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Issue No. 139 07 June 2002  
E D I T O R I A L

With Prejudice
For anyone doubting the ability of an incumbent government to control the political agenda, this week's sitting of the Cole Royal Commission into the Building Industry made fascinating viewing.

F E A T U R E S

Interview: Class Action
NSW Teachers Federation general secretary Barry Johnson on Bob Carr's election budget and what he needs to do to win back the profession.

Safety: A Mother's Tale
Robin McGoldrick relives the tragedy that prompted her to confront Royal Commissioner Terence Cole over workplace story.

Unions: The Hottest Seat in Town
Nostalgia buffs should make a point of catching at least one session of Tony Abbott�s controversial, Royal Commission, playing to increasingly thin houses in Sydney. Jim Marr sat through the opening scenes.

International: Defensive Enterprise
How can men and women working in the unprotected "informal economy" be helped to better defend their rights? The ICTU grapples with the issue in The Congo.

Economics: A Super Deal?
Neale Towart looks at the debate raging within Labor circles around savings and investment.

History: A Radical Life
Stephen Holt gives an insight into one of the Australian Labor Party�s original true believers through his examination of papers held in the Manuscript Collection

Media: Cross Purposes
Stuart Mackenzie looks at the lines spun at the recent Senate committee hearing into media ownership laws.

Review: When the Force Is Unconscious
Cultural Theoritician Mark Morey reports on how a trip to the Sydney Writers Festival became a battle for intergalactic supremacy.

Poetry: Wouldn't It Be Loverly
For seven decades, Queensland aboriginal workers working under government control were 'paid' below-award wages which were placed into 'trust' accounts which were pilfered, levied, diverted and bled dry.

N E W S

 Grieving Mum Turns Cole Around

 Hamberger Grilled Over AWA Scam

 Government Shrugs Off Death Sentence Charge

 Action To Pay Foreign Crew Aussie Wages

 Jockeys Face Insurance Crisis

 Birds Get More Protection Than Workers

 Budget Delivers - But Not For DOCS

 Statewide Ban On Grain Loading

 Howard Soft On Organised Crime?

 UN Honours Building Union Drugs Program

 Award-Winning Poet Wins Right To Write

 Workers Out For Gay Games

 Mahathir Told to Release Labour Activisits

 Horta Backs Western Sahara Independence

 Activists Notebook

C O L U M N S

The Soapbox
It�s The Members, Stupid.
Those officials obsessed with union voting power in the ALP are missing the point, writes Luke Foley.

The Locker Room
Too Good To Be True
Phil Doyle castes his withering gaze over a week in sport that featured origin square-ups, the World Game in all its glory and a few drunken jockeys.

Bosswatch
In The Cauldron
It was another week of pull-outs, profits de-mergers and takeovers in the corporate world; but some bright news with a plan to make executive pay more accountable.

Week in Review
The Black Letter
Legal mechanisms, national and international, are throwing up challenges to all sectors of our community but the law is a beast of many shapes and sizes as Jim Marr discovers.

L E T T E R S
 Romeo and Juliet?
 Robbo's Rave
 Latham Ad Nauseum
 Our Home Is Girt By Wire
 Hands Off Hooligans!
WHAT YOU CAN DO
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News

Government Shrugs Off Death Sentence Charge


Federal Government is being urged to investigate claims that Australian Protective Service officers smuggled an asylum seeker out of the country on an Iranian-flagged ship to face certain death.

International Transport Federation representatives unsuccessfully used a Victorian Supreme Court subpoena to try and have Sayadi Estahbanati, 32, removed from the vessel in Esperance.

ITF spokesman Dean Summers says they got affidavits from the vessel's Iranian skipper saying Estahbanati was unlikely to survive the journey back to the Middle East.

"The captain told our people 'I don't want to do this, I am being forced by your federal government.

"Our information is that Estahbanati was an active dissident in his homeland and that his brother, who returned voluntarily from Australia, disappeared on reaching Iran. His family says he never left the airport.

"On one hand our Government supports George Bush's assertion that Iran is part of the axis of evil. On the other, it sends back a man who has given evidence of his dissident activities in an Australian court.

"We want some assurance that Australia will use its best diplomatic efforts to make sure this man isn't killed as a result of its actions."

Sayadi Estahbanati had spent 22 months in detention at Perth and Port Hedland. His claim for refugee status was rejected by the Federal Court and he was being treated for severe depression at the time of last week's removal from Perth where he had given evidence against a people smuggler.

ITF officials claim he was dragged from detention by APS officers and suspect he was drugged.

"He was a big strong man and windows and chairs had been smashed in the room where he was being held," an ITF spokesman explained.

Estahbanati was smuggled onto the Iranian bulk carrier, Iran Mazandaran, whose complement, ITF officials allege, includes two Iranian secret service agents.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock dismissed concerns for Estahbanti's wellbeing saying "he came here as a stowaway and made claims and has been sent hom on a ship of the same shipping line."

An Amnesty International spokesman said from London the deportation was a matter of "deep concern" because Estahbanati had given evidence of his political background in open court.


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