Joseph Toscano

Dr Joseph Toscano (born 1951) is a medical practitioner, a broadcaster and an anarchist who lives in Melbourne, Australia.

When he moved to Melbourne in 1977 Dr Toscano established an activist group called the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society.

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.

The skulls were from two women, Frances Knorr and Martha Needle, both executed by hanging in 1894 for murderous crimes.

Ms Diane Gardiner, the public programs manager said the museum had no intention to remove the skulls from display.

The following year he was special guest of the 2003 Dawn Lantern Walk, and honoured as the occasion's Leading Light.

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

[18] The Defend and Extend Medicare campaign was accused of having an anarchist agenda by the Minister of Health, Tony Abbott in December 2003.

"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."

[19] The following day, 6 December, the Herald Sun published the ministerial briefing notes on 8 Defend and Extend Medicare Activists, including Dr Joeseph Toscano.

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.

[21] 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.

"[25] Joseph Toscano and Jude Pierce stood as Senate candidates for Victoria in the 2007 Australian federal election.