Writer
Binoy Kampmark
Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.
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Absent justice: Australia’s Afghanistan war crimes investigations thin out
Small to middle-sized states often crow at undertaking what are vulgarly described as “world firsts”. Australia is certainly one of them, with governments and news outlets keen to announce on a weekly basis that something never previously done has been initiated, implemented, or discovered. A closer inspection shows such declarations to be premature. Continue reading »
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Another nail in the coffin for Australia’s phantom defence needs
The US submarine base was always going to come first, not for the sake of supplying useless boats for Australia’s phantom defence needs, but for keeping an ever watchful US imperium stocked. Continue reading »
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Satellite honours for AUKUS: Joe Courtney’s Order of Australia Award
Joe Courtney, who serves as Congressman for Connecticut’s second district, has received a rather curious honour. It has come in the form of a tribute from a US satellite – some would rightly say annexure or some other subordinate status. A press release from his office on October 22 announced that Rep. Courtney had been Continue reading »
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Faux electoral reform: Entrenching the Australian Party Duopoly
Australia’s establishment parties are running scared. The Albanese Labor government is particularly scared. Tumbling in the polls, increasingly weakened and choked (inexplicably) by the bruising tactics of Coalition opposition leader Peter Dutton, the sinking vessel that is this government is scrambling for existential remedies. One is to try, as much as possible, to limit the Continue reading »
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Perceptions of bias: The National Anti-Corruption Commission and Robodebt
From the outset, a question mark hovered over whether Australia’s federal National Anti-Corruption Commission would serve the purpose of shedding light on corruption in the public sector. The enacting legislation that brought it into existence, for instance, limit public hearings to “exceptional circumstances”, a reminder that transparency was going to be heavily conditioned. Continue reading »
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The Queensland contradiction: Reflections on a state election
Lock up criminally minded children and teach them a firm lesson. Mind your cars, mind your keys. Chat about the Olympics and moan about whether stadia should be built or refurbished. Mumble about water, dams, and roads. Bridges for cassowaries that are not used by those magnificent yet inconsiderate birds. Marvel at members of parliament Continue reading »
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Dangerous registers: The folly of Journalism Australia
The nature, and agenda, of Journalism Australia is clear. It will segregate the washed and unwashed, granting dispensations and protections to the approved while lessening the protections for lesser scribblers. Continue reading »
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Supermarket pirates: The Coles-Woolworths racket
There are few economies on the planet more concentrated in terms of vital services and markets than Australia. The players and actors are few and far between, be they in banking, insurance, supermarkets, the media or the aviation market. Continue reading »
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Showing one’s stripes: The MSO’s treatment of Jayson Gillham
Organisational management, especially when it comes to large entities, has little to recommend it. Arrange the schedules. Pamper sponsors and behave simperingly. Ensure a diet of pills to null the embarrassment. Mind the assets and fret over the brand. Sigh over ledgers and order spreadsheets. Continue reading »
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Missing the point: Chalmers, Dutton and the politics of division
A government is in trouble when it has to utter the banal and reiterate the damnably obvious. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is certainly struggling of late, a state of affairs all the more unspeakable given the calibre of his opponent. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton barely makes the grade of a two-dimensional politician, but has Continue reading »
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Starving the funding: how to cope with the Israeli war machine
Israel’s remorseless campaign in Gaza continues, with the ever-increasing risk of its spread to the north and the east. One of the reasons for such incessancy is the assurance Israel has in its support, one shored up by the strength of its lobbies in various Western states. What then, can we do? Continue reading »
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Owing truth to the dead: Israel’s desecration of war graves
When does it stop? Australia’s close ties with Israel continue to hold despite the incessant slaughter taking place in the Gaza strip, with the connivance of any number of allies and arms manufacturers who have priorities that are somewhat different from the aim of preserving life. Continue reading »
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The release of Julian Assange
It would be the political persecution of the 21st Century. A publicly orchestrated campaign of mobbing, libelling and black balling by the most powerful country on the planet of a publisher who, using novel technological means, enlivened a moribund fourth estate by linking, ever more closely, the leaking whistleblower and the scribbling journalist. Continue reading »
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The National Anti-Corruption Commission: a damp squib
In Australia, the demon of penal regulation clings in its stubbornness. Keeping government accountable and open to the suspicious eye of the public is a weary worn task that yields little by way of change. Secrecy remains addictive, even pathological. Reforms, to that end, remain cosmetic, patchy, and indeterminate. What is the public interest useful for Continue reading »
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Israel is morphing into a pariah state. Time to cut the cord
Washington’s attempts to attack and impair the workings of the ICC on Israel’s behalf merely serve to further isolate a declining America. Continue reading »
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Alice in Aukusland: America first and the stillbirth of ‘Australian’ SSNs
AUKUS has become a stillborn project. Continue reading »
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The despoiling of public life: Scott Morrison and authoritarian paranoia
There are few surprises regarding the final episode of Nemesis, the three-part account on how the Liberal Party, in partnership with the Nationals, psychotically and convulsively disembowel itself from the time Tony Abbott won office in 2013. Over the gore and violence concluding the tenures of Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, one plotter rose, knife bloodied Continue reading »
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Usual cruelties: Imbeciles who fear the borders
The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues. In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable. Like juveniles demanding instant reward, they find complexity hideous. Focus on the now, the punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees. Continue reading »
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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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Political Clod: Malcolm Turnbull and Nemesis
From the time Kevin Rudd romped into office as Australia’s first Labor Prime Minister since Paul Keating, the life of Australian Prime Ministers has been dangerous. Party hacks, factional gangsters, and pollsters shadow, stalk and linger, attempting to note signs of the weakness. A decline in the polls is treated as genuine political calamity, the Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison: A blight on Australian politics
Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s departure from parliament is a vulgar reminder about where Australian politics went grossly wrong, and where its vulnerable, already trimmed sovereignty went. Continue reading »
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The last flurry: The US Congress and Australian Parliamentarians seek Assange’s release
On February 20, Julian Assange, the daredevil publisher of WikiLeaks, will be going into battle, yet again, with the British justice system – or what counts for it. The UK High Court will hear arguments from his team that his extradition to the United States from Britain to face 18 charges under the Espionage Act Continue reading »
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Yemen and canal errors: when Australia misread the Suez crisis
Australia’s assistance in striking targets in Yemen, obediently abiding by the direction of the United States and United Kingdom, had a certain curious resonance to another event that involved foreign shipping, the wounded pride of imperial powers, and meddling Arabs. Continue reading »
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Corporate murder: the Australian companies behind Gaza’s destruction
The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organisation of some note, recently released a list of companies profiting from Israel’s current campaign in Gaza, including its operations in the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria between October and December 2023. The list of nasty participants is impressive and familiar. Continue reading »
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AUKUS and an aggressive US imperium, its reach vast, its mind paranoid
Warmongering think tanks, self-appointed members of the military commentariat, and the whole stable of security-minded cognoscenti in the Anglosphere are terrified about one thing come November 2024. Will AUKUS, that boil on Australia’s policy landscape but boon for the US military industrial complex, be lanced by Donald Trump? Continue reading »
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Doomed frigates: Australia, defence and the problems of procurement
It’s becoming a force of habit. Initially, grand plans and hopes for those in defence. A future weapons program in the offing able to add new capabilities. Much anticipation and the inking of signatures with the relevant manufacturer. Then, mounting costs, technical faults, the disappointment, and revision. In the case of the Future Submarine deal Continue reading »
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Bernie Sanders and the eviscerated left
The Left, and certainly a number of broadly defined progressives, have a strange affinity towards violence and conflict. When the absurdly labelled Global War Against Terror was declared by the semi-literate US President George W. Bush, the use of torture and resort to illegal invasions had the support of such noted liberal figures as Michael Continue reading »
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Vassal’s privilege: Exmouth and Australia’s role in US space imperialism
The AUKUS arrangements between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia envisage the transfer of nuclear-propulsion technology and nuclear-powered submarines to the Royal Australian Navy – what policy wonks call the First Pillar. This does little to advance Canberra’s security but does much to confirm that Washington is keen to keep other powers in the Continue reading »
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Australia: Land of the persecuted whistleblower
In Australia, whistleblowers are feebly protected. They tend to muddy the narrative of perfect institutions, spoil the fun of having illusions, and give the game away. Despite recent amendments to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Cth) regarding, for instance, the creation of a National Anti-Corruption Commission, public sector employees remain vulnerable to prosecution. The Continue reading »
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Anthony Albanese: Australia’s lobbyist for the US Imperium
Australian sovereignty should have been something of a pub joke prior to AUKUS. After it, it has become a dead letter. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s sole purpose during his visit to Washington is to be the country’s uncritical undertaker, ensuring that remains of independence are buried, even as the minerals are extracted. Continue reading »
