AnarWiki/markdown/Joseph_Toscano.md

**Dr. Joseph Toscano** (born 1952) is a [doctor](Healthcare "wikilink"),
[radio broadcaster](Media "wikilink") and
[anarchist](Anarchism "wikilink").

ducation

## Efe

He was educated in Brisbane at the University of Queensland where he
acquired his Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery, then his doctoral degree from
University of Melbourne.

, a broadcaster and an anarchist who lives in Melbourne, Australia. 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 and Herald Sun and his
initiation of community campaigns. He was married to Ellen Jose.

He was educated in Brisbane at the University of Queensland where he
acquired his Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery, then his doctoral degree from
University of Melbourne. 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 since 1977,<sup>\[1\]</sup> which is also rebroadcast to
community radio stations around Australia through the Community Radio
Satellite managed by Community Broadcasting Association of Australia
(CBAA). A talk back show with Joe Toscano is also a popular 3CR
program.<sup>\[2\]</sup> A weekly newsletter, the *Anarchist Age Weekly
Review* has been compiled by Joe Toscano since 1991 and distributed
around the world.

## Contents

## Anarchist Centenary Celebrations

The Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations 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."<sup>\[3\]</sup>

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.<sup>\[4\]</sup> Over the weekend several events
occurred including an anarchist film festival, banner, poster and
historical displays, a two-day conference held at RMIT and Melbourne
University, and a picnic in the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Melbourne.<sup>\[5\]</sup>

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.<sup>\[6\]</sup>

## Campaigns

### 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 phrenology display by the National Trust of Australia.
The skulls were from two women, Frances Knorr and Martha Needle, 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.<sup>\[7\]</sup>

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.<sup>\[8\]</sup> 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.<sup>\[9\]\[10\]</sup>

### 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 Corporation In November he was elected unopposed to the
Friends of the ABC management committee.<sup>\[11\]</sup>

### Reclaim the Radical Spirit of the Eureka Rebellion

In 2002 Dr Toscano initiated a commemoration of the Eureka Stockade on
its anniversary date - 3 December.

The following year he was special guest of the 2003 Dawn Lantern Walk,
and honoured as the occasion's Leading Light.<sup>\[12\]</sup> 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."<sup>\[13\]</sup>

The Eureka 150 Democracy Conference in 2004 held at the University of
Ballarat, which charged $600 per head admission, attracted an
alternative democracy conference outside attended by Toscano. Graeme
Dunstan, 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,"<sup>\[14\]</sup>

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 to apologise for the massacre that took place after
the battle was over.<sup>\[15\]</sup>

### Defend and Extend Medicare

During mid-2003 there was increasing concern over the reduction in
Medicare bulk billing rates according to surveys of
voters.<sup>\[16\]</sup> 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.<sup>\[17\]</sup>

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".<sup>\[18\]</sup>

The following day, 6 December, the Herald Sun published the ministerial
briefing notes on 8 Defend and Extend Medicare Activists, including Dr
Joeseph Toscano.<sup>\[19\]</sup> The Victorian Trades Hall Council
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,
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.<sup>\[20\]</sup>

### 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.<sup>\[21\]</sup>

### Election 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%.<sup>\[22\]</sup>

For the 2004 election, Joseph Toscano and Steve Reghenzani ran as a
Senate candidate team on a Don't Vote or vote informal
platform.<sup>\[23\]</sup> 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."<sup>\[24\]</sup>

Joseph Toscano and Jude Pierce stood as Senate candidates for Victoria
in the 2007 Australian federal election. 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.<sup>\[25\]</sup>

Toscano received 0.78 percent of the vote at the 2009 Higgins
by-election.

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.<sup>\[26\]</sup>

He ran as an independent candidate at the 2012 Melbourne state
by-election, receiving 0.75% of the vote.<sup>\[27\]</sup>

In August 2013, Toscano nominated as a candidate for the Senate in the
Commonwealth election. The election was held on 7 September
2013.<sup>\[28\]</sup>