War always brings problems. Even the so-called victors experience these. The world is made poorer in that the next war seems to be much closer and easier to wage. True peace on the other hand, brings only benefits. (more…)
Tony Smith
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With echoes of Iraq war, ADF deployed to Middle East
The decision to deploy the Australian Defence Forces to the ‘Middle East’ in the middle of the war in Gaza puts the Albanese Government into the same category as many appalling predecessors. (more…)
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If you are proud of the Constitution, vote ‘Yes’
In 1996 I was fortunate enough to be involved in the Centenary of the 1895 Bathurst Peoples Constitutional Convention. (more…)
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Fred Smith: The Sparrows of Kabul
During the crush at the evacuation of Kabul airport in 2021, a little girl became separated from her mother and was inconsolable and could not be moved. Fred left her for a moment, during which CS gas caused a stampede of marines. When he looked for the girl, she had disappeared. (more…)
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Cancelling strange British Empire legacy event just Aussie common sense
Elite sport is something of a sacred cow. To criticise it is to risk being considered unAustralian. So while Premier Andrews’ announcement that Victoria would not host the 2026 Commonwealth Games was not a wholesale critique of elite sport, I am happy to take up the baton. (more…)
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War service did not stop the racism
Noel Turnbull’s article about the treatment of black warriors who wore the Australian uniform make for some uncomfortable reading for those Australians who think Indigenous peoples have no need to control their own destinies. Historically, we have applied the claim that veterans are heroes very selectively. (more…)
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No bulldozer can bury the truth: Remembering Rachel Corrie
In another echo of early 2003, the twentieth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie on 16 March went largely unreported. (more…)
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Back to the future of a Cold War arms race?
While the AUKUS treaty has echoes of the tragic Iraq invasion of 2003, even closer comparisons can be found with the arms race of the 1980s. (more…)
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Ensuring equal access to elections
While voting is considered a universal right in Australia, barriers remain preventing many people exercising the franchise effectively. In the lead-up to the 2023 New South Wales state elections it seems clear that more should be done to enable everyone to vote comfortably. (more…)
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Two decades on, history should condemn the real ‘butchers of Baghdad’
The warmongers in the Anglophone countries of Britain, the USA and Australia today cause great concern with their AUKUS treaty and the not very subtle stirring of frenzy against China. It was similar in 2003 except that Iraq was the country being demonised. (more…)
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Ten election theories to test in New South Wales
A week a long time in politics? How about 28 years? Believe it or not the last time the Labor Party displaced a Coalition Government in New South Wales was in 1995. (more…)
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‘Defence’ as an Australian paradox: explaining veteran suicides
It is absolutely essential that society inquiries into the fate of Australia’s war veterans. There are many reasons for our failure to rehabilitate veterans successfully, but unless we confront the nature of military activity, such investigations will remain superficial. (more…)
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Balloons and cameras reveal nothing but our China paranoia
Secrets make us paranoid. We should do away with secrets and spies and become a truly open society. (more…)
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Incompatible minds: A reflection on George Pell
Why did so many people dislike Cardinal George Pell? It is possibly because he had the opportunity to show leadership but chose instead to reflect power and intransigence. He could have shown compassion and been a unifying force. Instead, he will be remembered as a divisive and damaging figure. (more…)
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Terry Irving, The fatal lure of Politics: the life and thought of Vere Gordon Childe
Certainly the best biography I read in 2022 and possibly the best non-fiction book in any genre, is Terry Irving’s comprehensive and incisive examination of the varied and controversial life of archaeologist, political theorist and leftist practitioner Vere Gordon Childe. (more…)
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The true inconvenience in New South Wales
When former US vice-president Al Gore used the term ‘inconvenient’ to describe the truth around climate change he used the term euphemistically. The truth about climate change is more accurately termed ‘horrendous’. Now, in a typical inversion of the truth the New South Wales premier has suggested that you should be sent to prison if you inconvenience people as you try to save the planet. (more…)
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No wonder Canberrans are enraged: there’s no vaccine for a cabal of craziness
We demand the freedom to infect others! The anti-vaccination demonstrations are dour, sour and disingenuous. (more…)
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In sport and in society, women eclipse the antics of boorish males
While women display their abilities in fields monopolised by men, people in power not only allow these talents to be wasted but actively inhibit them.
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AUKUS: the latest capitulation on defence by our born-to-rule elites
Conservative Coalition leaders have a history of committing Australia to overseas military adventures – and the ‘patriotic’ media have never questioned the propaganda. (more…)
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Gladys Berejiklian, deep in farce yesterday, threatening chaos today
Faced with a Covid crisis, the NSW government has failed to lead when its people needed it the most.
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Time for facts on Afghanistan, not platitudes and propaganda
Facing the all too predictable chaos left behind by yet another unnecessary Australian military adventure, the prime minister mouthed insulting platitudes about ‘freedom’ and sought propaganda value about no member of the military dying in vain. Such remarks display historical ignorance as well as insensitivity.
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Letting the Liberals off the Barnaby Joyce hook
The return of Barnaby Joyce to the leadership of the National Party and the Deputy Prime Ministership has been somewhat awkward for the Liberal Party. It is puzzling however that the Labor Opposition has not managed to make the Coalition Government more uncomfortable.
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Australian human misery: a dirty dozen cases
The prime minister has an eye for the public relations opportunity. Recently he was quick to be seen at the announcement of the success of an FBI-AFP operation targeting drug traffickers. He condemned criminals for bringing misery to Australia. Regrettably, we have plenty of misery already, thanks to his government’s policies.
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Australian traditional culture under threat again and again.
The changing of a word in the national anthem from ‘young’ to ‘one’ indicates that Australia did not begin in 1788. So aspects of society going back beyond that date are clearly Australian culture. Around Bathurst today, real Australian culture has been threatened by inappropriate and unnecessary developments. All Australians should object.
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Mice and men: the mouse plague and aggressive land clearing
Over the years, Australian authorities have made many poor decisions about allowing the introduction of biocidal agents into the environment. In most cases, such decisions have been based on the demands of powerful minorities with no responsibility to the general community. The Berejiklian-Barilaro government looks set to outdo them all by authorising the use of the bromadiolone rodenticide. -
Evelyn Araluen’s Drop Bear demands our engagement
No objective observer could fail to notice how inadequately we are closing the gaps we have created between Indigenous and other Australians. Part of the difficulty could be that 250 years of European occupation have damaged the language on which oral cultural transmission depends.
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Douglas Newton’s Private Ryan and how peace efforts were sabotaged in WW1
Every now and then a historian produces a book that gives a rational and compassionate insight into the war of 1914-18 and the origins of the Anzac legend. Douglas Newton has given Australia such a work in his story of Private Ryan set against the backdrop of war aims and peace movements.
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Do we need to remove men from power?
As the Sex Discrimination Commissioner conducts an inquiry into federal parliament’s toxic culture, it is clear that her task is to diagnose misogyny and make recommendations for its removal. The easiest way to achieve this would be to remove men from positions of power.
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Gladitorial arena adds toxic element to politics. Part 1
Upper houses of parliament usually have a better gender balance. While often explained away by being a result of proportional representation, a better explanation is that the most ambitious men – the megalomaniacs – have no interest in being senators. They know the locus of power is in the lower house.
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Petulant, punishment politics is becoming the norm
The $50 million spent on re-opening the Christmas Island detention facility just because it lost out on the Medevac bill was a every expensive Coalition dummy spit. Many politicians are starting to think there must be something special about them when they get re-elected, rather than it simply being a function of the system.