A new Australian prime minister flying to Indonesia to “reset” relations is now so routine it would probably raise hackles in Jakarta if it didn’t happen. (more…)
The disasters of war in Ukraine have not yet found their Francisco Goya, but the reporting of journalists conveys a graphic picture of the death and destruction there. This war, like all its predecessors, is hell. Writing about the putatively good war of 1939-1945, Nicholson Baker in Human Smoke described its beginnings as the advent of civilisation’s end with the records of both sides marred by the most horrific war crimes. The reporting of Nicholas Turse in Shoot Anything that Moves about the war in Vietnam and of Vincent Bevins in The Jakarta Method about Washington-backed massacres worldwide in the Cold War showed Americans in these two cases as arch perpetrators of war crimes. Chalmers Johnson in the Blowback trilogy and Dismantling the Empire compiled long lists of American enormities in what he called our obsessive wars of empire in Iraq and Afghanistan. (more…)
The murder by an Israeli sniper of the Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shirin Abu Akleh, and the police attack on mourners at her funeral, are not incidental to Zionism, but integral to it. The ‘Green Line’ that bounds the territory the rest of the world regards as belonging to Israel is purely provisional, with no formal border ever having been announced or acknowledged. (more…)
Our household rooftop solar panel network helps fulfil international commitments of the Australian government, yet it also represents a hidden taxation that citizens do not seem to recognise. Can the new Labor government rectify this and other larger taxation anomalies? (more…)
In the recent election, aided by a febrile Murdoch press, the right-wing campaign to smear Australia’s opposition as ‘antisemitic’ and ‘anti-Israel’ reached fever pitch. With Labor now in power, it’s time to set the record straight. (more…)
Industrial relations issues were front and centre when federal Labor last won office from opposition in 2007. The backlash against John Howard’s “Work Choices” reforms cost both his government and his own seat. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard’s detailed “Forward with Fairness” policy provided a blueprint for the Fair Work Act that is still in force today. (more…)
Reinvigorating multilateralism has been a growing concern of the United Nations (UN) for many years. The maintenance of international peace and enhancing the global rules-based order are core responsibilities under the UN Charter. A major problem is that many Member States are no longer, if they ever fully were, practicing what they say they believe. Multilateral cooperation through the UN institutions has been eroded. (more…)
One of the great chants of Latin American protest marches, is the phrase: “El pueblo unido jamas será vencido”, meaning: “a united people will never be overcome.” (more…)
“The Panel recognises that the negative impacts that arise from the over consumption of liquor in the NT, laid out in detail in this report, are off the scale, not just by Australian but by international standards. The resulting costs in terms of human suffering and social and economic costs cut right across the NT community and are not confined to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Territorians. They cannot be ignored.” Gilbert Review into the proposed Dan Murphy Store in Darwin, (2021). (more…)
The hidden legacy of AUKUS is that Australia is on a path to attract thermonuclear attack from China, against which it is defenceless. In April I could only wonder about the illogicality of AUKUS, that peculiar agreement struck in September last year with the US and Britain, for Australia to build nuclear submarines to save the Indo-Pacific. (“AUKUS and submarines – a slippery slope”, P&I, 27 April 2022). AUKUS and its emblematic eight budget-crippling nuclear submarines make no sense against Australia’s defence policies, or economic sanity. AUKUS has to be opened intellectually, its innards exposed, to find the risks it’s pushing Australia into. (more…)
Objective and anecdotal evidence shows that activity in the Australian arts sector declined significantly during the pandemic. Performances closed, venues shut, exhibitions were cancelled and many artists were forced to abandon their artistic careers — hopefully temporarily. The sector’s demise produced the occasional news item, but otherwise it has aroused little reaction from the public or public policy makers. (more…)
To Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong, (more…)
In this second article on the problems of our voting system I argue that the current election results may give the impression that our democracy is working well. But that ignores the enormous effort needed by community groups and volunteer organisations simply to achieve a parliament which only begins to approximate the needs and wishes of the bulk of the population. (more…)
After what has been described as a turbulent campaign, often devoid of vision, ABC’s Media Watch dissected the coverage and behaviour, and whether it swayed the final result. (more…)
Australia is one of the most multicultural nations in the world, but it’s a different story in the country’s politics, where 96% of federal lawmakers are white. With this year’s election, political parties did have a window to slightly improve this. But they chose not to in most cases, critics say. (more…)
Many Australians see New Zealand’s MMP voting system as a complex German-based foreign contraption which has little to offer us. Pete Fry argues that for its users it is a simple responsive transparent process which could help to improve our trust in politics by making our Parliament more representative of the majority of Australians. (more…)
I’m writing this the day after the 2022 federal election, when it is clear that Australia will not have a Coalition government, but it is not yet clear whether Labor will govern in its own right, or how the composition of the Senate will influence energy and climate policy. (more…)
Below is a repost of articles which we posted earlier on guidance for a new government on important policies. (more…)
For over three years the world has grappled with Covid-19. Australia was well served by doctors who convinced governments to listen to medical science. But the politicians have resumed control and science, all science, is being silenced.And not just on Covid but more importantly in climate change (more…)
There is nothing like leading and working on a political campaign to test one’s character. (more…)
I would progressively wind back and eliminate the $14b pa taxpayer subsidy for Private Health Insurance and use that very large sum to fund the inclusion of dental care within Medicare and increase the funding to the states for expanded specialist services in outpatient clinics at public hospitals. (more…)
The New York Times’s international affairs columnist Thomas Friedman is arguably the most influential editorial writer in the country. Last week, his editorial aptly warned the Biden administration of the “huge unintended consequences” of its unplanned and impromptu remarks regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and the savagery of his tactics in Ukraine. (more…)
Have you received recently in your mailbox a card headed “Voting ‘Independent’ risks a chaotic hung parliament with weak leadership”? I have. And it’s just plain wrong. (more…)
Denis Muller puts it this way in The Conversation (more…)
Whether you focus on climate policy, energy market transition, social justice, health or business competitiveness and innovation, improving energy productivity and efficiency is a winner. (more…)
Voting independent needs careful preferencing. If your independent doesn’t get up (or you don’t have that option), you can try Active Democracy (more…)
ANZAC day is a day to remember why peace is preferable to war. This year it was besmirched by the beating of the drums of war. (more…)
José Ramos-Horta will be the new President of Timor-Leste from May 20, 2022, following his decisive second round win on April 19. (more…)
Scott Morrison claims to be Australia’s best defender. In reality he is its worst. His government’s subservience to local and international oligarchs has seen it neglect real interest in Australia’s long-term security and wellbeing. (more…)
The dissident says that while outraged by Russia’s war on Ukraine, much of the rest of the world is reacting to U.S. condemnation by asking, “Why should we get involved in your hypocrisy?” (more…)