Search Results
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Vivat Samantha: My hopes for the new Governor General
Samantha Mostyn will become the next Governor General in July, taking over from outgoing former General David Hurley. I am greatly cheered by this news, not simply because she is only the second woman to hold this office but because I believe she has the capacity to heal this nation at a time of its Continue reading »
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Indigenous incarceration
More than a quarter of Canberra’s daily average prison population is Indigenous but only 2 per cent of people in the ACT identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. Continue reading »
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Scotland a shining example in youth justice
As 2022 closed, WA’s main juvenile detention centre, Banksia Hill, grabbed national attention when one of its buildings was burned to the ground by rioting inmates, who scaled the fences in a stand-off with the riot squad. Continue reading »
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War mongering and the peace rally
Lest we forget the consequences, today we recall the great lie of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ in Iraq which led to the smashing of that country and the slaughter of hundreds of thousand of innocent men, women and children. Continue reading »
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The Abdication of Australian Sovereignty
Reducing the risk of Australia becoming trapped in an American war in Asia, again, requires the Australian government to give notice now to the United States that it wishes to withdraw from the Force Posture Agreement. Continue reading »
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NDIS Justice for over 65s
The Australian government is about to be involved in its biggest, and most morally embarrassing, class action since the Robodebt scandal. Thousands of seriously disabled people excluded from the services provided by NDIS if they were over 65 when the scheme was introduced or who became disabled after they were 65, will be eligible to Continue reading »
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Super Scott and the coup vaccine
The powers vested in prime minister Scott Morrison by the Governor-General David Hurley during the five-ministries affair represented both a sword and a shield against any coup against Morrison himself. They also gave Morrison unparalleled capacity to seize power for himself, casting aside some of his most powerful ministerial colleagues without being held to account Continue reading »
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The stench of Morrison’s dormant constitutional coup
The great unravelling of Scott Morrison’s pseudo-constitutional coup deserves a comprehensive inquiry. Perhaps a royal commission. It’s a commission that could also embrace other improper, illegal or general style of secretive unaccountable government, and also take in the connivance, or learned ignorance of other ministers and senior bureaucrats. Continue reading »
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How Anthony Albanese as Prime Minister could rewrite the script
Below is a repost of articles which we posted earlier on guidance for a new government on important policies. Continue reading »
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Australian and international voices call for de-escalation of Ukraine situation
In contrast to the voices and actions of the governments of U.S., U.K. and Australia inflaming the situation in Ukraine, voices from citizens and organisations for de-escalation and peaceful resolution are being raised around the world. Continue reading »
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All the Queen’s men: a slow recovery after the disaster of 1975
A more dignified relationship between Australia’s governors-general and the Palace evolved in the aftermath of John Kerr’s sycophantic conduct. Continue reading »
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Why is the Queen still interfering in our history and why is the National Archives allowing this?
Thousands of pages of the Queen’s secret letters to governors-general from Lord Casey to Sir William Deane, from 1965-2001, will soon be open to the public in the most significant release of royal documents since Sir John Kerr’s explosive ‘Palace letters’. The Archives’ decision to release the Queen’s correspondence with these six governors-general follows directly from Continue reading »
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Bringing ‘the Doc’ to the masses – review of Gideon Haigh’s new book
H. V. Evatt could be a massively polarising figure and that is more than unfortunate. It has closed many minds to what we should be celebrating and promulgating as true Australian values. Those values – not merely espoused, but judicially declared and enacted by and because of Evatt – are in evidence throughout Gideon Haigh’s Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up, 7 March 2021
UK’s and Canada’s ‘Powering Past Coal’ promises look hollow, as do many companies’ ‘net zero’ commitments. Ecosystems already collapsing globally and in Australia. EVs and loose leaf tea are better for the environment. And a historical quiz. Continue reading »
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If crime is falling, why is imprisonment rising?
The Australian prison population has doubled since 2000 and recidivism is at 55%. Yet almost all categories of crime have fallen in the past decade. Why do we spend $3.6 billion a year (and rising) on a system across Australia that is clearly not serving us well or making us safer? There are alternatives available, Continue reading »
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Australian multiculturalism is a success story: it is time to enshrine it as our shared value
What makes Australia unique and special is the ability to celebrate one’s ethnicity and cultural heritage in an Australian setting. I am able to call myself a Chinese-Australian and Asian-Australian without having my loyalty questioned and allegiance to Australia judged. Continue reading »
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Drop the xenophobia and Cold War tactics – respect Shaoquett Moselmane’s rights
A healthy civil and democratic society depends on citizens’ ability to weigh up diverse views, to re-frame issues and to consider the dangers when powerful people make claims without any obvious evidence. Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. My fear – a US led war with China?
My fear is that Australia’s warring mind-set and its entanglement in its alliance with the USA will eventually lead the country into a US-led war with China. The possibility of stimulating defence industries to assist with the post pandemic recovery only adds to my trepidation. Continue reading »
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NOEL TURNBULL. The origins of Anzackery
In the late 1950s and early 1960s Anzac Day was in decline – a malaise exemplified by Alan Seymour’s play “The One Day of the Year”, the origins of Anzackery. Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. The climate crisis and the need for peace.
The climate crisis increases the likelihood of war and refugee flows. Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. Taking the Fight to China?
The call for Australia to ‘take the fight to China in the South China Sea’ by a retired, senior bureaucrat is surprising. It fails to take account of China’s expressed defence strategy. Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. The climate crisis and war
Groups like Extinction Rebellion (XR) focus on the physical impacts of the climate crisis. Message to XR – The pre-requisites for a comfortable, sustainable future include an end to militarism and, ultimately, the cessation of war. Continue reading »
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DAVID TIMBS. Archbishop Comensoli needs to cut the ecclesiastical umbilical cord.
Peter A Comensoli has been the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne for just on a year. So far he has demonstrated very little understanding of the disastrous situation he inherited. Nor has he shown any clear indication of the kind of vision and leadership needed to navigate a way though. Continue reading »
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BEVAN RAMSDEN. Do the US Marines in Darwin pose a risk to our peace and security?
A recent US war exercise involving US Marines landing, capturing and securing an island off the coast of Okinawa is touted as a new US military strategy to use in its challenge to China in the South China Sea. Is the imbedding of US marines in war exercises on HMAS Adelaide, which has been fitted Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. Thoughts on the Schools Strike for the climate.
NICK DEANE. Thoughts on the Schools Strike for the climate. Concerns about climate change and the environment cannot be separated from concerns about militarism and war. All military activity is polluting. Climate change increases the likelihood of war. Environmentally damaging activities are, ultimately, protected by armed force. Preparation for war runs in parallel with climate Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. Unravelling the fabric of the Australia/US alliance.
John Menadue has articulated the problems with the Australia/US alliance very clearly. Those who are concerned to change its nature need a weak point at which to challenge it. To unravel the fabric of the alliance, start by opposing the presence of US marines in Darwin! Continue reading »
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All we want for Christmas is bishops who listen and act
This is a modified version of the Christmas editorial of Catholics for Renewal, an Australian group seeking to make the Catholic church more Christ-like. It is hoped that the Australian Church’s Plenary Council, to be held over two sessions in 2020 and 2021 and the first since 1937, will be energised by the condemnations of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Continue reading »
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TONY STEPHENS. 1918
I’ll go to the Armistice Day service at the Balmain war memorial this November 11 because it will mark the centenary of the end of the Great War and because it will be the end of nearly five years of almost continuous remembrance. While the youthful nation of only 18 years rejoiced with good reason Continue reading »
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NICK DEANE. Armistice Day
On ‘Remembrance Day’ we should not forget that the majority of war’s casualties are actually non-combatant civilians. We should also remember that the original day was a day of great joy, as warring came to an end. Peace is the ‘default position’; war an aberration. However, current commemorations still focus on the ‘warrior hero’. Continue reading »
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JERRY ROBERTS. Pomp and circumstance. The Royal tour.
There is some debate whether it was H.L. Mencken or P.T. Barnum who said that nobody ever went broke under-estimating the intelligence of the public. Either way, the executives of Australia’s self-proclaimed Royal Network followed the advice faithfully when preparing for the current Royal tour. They assumed that the entire population of our continent is Continue reading »