We’re all still waiting … for your right to know. The right of the public in our democracies to know what’s really going on is being tested at this very moment at the Old Bailey in Merry England.
Tag: mw
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The hyper-masculinised culture of the Australian economy
With eminent justification, feminists have long criticised the patriarchal structuring of the Australian economy. Yet women continue to hold only a tiny fraction of CEO positions, board memberships and senior management appointments across the country.
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No, Scotty, gas did not choose itself. You chose it.
Morrison claimed that ‘gas chose itself’ to replace the Liddell power station. No, be honest Scotty, you and your mates chose gas.
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Aged care has become a property play – perhaps even for some church groups?
Whenever governments outsource or subsidize a community service, it is amazing how quickly and cleverly the private sector finds a way to milk it.
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Scientists and capitalists agree on climate. When will governments act?
Time again for Australia’s political leaders to ignore the regular cycle of reports that highlight the failure to deal with the coming climate disaster. The pandemic might provide a “look over there” opportunity to distract citizens, but the recent climate publications warrant close attention. (more…)
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US spy plane impersonates Malaysian aircraft, apparently to fool China (Popular Mechanics Sep 10, 2020)
A US Air Force RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft carried out several flights off China’s Hainan island. The plane switched its transponder code in mid-flight, mysteriously becoming a Malaysian airplane. The RC-135W was likely trying to keep a low profile while it spied on Chinese military bases.
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The Revenge of the Special Relationship (Project Syndicate Sep 7, 2020)
Of all the older democracies, it is in Britain and the United States that right-wing populists have taken over conservative parties and rule their respective countries. This is not an accident, but rather an outcome that has been 75 years in the making.
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Does Australia need some 20th-century spying?
There is, or there should be, more to spying than high-tech electronics. As we have seen, it can get agencies into trouble. It can lead up the wrong paths, to dead ends and bear pits. We need to get back to basics, feet on the ground.
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ASIO Doublespeak
A party member lives under the eyes of the Thought Police:
He can be inspected without warning and without knowing that he is being inspected;
He should live in a continuous frenzy of hatred of foreign enemies and internal traitors….. (more…)
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No one wins in a race to the bottom on national security: Let the Chinese academics back in (The China Story Sep 15, 2020)
If politicians don’t change course, the deterioration of Australia’s relationship with China will go hand in hand with the erosion of our civil liberties.
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War is hell: how the corporate class is coping with Covid’s injustices (Crikey Sep 16, 2020)
“This is not wartime,” thundered our business heavyweights this week. That’s probably a relief or they might be asked: “What did you do in the war, Daddy?”
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Les Miserables – Killing the ABC in a time of national emergency
Empty chairs at empty tables … where my friends will sing no more. (Les Miserables – the musical).
The departure of many of the ABC’s most experienced journalists, producers and presenters has immiserated the public broadcaster.
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Intelligence is the servant of policy, not its substitute
Jack Waterford has provided a scathing assessment of the role of the intelligence and security agencies in Australia’s current contretemps with China. How should we evaluate the suggestion that the conduct of our international relations is driven more by intelligence than it is by policy?
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ASIO is a Mickey Mouse outfit compromising 50 years of diplomacy with China
When head of the Australian Signals Directorate, Mike Burgess was the main adviser recommending against Huawei being allowed into the 5G network. There is no doubt about his intelligence background, or his technical talents. He has, however, yet to demonstrate in public that he has that first quality of the counter-intelligence officer and adviser — judgment.
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Secrecy covers up abuse of power and poor performance by security services
One would have to go back to the 1970s to find the nation so ill-served. All the more so as politicians have politicised national security, and reverted to 1960s games of gathering and using secret information for political purposes. It would not be strictly correct to describe the agencies themselves, or their leaders, as politically compromised — at least in a party-partisan way — but each now operates in a far from detached environment.
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Isn’t less government what the conservatives really want?
The commonwealth has unraveled, federation has unfederated. So why aren’t the Tories cheering?
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The shrinking of the Australian mind (The Interpreter Sep 3, 2020)
Australian strategic decision-makers need lessons in our once-grand ambitions – and accomplishments – in world affairs.
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Infrastructure Stimulus: there are smart projects out there, if we care to look
Infrastructure spending is touted as the path to economic recovery, but our leaders can no longer afford to throw billions at programs with little economic merit or policy logic.
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Media in the Asian Century. Tit for tat for journalists.
And did anyone in Canberra get the chance to tell Peter Dutton and Christian Porter that raiding some Chinese journalists, hardly deep-cover agents, might invite retaliation in kind? Was the lure of building an ALP-linked Chinese influence case, with Professor Chen Hong’s earlier work for Bob Hawke thrown in, simply too much to resist? (more…)
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ASIO and AFP have questions to answer
ASIO and the AFP have questions to answer in the wake of reported raids on the homes and offices of Chinese journalists and a Labor backbencher.
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The strategic mirror: the Pentagon’s China report reveals converging power and strategy
From Australia’s perspective, the Pentagon’s 2020 Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China Report is valuable for two reasons. It reinforces the absurdity of Australia planning to participate in high-intensity conflict against China under any circumstances. Additionally, it reveals the symmetry between US and China strategic policy. (more…)
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Freedom and protests in 2020 Australia
Where is the national outcry at the erosion of our freedom to protest?
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Father Glen Walsh paid a heavy price
The revelations never end about priests and brothers, of monsignors and bishops with their secret sexual lives, masturbating, buggerizing, sodomizing and raping boys and girls – protected by an amoral hierarchy and a few corrupt members of the upper-echelons of various police forces.
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Aged care should not be ‘pre-palliative care’ as Scott Morrison suggests
In Question Time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made an unfortunate but revealing statement about our attitudes to aged care. He said: “For those of us who have had to make decisions about putting our own family, our own parents, into aged care, we have known that when we’ve done that we are putting them into pre-palliative care.”
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The atrocious foreign interference law – It doesn’t add up
When, for example, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) receives grants from the US State Department to undertake research projects it is an admission that it is engaging in conduct on behalf of a foreign principal. (more…)
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China policy – the children are in charge
Is the Australian Government serious about restoring the relationship with China? There are disturbing indications that it is not. (more…)
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Australia’s fathers day shame
On this coming Father’s Day I want to salute three fathers whose sons, who have not broken Australian law, were and are betrayed by the Australian government: Terry Hicks, John Shipton and Khalil El-Halabi.
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US: Grand Theft Election
Trump is working on stealing the result of the election in November. His main contention of political substance – that it is a “law and order” election – is shadowed by the actions he is taking to prevent an unhindered, fair vote, from taking place.