Joseph Toscano
Encyclopedia
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and an anarchist who lives in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He has become widely known as an anarchist spokesperson for the Anarchist Media Institute through his broadcasting on community radio, his frequent letters to newspapers such as The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
and Herald Sun
Herald Sun
The Herald Sun is a morning tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia. It is published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Limited, itself a subsidiary of News Corporation. It is available for purchase throughout Melbourne, Regional Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital...
and his initiation of community campaigns. He is married to Ellen Jose
Ellen Jose
Ellen Jose, born in 1951 in Cairns, is a Torres Strait Islander descendant from Murray, Darnley and Horn Islands. She is an indigenous artist and photographer who lives in Melbourne with husband Joseph Toscano.-Education and career:...
.
He was educated in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
at the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
where he acquired his Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery, then his doctoral degree from University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. When he moved to Melbourne in 1977 Dr Toscano established an activist group called the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society.
Dr Toscano has presented the long running Anarchist World this week program on 3CR
3CR
3CR is a community radio station that broadcasts on the AM band in Melbourne, Australia. The Community Radio Federation had their broadcasting licence approved on 10 October 1975, by the Minister for the Media, Dr Moss Cass. Test broadcasting begun on 1 May 1976, full operation began 3 July 1976...
since 1977, which is also rebroadcast to community radio stations around Australia through the Community Radio Satellite managed by Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia is a peak body and the national representative organisation for community radio and television stations in Australia. The CBAA provide leadership, advocacy and support for members to actively provide independent broadcasting services and to build...
(CBAA). A talk back show with Joe Toscano is also a popular 3CR program. A weekly newsletter, the Anarchist Age Weekly Review has been compiled by Joe Toscano since 1991 and distributed around the world.
Anarchist Centenary Celebrations
The Australian Anarchist Centenary CelebrationsAustralian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations
The Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations occurred from 1 to 4 May 1986 in Melbourne, Australia.Preparations to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the first known anarchist organisation in Australia commenced in August 1984 by the Libertarian Workers for a Self Managed Society The...
in Melbourne from 1–4 May 1986 were used by some anarchists to rebuff the negative connotations placed on the word "anarchy". Dr Joseph Toscano told a reporter from the Sun "Anarchy is a bogey word: we are coming out of the closet, as it were, to show that we do not have horns or tails. We are simply Australians who have a different philosophy of life. We don't believe in Big Government: in fact, we don't believe in government at all. Government, any government is based on violence and power. If you don't believe it, just look at your headlines over the past few weeks. Anarchy doesn't mean bombs in the street or supersonic bomber raids, it means 'without rulers'. Anarchy means voluntary co-operation and self-management, equality, shared economic decision making."
The Centenary celebrations included a May Day march on 1 May of about 400 people, including several large puppets and a number of anarchists from around the world. Over the weekend several events occurred including an anarchist film festival, banner, poster and historical displays, a two day conference held at RMIT
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
and Melbourne University, and a picnic in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne are internationally renowned botanical gardens located near the centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on the south bank of the Yarra River. They are 38 hectares of landscaped gardens consisting of a mix of native and non-native vegetation including over...
.
After the Anarchist Centenary Celebrations the Anarchist Media Institute was established by Dr Toscano and other Melbourne anarchists to increase the media profile of anarchists and correct bias and misconceptions about anarchism in the media.
Display of Skulls in the Old Melbourne Gaol
In September 1997 the Anarchist Media Institute demanded the removal from public display of the skulls of two women in the Old Melbourne Gaol, part of a phrenologyPhrenology
Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules...
display by the National Trust of Australia
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
. The skulls were from two women, Frances Knorr
Frances Lydia Alice Knorr
Frances Lydia Alice Knorr was known as the baby farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling two infants and hanged on Monday 15 January 1894....
and Martha Needle
Martha Needle
Martha Needle was known for poisoning her husband, 3 children and future brother-in-law, and was hanged on 22 October 1894. Martha was convicted for the murder of Louis Juncken, brother of her fiance Otto Juncken, on 15 May 1894....
, both executed by hanging in 1894 for murderous crimes. The skulls had been on display for 20 years. Descendants of the two women had been originally consulted about the exhibition and were happy with the display.
Joseph Toscano said the display was macabre, outdated and intrusive and asked why plastic replicas could not be used instead. Ms Diane Gardiner, the public programs manager said the museum had no intention to remove the skulls from display. However, the following February the skulls were removed from display with Joseph Toscano saying that they should finally be accorded a proper burial. Diane Gardiner denied the skulls removal was due to any pressure.
Friends of OUR ABC
During 2000 Joseph Toscano formed a lobby group, Friends of OUR ABC, to agitate against commercialisation and privatisation of the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
In November he was elected unopposed to the Friends of the ABC management committee.
Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion
In 2002 Dr Toscano initiated a commemoration of the Eureka StockadeEureka Stockade
The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
on its anniversary date - December 3.
The following year he was special guest of the 2003 Dawn Lantern Walk, and honoured as the occasion's Leading Light. Speaking on ABC Radio Ballarat about the Reclaim the Radical Spirit of Eureka events he said "We're quite concerned with the 150th anniversary celebrations coming up that people see this as an historical event which has no relationships to the type of society we are today," he said. "We're also concerned that it will become some type of sideshow which is basically just there for business, and the radical nature of the rebellion itself will be forgotten."
The Eureka 150 Democracy Conference in 2004 held at the University of Ballarat
University of Ballarat
The University of Ballarat is a dual-sector university in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It was formed by the passage of an Act of the Victorian Parliament in 1994, from the Ballarat College of Advanced Education...
, which charged $600 per head admission, attracted an alternative democracy conference outside attended by Toscano. Graeme Dunstan
Graeme Dunstan
Graeme Clement Dunstan , is a prominent Australian cultural and political activist. He is an alumnus of Duntroon Military College, and an Engineering graduate of the University of New South Wales , where he was President of the Students' Union and twice co-editor of its newspaper, Tharunka .In...
, one of the participants in the alternative conference, said "We are here to bear witness to the fact that not only has the university been corporatised, no longer accessible to the poor, but it looks like democracy has been corporatised too,"
The debate about the significance of Eureka surfaced at the 150th anniversary commemoration in 2004. Prime Minister John Howard said about Eureka "it's part of the Australian story, not quite the big part that some people give it, but equally a significant part." Premier Steve Bracks replied "The reality is, put that aside, put that aside about whether it's a left movement, a centre movement, a right movement, I think the reality is it's a move for democracy, and that was a key." Dr Joe Toscano brought up the role of the police at Eureka and called on the Victoria Police
Victoria Police
Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...
to apologise for the massacre that took place after the battle was over.
Defend and Extend Medicare
During mid 2003 there was increasing concern over the reduction in Medicare bulk billing rates according to surveys of voters. Starting in May 2003, Dr Joe Toscano initiated a community campaign to Defend and Extend Medicare through a series of community meetings and rallies and electorate based local groups.The Defend and Extend Medicare campaign was accused of having an anarchist agenda by the Minister of Health, Tony Abbott in December 2003. "This is a classic unity ticket. Classic rent-a-crowd," Mr Abbott told the Herald Sun. "These people are foisting a form of false advertising on the Australian public by pretending to be grass-roots community activists when they are the dribs and drabs of the extreme Left." The paper was briefed by "A senior intelligence official" about the activities of DEMG. Ministerial Officers had prepared a report on DEMG for the minister, which the Herald Sun had "obtained".
The following day, 6 December, the Herald Sun published the ministerial briefing notes on 8 Defend and Extend Medicare Activists, including Dr Joeseph Toscano. The Victorian Trades Hall Council
Victorian Trades Hall Council
The Victorian Trades Hall Council is a representative body of trade union organisations, known as a Labour council, in the State of Victoria, Australia...
called on the ALP to probe claims that Mr Abbott possessed such a report on the group, some of whose members are doctors and trade unionists. Subsequently Labor's homeland affairs spokesman, Robert McClelland
Robert McClelland (Australian politician)
Robert Bruce McClelland is the Attorney-General of Australia. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of theAustralian House of Representatives since March 1996, representing the Division of Barton, New South Wales...
, referred the matter to Bill Blick, Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, to investigate whether the Federal Government used police and intelligence agencies to discredit a campaign to defend Medicare. A spokeswoman for Mr Abbott agreed that an internal report had been compiled on the Defend and Extend Medicare group but dismissed any suggestion of improper behaviour on the part of health officials or the minister.
Case of Robert Thomas
In 2003 Toscano took up the case of Robert Thomas, an anaesthetic technician, after he was sentenced to 18 months jail and 300 strokes of the cane on theft-related charges in Saudi Arabia. When Mr Thomas's wife refused to confess to theft charges, the Saudi judge charged him with the crime of being aware of the theft. Dr Toscano accused the Australian Government of "sitting on its hands". A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denied the claim saying it was a matter for the department.Don't Vote / Vote Informal Campaigns
Dr. Toscano has stood as an independent candidate for the Senate on several occasions since 1977. Although not enrolled to vote, through a quirk in the electoral laws he is allowed to stand as a candidate. After the 2001 election he claimed an examination of the informal vote had shown that the number of Australians who have voted informal has increased by nearly thirty percent, and the informal vote in the Victorian Senate election has increased by nearly 100%.For the 2004 election, Joseph Toscano and Steve Reghenzani ran as a Senate candidate team on a Don't Vote or vote informal platform. Dr. Toscano said "We're encouraging people to vote informal if they don't believe in the system," he said. "Real power (in the present system) doesn't lie in Parliament - it lies in the boardrooms of national and transnational corporations. That's why many of the policies of both political parties are very similar."
Joseph Toscano and Jude Pierce stood as Senate candidates for Victoria in the Australian federal election, 2007. Their platform was based on "Direct Democracy not Parliamentary Rule" and included giving electors the Power of Recall where voters can petition to recall "non-performing" MPs and Citizen Initiated Referendum.
Toscano received 0.78 percent of the vote at the 2009 Higgins by-election
Higgins by-election, 2009
A by-election was held for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Higgins on 5 December 2009. This was triggered as a result of the resignation of former Treasurer and former Liberal Party deputy leader Peter Costello...
.
In 2010, Toscano ran as part of the "Group B Independents" Victorian Senate ticket. The ticket received 3,906 Primary votes and 6,981 votes after Preferences.