News Latest News News Archive Jan - Feb 2002
| Saturday, 02 March 2002 12:14 |
News Archive Jan - Feb 2002
Thursday 28 February - Cloning The Federal Cabinet gave in principle support to a nation-wide ban on embryonic stem cell research on Monday 25 February. Send the Prime Minister an email to support him. Click here. 29 January 2002 - 'Chroming' of volatile substances The Victorian State parliament's Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee has released a Discussion Paper called "Inquiry into the Inhalation of Volatile Substances". Click here to find the 170 page Paper or phone (03) 9651 3603 to have it mailed to you. They are inviting comment, by Friday 22 February. The 'chroming' of fumes from paints, gas, etc hit the media last week when it was revealed that Berry Street, a welfare agency, monitored children in their cae wile they 'chromed', maintaining that their aim was to minimise the harm and get them to stop the behaviour. The Premier, Steve Bracks, stepped in and ordered that the practice cease. The agency receives State government funding. 23 January 2002 - Pride March Numbers Exaggerated The Midsumma pride march was held in St Kilda last Sunday. We sent out press releases by fax and email to the main media - newspapers, TV and radio - about the numbers of spectators in the crowd. Midsumma kept proclaiming that they were expecting 50,000. How many did they say were there? 50,000 of course! (Herald Sun 50,000 and The Age 60,000) We attended the march, counted the crowd and took photographs. There were more people there (due to the publicity of the Police Commissioner marching) but we counted between 11,000 and 12,000 spectators in the crowd (plus marchers). (Last year we counted less than 8,000 spectators and about 2000 marchers - the official figure in 2001 was 35,000. This figure was given by police who received the figure from the midsumma organisers!) Write to the Police Commissioner about her participation in the march. See below. 17 January 2001 Midsumma madness Midsumma, Melbourne's homosexual festival, started in Melbourne last Saturday (12 Jan)with a Street Party. This festival, which promotes homosexuality, includes a number of public events as well as arts and theatre activities and concludes on 3 February.
11 January 2002 Have you seen an advertisement you don't like? Complaints about advertisements need to be made to the Advertising Standards Board. This is official body that responds to complaints about all types of advertisements. They have just relocated to Canberra (from Sydney). Complaints can be made by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Or sent by fax: (02) 9233 8868 Or mailed Or by phone: (02) 6262 9822 To find out more about how to make a complaint, click here to visit their website. Read our article on how to take action against offensive advertisements. Click here. |