Despite a long campaign of racist vilification and threats encouraging fear and hate against a planned mosque at Buchanan, New South Wales, Cessnock Council voted 6 to 4 to support the development.
A small number of residents live on Buchanan Road, on which the mosque will be built, and some of their objections were about planning issues, for example rural zoning, traffic, school bus stop and “safety”.
The council debate showed that the safety issue was really concern about backlash against the mosque and mosque opponents being drawn to the area.
Muslims have lived and worked in the Cessnock and Hunter local government areas for more than four decades. They pay taxes and rates but have no purpose-built place of worship, unlike a large number of other mostly Christian denominations.
The far right Reclaim Australia group, led by John Oliver, moved a 2015 planned Newcastle rally to Cessnock to support the campaign against the Buchanan mosque. Oliver is linked to the white supremacist and fascist Patriots Defence League of Australia (an offshoot of the Australian Defence League). He carried a gun on the fascist United Patriots Front bus to Melbourne for a rally in July last year.
The Stop the Mosque at Buchanan Facebook page supported the racist rally. Media reports estimated that the Cessnock rally drew between 300 and 700 people. Many threats of violence and retaliation were made online and to the “Stop racism, Islamophobia and bigotry” rally, also at Cessnock.
Complaints were made to Cessnock council by some Buchanan and nearby residents who had their homes targeted by racists and were intimidated from publicly supporting the mosque.
After the council win, the Support the Mosque at Buchanan received congratulations from some Buchanan residents. The Newcastle Muslim Association said it was looking forward being part of the Buchanan community.

Kerry Ver

Cessnock council votes for mosque at Buchanan

Hundreds of union and community members protested the privatisation of Newcastle’s buses, ferries and future light rail service at a lunchtime rally in Civic Park on 1 December.
Thousands of union members affected by the proposal heard about the Baird government’s plans through the media. Many stand to lose their jobs if public transport is sold to a private operator.
Maritime Union of Australia members marched to Newcastle Town Hall and, along with members from several other unions, tried to speak with NSW Liberal premier Mike Baird, who was there having lunch.
Rail, Tram and Bus union officials attended from Sydney to support their Newcastle members.
The RTBU Bus Division president, Dave Woollams, told the rally: “Newcastle’s public transport system – and the Newcastle community – are being sold down the river in a grubby deal by a grubby government.
“You’d think that after all the revelations in ICAC about the Liberal Party’s grubby relationship with property developers and big business, especially here in the Hunter, that Mike Baird might at least try to ease back on the cosy deals for a while.
“In fact, you’d think a government with even a skerrick of respect for the community, and the most basic sense of decency and integrity, would stop making cosy deals altogether.”
Woollams said the privatisation of local public transport services would mean job cuts. “The lucky ones who get to keep working for the new company will undoubtedly see their pay and conditions slashed. We’re going to fight this one all the way”, he vowed.
Premier Baird spoke briefly to the rally and offered an apology for the lack of “consultation”and delivered a few empty promises. He was widely heckled and had to be removed by a posse of police and security officers.

Baird heckled at anti-privatisation rally in Newcastle

More than 200 disability workers joined a four-hour stopwork in Newcastle on 4 November to oppose the NSW government’s plans to privatise the sector. The Ageing, Disability and Home Care (ADHC) workers – members of the Public Service Association – voted to take action to defend jobs and current levels of care. 
The union says that the state government is using the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme as a cover for the privatisation of disability care. The legislation to introduce the NDIS into NSW, passed with Labor’s support, allows public sector disability jobs to be transferred to private companies. The NDIS enabling law removes affected workers’ entitlement to redundancy payouts when their public sector jobs are scrapped.
The union estimates that privatisation will mean the forced transfer of 14,000 workers, more than three-quarters of whom are women. 
In August, 4,000 public home care workers were transferred by ministerial order to private employer Australian Unity. The company paid the government $144 million for the right to provide home care services throughout the state. Employee consent was not sought or obtained. Work bans squeezed out some concessions on the transfer of entitlements and enterprise agreement protections for a limited period. 
In the Hunter region, recently revealed plans to close ADHC residential centres in Stockton, Tomaree and Morriset have workers worried. More than 400 residents of these centres will be relocated to 80 new privately run group homes. Disability workers and residents’ families say that clients with the most complex needs are cared for in the public sector, and private companies often cannot cope. 
Anne Gardiner, general secretary of the PSA, said that in Newcastle the NDIS has become a “Trojan horse” for privatisation. “People have complex needs, and the government has presented no evidence or case to show that these needs are better serviced by private providers”, she said.
Workers warn that privatisation, combined with the closure of ADHC residential centres, means that there will be no carer of last resort for anyone whom the private sector is unable or unwilling to care for.­­­­

Cessnock council votes for mosque at Buchanan

Baird heckled at anti-privatisation rally in Newcastle

Newcastle disability workers strike against privatisation

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