Thursday, 15 December 2011

The police raid on the offices of The Age newspaper this morning should ring alarm bells for anyone concerned with free speech and democracy in Australia. The raid followed a story published last year in The Age detailing the existence of vast, secret databases that political parties have complied over the years containing personal and private information on citizens.

As part of their research for the story, Age journalists received information from a “whistleblower”. Acting on this information, the journalists accessed an ALP database that contained large amounts of personal information that should be private to the citizens involved, including people’s voting intentions, their sexuality and information on their medical records.

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Tuesday, 06 December 2011

Voiceover artists across the country have voted to unilaterally increase rates of pay as of February 1, 2012.

See the new rates and conditions here.

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Tuesday, 29 November 2011

Sarah Ferguson, Michael Doyle & Anne Worthington have won Australian journalism’s top honour – the Gold Walkley Award – for their shocking report on animal cruelty in Australia’s live cattle export trade.

You can find a full write-up of all the winners, as well as their work, and the judges' comments, here.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

The Director of Actors Equity, Simon Whipp, has announced his resignation after 12 years as leader of the performers' union and professional association in Australia and New Zealand. Mr Whipp said that after a total of 18 years with the Alliance he had decided to step down to spend more time with his family and pursue new challenges. "This has been a very hard decision and not one I have taken lightly," Mr Whipp said. "It has been an honour and a privilege every day to stand up for Australia's performers and campaign for their rights, but there comes a time when everyone must look for new challenges."

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