Our Guest Speaker for the meeting on 18 August was Steve Allday from the ACT Government Project Team who addressed the meeting about the Light Rail Project.
Steve was not able to address the “political questions”, however he was able to answer our “technical/ operational questions”. It was an extremely lively session with running questions and comments from the floor.
[Image: artist’s impression of the proposed light rail, from www.katygallagher.net]
July’s meeting was held as usual on the third Tuesday of the month, the 21st, at 11:00 a.m. in the Rod Driver Room at the Dickson Tradies (upstairs at the Quality Hotel entrance).
Ken Johnson (Visiting Fellow at the Fenner School of the Environment & Society, ANU), works on information systems, urban geography policy and planning. He spoke on the following topic:
“Where the fuck are we & who is going to save us?”
This humorous title belies some very serious issues confronting our society!
Our guest speaker was Elizabeth Reid, First Women’s Adviser to an Australian Prime Minister (Gough Whitlam). Elizabeth spoke on “Maintaining the Rage!”
“During her work with the Whitlam government, Elizabeth oversaw the Australian Government’s arrangements for International Women’s Year 1975, convening the IWY National Advisory Committee. She also led the Australian delegation to the Mexico World International Women’s Year Conference, 1975, and was the Australian Representative to the United Nations forum on the Role of Women in Population and Development, 1974”. (Australian Women’s Register)
May’s meeting was as usual at 11:00 in the Rod Driver Room at the Dickson Tradies (upstairs at the Quality Hotel entrance).
The guest speaker for this meeting was Alex White, Secretary of UnionsACT. He spoke on campaign strategies for the next Federal elections.
Photo: UnionsACT
April’s guest speaker was Jon Stanhope, the ACT Chief Minister 2001-2011. Jon subsequently took a two-year term as Administrator of the Indian Ocean Territories (Christmas & Cocos Islands), in 2012-2014. Jon was also Norfolk Island Deputy Administrator for two years in 1991-93.
Jon’s message is that we have not dealt with our historical failure to extend our democracy to the people of Cocos and Christmas Islands, nor have we dealt fairly with Norfolk Islanders.
Here is a report on his talk: Continue reading
Continuing the impressive line-up of guest speakers at our monthly meetings, the Vintage Reds March meeting heard from both Alex White, UnionsACT Secretary; and Richard Denniss,Executive Director of the Australia Institute, a progressive think-tank based in Canberra (http://www.tai.org.au).
The Vintage Reds welcomed Libby Hay (CPSU), Naomi Brooks (UnionsACT) and Chris Cooper (Fair Go for Canberra) to the meeting.
Between them the speakers outlined the campaigns currently running and planned for the rest of the year. These involved volunteer teams to run stalls, phone bank calls, and kitchen table conversations.
Libby spoke about the Save Medicare campaign, and how privatisation of Medicare and Veterans’ Affairs systems was the first stage towards privatisation of both agencies. What are the possible consequences of so much public data being handed over to private contractors?
Naomi and Chris spoke on the Fair Go for Canberra campaign. Many of the issues being covered arose from the 2014 Budget.
Vintage Reds Guest Speaker for the November 2014 meeting was Dr Anita Chan.
Dr Chan is a Research Professor at the China Research Centre, University of Technology, Sydney; and a Visiting Fellow at the Political & Social Change Department, ANU. She spoke on Chinese trade union and labour rights history, from the early days of the PRC up to the present.
Our fellow Vintage Reds member Pauline Westwood spoke to the October meeting about the TPP. Pauline was formerly a senior policy officer in the public service and a senior research librarian.
For updates and more information on the TPP, see the Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network Ltd, AFTINET.
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)
The TPP is a controversial and highly secretive “free trade” agreement currently being pushed by big corporations and negotiated behind closed doors by officials from the United States and 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam, with a couple of other countries about to join.
Vintage Reds website: Up and running!September’s guest speaker was Tom Greenwell, in his role as the Digital Media Project Officer of the Australian Education Union’s federal office in Canberra.
Vintage Reds are grateful for Tom’s patient guidance as we grapple with the complexities of our new website. Thank you Tom!