Category: General news

On site for the momentous occasion were Brisbane City Lord Mayor, Graham Quirk, General Manager-Locations for Quest Serviced Apartments Andrew Weisz, with Michael Kent and Nando Pellicano from the Pellicano Group.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the development would be a wonderful addition to the community and the local economy.

“We are thrilled that Quest has committed to this development which is another vote of confidence in the strength of the city’s economy,” he said.

“Quest has recently fast-tracked its growth in Queensland by announcing plans to open five new properties in the next 12 months.

“I am delighted that Woolloongabba and the surrounding suburbs will benefit from the investment Quest is making in the area as not only will jobs be created but we will have a quality accommodation option for visitors doing business in the area.”

The Quest property will be located at 130 Logan Rd in Woolloongabba and is expected to open in March 2014. Woolloongabba is approximately 4km South of Brisbane CBD with the Quest property about 1km away from “The Gabba” – Queensland’s major sporting venue.

The property will feature 70 apartments comprising of Studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom apartments. There will be a conference room, gymnasium, and a rooftop BBQ area in the complex.

Andrew Weisz, General Manager – Locations, Quest Serviced Apartments, says the project is in line with Quest’s growth strategy.

“Our focus is to provide corporates with flexible quality accommodation in the locations that need it. Simply, our business growth is based on supply and demand and in recent times the greatest demand has been in suburban and regional locations, and Woolloongabba is definitely one of those areas,” he said.

Quest Woolloongabba is the Pellicano Group’s second project under construction in the area, with the highly successful 82 apartment project Eastwood Apartments due for completion in July 2013.

The Pellicano Group is a privately-owned family business that has been in operation for 45 years and focuses on property development and management and construction funds management. The group has offices in Melbourne and Brisbane.

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Walking off with the door takings was Joe (Jonathon Sri). Also famous for his band Rivermouth and one of the founding hosts of Courtyard Conspiracy, Joe is quickly becoming a West End institution.

Hosted by Scotty (Scott Sneddon) with huge passion, energy and a creative approach to judging, the afternoon was attended by thirty or forty lovers of poetry. Sine that includes the ten poets and probably their ten lovers my mental arithmetic indicates that proprietor topped up the envelope to round out the prize money.

Given that the winner probably took home more on the day than the owner did, it is easy to see why this might be the last instalment of this particular creative outbreak of Westendism.

Not content with his commercial support, our host also thanked Scotty for his work in keeping the slam up and running over the last two years, and graciously acknowledged the hilarious sending up of his own poetry from one of the performers.

Westender is assured that future Sunday afternoons will still revolve around performance poetry in a form that packs the place with punters and rebalances the scales toward commerce without killing the creativity.

Sunday poetry at the Jam Jar is dead, long live Sunday poetry at the Jam Jar.

The event was part of a global network of celebrations including an Original Nations passport ceremony at the Trades Hall Council in Melbourne. It took place in the shadow of the death of young activist Kainus Tabuni on Wednesday May 29th.

The flotilla is spearheaded by Uncle Kevin Buzzacot and has evolved over ten years since it was conceived at the thirtieth anniversary of the Canberra Tent Embassy. Following a ceremony at Lake Eyre on July 25th the flotilla will make its way overland to Brisbane and up the cost to Cairns. The flotilla itself will sail from Cairns on August 17, following concerts and ceremonies. Check the flotilla’s facebook page.

It aims to bring international attention to the rampant killing and oppression of the West Papuan people by the Indonesian military.

The public meeting at Turnstyle Community Hub in Laura St last night heard that the flotilla is aware that the Indonesian military plans to intercept the flotilla and hope that international attention brought about by the social media will help protect their safety.

Young activist Kainus Tabuni was shot dead on Wednesday May 29 2013. Leader of the West Papuan National Committee (KNBP), Mako Tanubi was assassinated in public in June 2012 by the Indonesian government. The movements leaders are regularly arrested and beaten, meetings broken up and headquarters destroyed.

At least 100,000 West Papuans have been killed by the military since the Indonesian took control of the country in 1969 using an illegal act known by West Papuans as the Referendum of No Choice. This well documented international crime, in which one thousand Papuan tribal elders were forced at gun point to vote on a referendum handing over control of the country to the Indonesian government, is celebrated by the Indonesian government with a surreal statue in which a giant Indonesian soldier is supported by tiny, naked West Papuans.

Despite Indonesian and Australian government denial that the genocide is taking place only hundreds of kilometres from the Australian coast, footage smuggled out of the country clearly depicts a warzone in which 30,000 armed police and military, suppress a population of around two million West Papuans. This is the highest ratio of military to civilian control in the world.

Flotilla organisers in Melbourne discussed the role of the Freeport mine and the Australian government with the Turnstyle meeting. Freeport mine is the biggest gold mine in the world and Indonesia’s largest taxpayer. In 2011 Freeport paid the Indonesian government $2billion in taxes alone. The government also owns 19 percent of the mine. US shareholders received a further $1.8 billion.

The meeting then screened the documentary, Goodbye Indonesia which shows the Indonesian Intelligence forces bizarrely texting death threats to the leader of the Free Papua movement as they hunt him down.

Posing as birdwatchers, the film makers record interviews with leaders of the movement, including one tribal elder who was part of the Referendum of No Choice. After spending a night in the swamp surrounded by the intelligence forces hunting them and their subjects two very scared journalists flee the country.

Following the release of the documentary on Al Jazeera television, a minister in the Indonesian Government Ms Dewi Fortuna Anwar observed that any movement toward independence is illegal under Indonesian law and is not afforded the right of free speech. “However, I do not think it is the policy of the Indonesian government to carry out violence against activists without due process of law,” she said.

Whether that constitutes plausible deniability or simply denial is a matter of conjecture.

What is clear is that the attempts by the Indonesian and Australian government to contain the genocide to the remote highlands of the world’s second largest island have failed. Online activists and the independent media will take this issue to the world and, hopefully, restore justice to this tragically betrayed region.

The author, Geoff Ebbs, is the Greens candidate for Griffith.

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The State Library of Queensland last night awarded local author Matthew Condon the 2013 John Oxley award for his investigative work into bent coppers,Three Crooked Kings.

It also awarded $20,000 to researchers Kathleen Fallon and Matthew Nagas for their proposed Pilgrimage of Significant Sites from Tweed Heads to Torres Strait.

The 2013 John Oxley Library Community History Award has been granted to Brisbane Open House, an annual event facilitated by the Open House Worldwide family.

Picture courtesy of CitizenJ

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Food Connect is a local business that feeds many Westenders through its regular food boxes and wholesale provision for local food cooperatives such as Turnstyle.

Through the wonders of online fund raiser Pozible, they have raised $12,000 to send Aussie farmers and representatives to join with representatives of the 200 million strong, global family farming movement (La Via Campesina) at their 6thInternational Conference in Jakarta, Indonesia in June 2013.

This is an incredible, once in a generation opportunity, for Aussie voices and views to connect with those of famers from 58 other countries in La Via Campesina’s 20-year long struggle to end the globalization of hunger.

The facts as we know them:

Small-scale agriculture, based on agroecology and food sovereignty, is the only model of food production that offers a sustainable future for the planet and its peoples; The corporate-driven industrialised model of agriculture seeks to deliberately destroy this small scale agriculture and the lives of those who practice it; La Via Campesina, as the authentic voice of the peasant, is the only organisation capable of maintaining the integrity and legitimacy of this model of sustainable agriculture and protecting the rights of those who practice it If they are to survive, Australian family farmers can no longer remain isolated from the knowledge, experiences and global solidarity that comes from meaningful engagement with the global family farming community that is La Via Campesina

On their return from Jakarta, the delegation members will form the core of the Australian- LVC connection. Their role will be to:

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• Build on and strengthen the LVC/Australia family farmer alliance;
• Coordinate ongoing LVC/Australian family farmer cultural exchanges;
• Initiate a range of activities to share their learnings and experiences with other family farmers across Australia; and
• Help to establish an Australian Family Farming Organisation which can be accepted for formal membership of La Via Campesina.

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Today in Yeronga, Alice Langford, president of Brisbane South West Chamber of Commerce and Connie de Cunha, president of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Australia Philippines Inc, formalised the agreement between the two groups.

Local businesses attended breakfast at the Yeronga Services Club to hear Ms Cunha outline the opportunities for business in the Philippines. With a six percent growth rate, the Philippines is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and with inflation at three percent, this is a sign of increasting prosperity in the country.

Ms de Cunha said, “India may be the manufacturer of the world, but the Philippines is the human resources sector.” Philippine workers send home over $20billion every year to their families. This is about the same size as the revenue of the entire Australian electricity generating industry. ($22.5b according to BREE)

She said the reduction in corruption and focus on education has lifted the country out of poverty and made it a gateway to Asia. The Aquino government has been focused on democratic rights and supporting the economic development in the interests of the people, after years of the notorious corruption of the Marcos regime. She said the nation is built on a small business eithic that is an extension of family culture.

Manager of Brisbane South West Chamber of Commerce, Roger Taufel, was on hand to facilitate the deal but has been left out of the photo so that Westender could work the sisterhood puns to full advantage. We assume that his natural charm and graciousness will let the ladies have this one. “advantage play on,” as the AFL umpires say.

Business interested in the SW Chamber can find out more at the cleverly selected web address www.chamber.org.au.