many more specialists are needed in a hospital that treats more than 60,000 people per year in its emergency department, delivers more than 21,000 emergency and planned surgical procedures, provides 500,000 outpatient services and delivers more than 5,500 babies. “RPAH is losing urgently needed physiotherapists, dieticians and speech therapist but the Government is not replacing them. “But the ALP can find $2.69 million to fund a new training wing for a private hospital in Ashfield,” Mr Doherty said. “The Federal Labor Government is turning our health services into a cash cow for private business. “Public hospitals face a funding crisis. A large proportion of their budgets are spent on private services such as pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical supplies and of course specialist services. These costs can only be managed under our plan for public control,” he said. “The Communist Alliance stands for an end to government subsidies for private health insurance. “Our health policy is for a nationalised public health system with local control,” Denis Doherty concluded. For more comment: Denis Doherty Candidate for Sydney for the Communist Allliance 0418 290 663 or denis@communist-alliance.org.au Authorised by Denis Doherty 74 Buckingham St, Surry Hills.
2010-07-30“Let’s Get Australia Working” – Senate CandidateNewcastle based Senate Candidate- Brenda Kellaway stated today that “unemployment is totally unnecessary in Australia”. “Full employment is achievable” she declared. Ms. Kellaway stated that we can have full employment by expanding the public sector. “Toni Abbott needs to face reality” she said “ you first Tony” she stated at the suggestion that job seekers be sent to towns near to mines. “There aren’t enough jobs in the mines for all the unemployed people in Australia” “We need to employ people in major employment centres like our cities, not in Mc Jobs, but in socially useful jobs, like on the railways…” “More people would use the trains if there were staff on the platforms at night and the service was improved”. “Under ‘Mutual Obligation’ unemployed people are forced to complete useless, degrading programs that lead nowhere” “it’s time we gave these unemployed people a bit of dignity by providing them with properly paid full time work”. “With just a small cut to the Australia’s blotted and unnecessary military budget, if the savings were invested in green jobs, we would go a long way towards eliminating unemployment in this country”. “The Communist Alliance is committed to full employment in Australia”. 2010-07-30“Bring Troops Home Now” – Senate CandidateNewcastle based Senate Candidate BRENDA KELLAWAY says that Australia needs to withdraw forces from Afghanistan immediately. “The invasion of Afghanistan by the US and Australia was a big mistake” Ms Kellaway said. “It was just an insane knee jerk reaction to 9/11.” Ms Kellaway, who is contesting the Australian Elections as a NSW Senate Candidate for the Communist Alliance, is deeply concerned about revelations of atrocities by US forces which have emerged in the so-called War Logs. “This is not something our people should be associated with” she said. “The policy of the Communist Alliance is to bring the troops home. Not next year or the year after, but right away.” “In any case the war in Afghanistan is really about oil, not terrorism. The Western powers want to block China from accessing oil from Iran or Central Asia. Australia should strive to keep out of these energy wars. The worlds people want peaceful development not wars of conquest that consume scarce natural resources. It is about time the ordinary people were heard”. The Communist Alliance is fielding two candidates for the six available Senate seats in the Australian general elections, to be held on August 21. Contact Brenda Kellaway: Mob: 0401824386 or write to PO Box 367 Hamilton, NSW, 2303 or Email: info@communist-alliance.org.au 2010-07-28Local social justice activist stands for SydneyDenis Doherty of Glebe has been selected by the Communist Alliance as their candidate for the Federal seat of Sydney. The Alliance is also running a Senate ticket. Denis is well known around Glebe as the former chair of the Glebe Youth Centre and former chair of the Glebe Neighbourhood Centre and for his work in campaigns including prison reform and against overdevelopment. Max Solling’s “Grandeur and Grit: A History of Glebe” calls Doherty “a creative campaigner for peace and social justice”. Denis is best known for his long commitment to peace and ridding the world of nuclear weapons. The Communist Alliance is a newly registered electoral alliance made up of the Communist Party of Australia, expatriate communist parties which have members in Australia and many progressive people from around Australia. “As the Communist Alliance candidate I will be drawing attention to the public schools and hospitals we need in inner Sydney. We don’t get them because the Federal Government wastes $30 billion a year on military spending,” Denis Doherty said. “We want to get rid of the tired old Liberal-Labor games and replace them with a government that really listens and really responds to what the community wants and needs. “The Communist Alliance is different and we hope you will give us your vote on 21 August,” Denis Doherty concluded. Denis Doherty 0418 290 663 Communist Alliance www.communist-alliance.org.au. |
