Search Results
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Complicit: Victorian government’s secret Israeli Defence Ministry MOU sparks outrage
Last month, news bubbled that the Victorian State government had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Israeli Defence Ministry in December 2022. “As Australia’s advanced manufacturing capital, we are always exploring economic and trade opportunities for our state – especially those that create local jobs,” a government spokesperson stated in January. Continue reading »
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Can Kim Williams fix turmoil at the ABC?
With the announcement last week of Kim Williams as the new ABC Chair, it’s timely to consider not only what needs to be done to address recent controversies but, more broadly, what we as a society want from our major public media institution and what is needed for it to thrive. Continue reading »
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Christian nationalists versus the rest
Spiritual and cultural Christians – indeed such people of all faiths – need to consider allying together with those who identify as belonging to “no religion.” It is the fundamentalist authoritarians who would divide and constrain us all that need exposing as the small minority they truly are. We must make them as powerless as Continue reading »
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Rolls Royce ACT law reform council given Mini Minor resources
The terms of reference for the ACT Law Reform and Sentence Advisory Council are Rolls Royce, but the resources – three public servants – are Mini Minor. While the council is well constructed and will certainly be well led, it needs more horsepower. Continue reading »
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Executive overreach in Australia has reached the levels of an autocracy
Last week Australians were forced to suffer through the spectacle of their parliament being dragged to a new low as the Coalition hammered the Labor government for not being better prepared for the prospect that the Commonwealth might lose the most recent High Court case about whether indefinite detention of refugees is unlawful or unconstitutional. Continue reading »
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How I decided to vote in the upcoming Voice referendum
With the date of the Voice referendum now having been set for 14 October, all households will have received a pamphlet outlining the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ case. Australians should understand that these pamphlets have not been officially fact checked. An attempt at fact checking the two cases by The Guardian is worth reading but I Continue reading »
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Olmert calls on Biden to boycott extremist Israeli government
President Biden hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday. Herzog is addressing a joint session of Congress, which a handful of progressive Democrats are boycotting. The same members of Congress also boycotted the address of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a far right Hindu nationalist who is implicated in an anti-Muslim pogrom. Continue reading »
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Dutton gives voice to Jacinta Price
Peter Dutton has staked his political future on Jacinta Price, his new shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs, a woman of less than 10 months experience in Parliament, none of which have been spent in government. Continue reading »
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Rainbow alert on China
Crikey sets its sights on “human rights abuse” of China’s LGBTQI+ community relying on a single source for its investigation – the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Continue reading »
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Infrastructure policy ‘Pearl Harboured’
The Government’s response to the ‘independent’ review of Infrastructure Australia involves a surprise attack on public policy which should be rebuffed. Continue reading »
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For the Australian Republic Movement, minimalism is history
It’s time for the Australian Republic Movement to move on from the minimalist campaign of the 1990s and embrace reform of our archaic constitution. Continue reading »
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Wake up Australia! A new constitution, not a new war!
What are the Australian people doing about their archaic and undemocratic Constitution? Continue reading »
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Gough, Rupert and the London job.
“The prime minister was spotted at the media empire’s Holt Street offices on Wednesday, when, we’re told, Albo, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong met News Corp cochairman Lachlan Murdoch and senior editors of the media empire’s Australian mastheads”.(SMH 26 August 2022) Continue reading »
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What might our new Attorney do with Bernard Collaery?
A 22-year-old speech by the late, long-serving federal and ACT Judge John Gallop provides all that Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus needs to consider in the case of Bernard Collaery and Witness K. Continue reading »
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Keeping them honest: A book review
This book Keeping Them Honest: the case for a genuine national integrity commission and other vital democratic reforms puts solidly the case for a Commonwealth Integrity Commission known in the trade I’m told as a CIC. Continue reading »
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Dear friends: a notable Australian thinker looks to a better 2022
This is an extract from the ninth Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year message of the former Labor MP, science minister and national president of the ALP. Continue reading »
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John Austen: Time to call time on Infrastructure Australia? It has failed
The latest Australian Infrastructure Plan avoids the key issue: Commonwealth (lack of) direction. It seems aimed at bureaucratic empire building and should herald the end of Infrastructure Australia. Continue reading »
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Uncategorised
White supremacist? We need to talk about Doc Evatt: Part 1
Doc Evatt was revered as a man who fought for justice for all, yet there was a dark side to the man that has been either glossed over or ignored. Part 2 will examine Evatt’s prejudiced role in the partition of Palestine. Continue reading »
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Susan Ryan. A formidable and compassionate advocate on human rights.
Susan Ryan, the minister for education in the Hawke Government and the pioneer who brought Australia its Sex Discrimination Act, died very recently. This is a remembrance from a friend. Continue reading »
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Modernising Merit: It’s time to Rethink Judicial Appointments
Pale, Male, and Stale; such is the criticism levelled at our judiciary by detractors, rightly arguing it is too white, male dominated, and out of touch to represent and deliver just outcomes for an increasingly diverse Australia. Continue reading »
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
What people in other forums are saying about public policy Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. BuzzFeed out: So much for diversity in Australia’s media
Two years after Australia’s competition watchdog green lighted the biggest consolidation of media ownership here in more than 40 years, the withdrawal of online start-up BuzzFeed has exposed its misjudgment. Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Google and Facebook versus News Corp/Nine as Australia’s newspapers are declared “terminal”
With Australians about to lose their local and metropolitan newspaper coverage the competition watchdog sent to the rescue is facing the prospect of litigation from tech giants Google and Facebook. Continue reading »
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Selling arms with impunity
Australia’s military industry exports are increasing rapidly fuelled by $195bn in federal funding to 2025-26 and strong collaboration between federal, state, and local governments and agencies. Team Defence Australia showcases Aussie weapons-making ingenuity at arms expos world-wide, all year round. Where is all this cash and activity leading us? And do we want to go Continue reading »
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J.A. DICK. Christmas 2019
The message of Christmas is our New Year’s challenge: to believe and to act on our beliefs. We believe that truth is stronger than fake political rhetoric and falsehood. Being a bully is destructive and demeaning. We are all our neighbours’ brothers and sisters, even when community harmony is difficult to achieve and maintain. Our Continue reading »
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JOHN TAN. Rights v. Rights: Whose rights shall prevail?
Human rights are usually associated with those in the Universal Declaration, like free speech and freedom of assembly, but there are actually two opposing narratives of human rights, both having their origins at about the same time just after WWII. The second narrative, seemingly very powerful, is a right to be as wealthy as possible Continue reading »
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ROSEMARY O’GRADY. The Pell Appeal Judgements: One Perspective.
In the majority judgement disallowing Cardinal George Pell’s appeal against criminal convictions, Chief Justice Ferguson and Appeal Court President Maxwell set-out the task that had faced the three appellate judges. Continue reading »
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
A regular collection of links to writings and broadcasts in other media Continue reading »
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MACK WILLIAMS. Iran : Coalition of the less than willing !
The spectacle of Prime Minister facing the “full court press” from President Trump and his team across the dinner table in Osaka starkly demonstrated how G20 Osaka was to be Morrison’s real initiation to the global arena. As the Iran crisis threatened to intensify it was little surprise that this became a prime focus of Continue reading »
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BEVAN RAMSDEN. The Anti-Terrorism Act and other Acts strip us of many civil liberties we thought we had.
The recent intimidatory police raids on the ABC and a journalist’s home for making public, matters of community concern, is a wake-up call that press freedoms can no longer be taken for granted. But looking wider, personal freedoms we thought we enjoyed are also fast disappearing thanks to the anti-terrorism act and other laws passed Continue reading »