If I were the minister for health... health, politics
When preparing for this, I did look back at what I had written in 2022 on the same topic and I’m sad to report, dear reader, that our current minister hasn’t implemented many of my innovative suggestions from last time, apart from some minor parts of my suggestions about workforce planning.
Albanese and housing 2022-25: hyperactivity without a plan
Yet again, as a federal election approaches, we look set for a national debate in which competing housing policy offers will take centre stage. The Greens began to unveil their pitch back in 2024 and the Coalition has now started to follow suit.
Trump’s tariffs deliver a harsh truth for Australia
Too little thought has been given to the future of the Australian economy against the backdrop of a protectionist America.
Israel's war against Gaza
Media coverage of the war in Gaza since October 2023 has spread a series of lies propagated by Israel and the United States. This publication presents information, analysis, clarification, views and perspectives largely unavailable in mainstream media in Australia and elsewhere.
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8 April 2025
Strong can be wrong
Are voters really influenced by their view of which of the party leaders is the stronger? Peter Dutton obviously thinks so; for a year and more he has been attacking Anthony Albanese in almost every speech and utterance as being weak and trying to persuade voters that he himself was strong.
8 April 2025
US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5b trade overnight
What happens when the world's second-largest economy suddenly pulls the plug on billions of dollars in US energy exports without warning, without negotiation and without a single public signal? You get a global energy market in shock and Washington scrambling for answers.
8 April 2025
Trump’s trade war is bad, but how bad is up to the rest of us
At last, we know enough about US President Donald Trump’s opening move on tariffs to start thinking about what it all means. By imposing tariffs on America’s imports, he’s shot his economy in the foot, but the rest of the world decides how bad it’s likely to be by what we do in response.
8 April 2025
We should walk away — quickly — from Trump’s America
Anthony Albanese must feel that he understands how John Curtin felt after the fall of Singapore. The idea that Winston Churchill “abandoned” Australia to its fate is virtually a dogmatic myth inside Labor, not only part of the cult of Curtin but of Paul Keating, whose version of what occurred has been often repeated.
8 April 2025
Trump's tariffs appear to be misdirected
President Donald Trump has said his recent raft of tariff measures amounted to Liberation Day for US traders and not a fatal blow for a global trading system that has served international commerce well for decades following the turbulence that existed prior to and up to the Second World War in the early 1940s.
8 April 2025
Would an Iranian nuke really be so terrible?
Since the Iranian people overthrew the US-backed despotism of the Shah in 1979, Washington’s 4½-decade campaign of maximum pressure has been couched in terms of countering the Islamic Republic’s “destabilisation” of the region.
8 April 2025
God doesn't save the day – oh, but yes, they do!
Hi. I’m responding, if I may be so bold, to Eric Hunter’s lovely, heartfelt post on February 10, “Why doesn’t God save the day?” I want to answer Eric’s question in a very direct and positive way, but also (shamelessly) put in a plug for my new book, The God who doesn’t Exist, out now through ATF Press (see the link below*).
7 April 2025
Small policy, big impact
It's too early to predict the outcome of the election – notwithstanding the swing back to Labor reported by recent published polls. Anything could happen to change voting intentions in the last weeks of the campaign.
Latest on Palestine and Israel
18 September 2024
United Nations General Assembly votes to demand Israel end Palestinian occupation, Australia abstains
The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favour of a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its unlawful presence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year.
7 December 2024
The Melbourne synagogue fire: Antisemitism, political meddling and exceptional victimhood
In his ongoing campaign to pad and shield criticism of Israel in the conduct of its war of gross bloodletting in Gaza, Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rarely misses a beat to attack critics. It has become clear that even mere disagreement from long standing allies suggests wobbliness and tilting in the direction of antisemitism.
5 February 2025
Trump's plan for Gaza heralds an age of naked fascism
I watched Trump's joint press conference with Netanyahu, in utter disbelief. Not that the idea, or indeed the practice, of ethnic cleansing of Palestine is new. But at that press conference the mask has fallen. Recently, fascism has been on the march everywhere, but that press conference seemed to herald an age of naked fascism.
6 April 2025
Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?
The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.
10 May 2024
South Africa asks ICJ to order halt to Rafah massacre as 110,000 Gazans flee advancing Israeli troops
The move comes as Australia, in a significant break from Israeli and US policy, voted yes in the UN General Assembly to upgrading Palestines UN membership status. The resolution passed with 143 countries voting in favour, nine voting against, and 25 abstentions.
18 September 2024
UN vote: Newspaper raises irrelevant questions about an ICJ decision
The exclusive 'US urges Australia over UNs Israel vote, published in Tuesdays The Australian by Ben Packham, demands a response.
20 May 2024
ICC applies for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Sinwar
The ICC chief prosecutor accused Israeli and Hamas leaders of war crimes while repeating false claims against Hamas and downplaying Israeli violence against Palestinians, writes The Cradle news desk.
4 October 2024
Resilience amongst ruin: 12 months of genocide and resistance in Gaza
Just weeks into Israels current genocide in Gaza, I spoke with my cousin as she watched the violence unfold from her home in Khan Yunis. She declared, We are used to this; it is temporary and will pass.
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US LNG crippled as Australia seizes US$1.5b trade overnight china, economy, politics, usa
What happens when the world's second-largest economy suddenly pulls the plug on billions of dollars in US energy exports without warning, without negotiation and without a single public signal? You get a global energy market in shock and Washington scrambling for answers.
How Xi woos world business leaders as Trump intensifies trade war
On the morning of Friday, 28 March, Xi Jinping met representatives of the international business community at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
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