Writer
Lucy Hamilton
Lucy Hamilton is a Melbourne writer with degrees from the University of Melbourne and Monash University.
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The Bishop
We must always condemn violence. There must be no tolerance for brutality, and we must take action to diminish violence whether it is tied to family violence, a chronic lack of support for crucial mental health work or to sectarianism. The stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on the weekend during his church service, days Continue reading »
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The Voice and Australia’s democracy crisis
The dire state of truth in Australia’s civic space crystallised in 2023. We had seen the waning influence of News Corp’s impact on our elections and assumed it meant that enough of us were becoming inoculated against the propaganda. The defeat of the notoriously mendacious Coalition government might have signalled a ceasefire, a moment for Continue reading »
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Fossil fuel’s war on protest
Madeleine King, Minister for Resources in the Albanese government, recently announced that she will curtail the ability of Australians to challenge resource corporation projects in court (The West Australian 26/3/24). This attack on democratic rights is built on decades of disinformation shaping the global discussion on fossil fuels and climate change. Continue reading »
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A Republican victory in 2024 will be a climate disaster
After the Super Tuesday results signalled Trump would become the Republican presidential candidate in November, a first promise was that “We’re going to drill baby drill.” One of the most important reasons to watch American politics this year is that a Trump victory will push the world faster towards catastrophic climate heating. Continue reading »
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Illiberalism ascendant: The Dunkley by-election and the cost of doing business
The liberal international order has been responsible for a great many deaths. If the “anti-liberal internationale” becomes ascendant, however, we will see those numbers multiplied exponentially. It is not a stretch to say that the Liberal Party’s campaign in the Dunkley by-election places them firmly in the illiberal category. This is hardly surprising since several Continue reading »
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A little support instead of billions on toxic cruelty
We must speak to people who require assistance and listen to their needs instead of speaking over them. In the case of Australia’s refugee policy, we wasted billions on toxic cruelty when we could have done much better by cooperating internationally and supporting people humanely. Continue reading »
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A grim atlas guides NZ’s right-wing politics
The coalition that took power in New Zealand late in 2023, after a campaign centred on attacking the country’s founding Waitangi Treaty, has been exposed as hosting considerable Atlas Network infiltration. Continue reading »
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Lessons for Survival Day from America
As Australia approaches that time in January again, we see the unedifying picture of Peter Dutton’s team driving his post-referendum Base into a flag-waving orgy of aggrieved patriotism. Similarly in the USA, compulsory patriotism is part of the Atlas Network’s plan to control the future of America through directing the next administration. Continue reading »
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Secrecy and the climate disinformation industry
The Atlas Network’s main goal has been to spot and train global talent in the ultra free-market libertarian field and connect it to the free-flowing money that the alliance functions to assist. They now have at least 515 partner organisations in over 100 nations. Secrecy is key for the corporations and plutocrats funding this model, 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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Coalition politicians are embracing far right Orbanist ideology
Tony Abbott added two new posts to his resume this month, debuting as Fox director and announced to be “joining the Danube Institute team as a guest lecturer.” Add these to the October news that Abbott is now an Advisory Board member of the far-right Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). Australians should be watching. Continue reading »
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Deception: Radicalised groups are infiltrating Australian democracy in your town
West Australia’s council elections seem a strange place to pinpoint a warning about American radicalising political games infiltrating the Australian landscape. While it is strange, it is nonetheless important. Continue reading »
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Australian judges are failing to protect society from violent extremism
Victoria’s leading Neo Nazi left the County Court in Melbourne on Friday with the judge’s message, “Good luck with the future, Gentlemen” ringing in his ears, laughing at the judge’s assertion that he and his co-offender have good prospects for rehabilitation. They greeted reporters outside the court with the observation that they were innocent, followed Continue reading »
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An ultraconservative shadow network is forming, designed to influence you
It was helpful of Greg Sheridan to advertise in The Australian (27/10) the new ultraconservative conference that he is attending in London. While his column is no doubt intended to recruit, it is useful in shining a spotlight on a traditionally shadowy architecture of influence. Continue reading »
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Only parliaments are able to set up integrity bodies, but politicians hate and fear them
The Victorian government has just acted to ensure that the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) is neutered by a subtle gambit in the crafting of the advertisement seeking applicants for the position of Commissioner. Continue reading »
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Dark money is distorting the Voice debate
The Voice campaign has revealed how much Dark Money is distorting our political debates. But will proposed reforms of money in politics crush the independents? Continue reading »
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The Voice reveals the urgent need for truth reforms
The knowledge that the official AEC Yes and No campaign pamphlet sent to every home in Australia was not obliged to be factual is shocking. Continue reading »
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Channel 7 fostering fascist politics
The Right is obsessed with gender. This deep paranoia comes out of America and international far right movements. It harms straight people and LGBTQIA+ people differently, and we need to fight it before our copycat Right entrenches it here too. Continue reading »
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The Insurgency
It is hard to gauge the importance of the Trumpist Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event that took place in Sydney this weekend. There were more high-profile figures speaking than previously, and several currently serving politicians alongside white supremacists and antisemites. Continue reading »
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Federal Liberals continue to back Victorian ultra-conservative Deeming despite expulsion
The Liberal Party is in deep trouble. As our main “conservative” party, the fact that it is besieged by far right figures is reason for vigilance by the rest of us. No party holds government forever, and a “conservative” or anti-incumbent vote must not be an accidental vote for theocratic politics. Figures like Moira Deeming Continue reading »
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Greg Sheridan, Australian conservatives flirt with Orban’s fascistic politics
Senior Australian “conservative” figures continue to attend conferences backed by illiberal Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. The Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) hosted its 2023 London Summit in late June, featuring Alexander Downer and Greg Sheridan as two of the five speakers. Australians must focus on connections between our Right and Hungarian fascistic politics. Continue reading »
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Prison hulks and river blades: fortress building in the climate-castrophe era
Britain has commissioned a prison hulk to house immigrants, in a cruel re-enactment of history. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has implemented two strategies to stop immigrants crossing the Rio Grande into America: one is a floating barrier with razor wire and rolling motion that pulls people under the water; the other is an apparent Continue reading »
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Racism, the ‘No’ campaign and the Americanisation of Australian politics
There may be some Coalition politicians and Murdoch employers who are motivated by genuine racism to oppose the Voice to Parliament. Some might believe First Nations Australians are unworthy. Some probably believe in “reverse racism.” That, of course, is the belief that there is a correct direction for racism to travel. Continue reading »
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An American system of “state sanctioned forced births”?
Labels have power. They shape the way we know the world. They allow people to see actions with greater clarity or distort our understanding to make things unrecognisable. Continue reading »
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Centrist parties crush dissent, foreclose on race to avoid extinction
“We are thankful you are here. We are happy to a be recipient of [the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association] APPEA’s largesse in the form of coming here more often…The South Australian government is at your disposal…” (South Australian Labor minister for energy and mining, Tony Koutsantonis, May 15, 2023). Continue reading »
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Dan Andrews and Murdoch crying wolf
Rupert Murdoch has done incalculable harm to the democratic experiment throughout the AUKUS nations and beyond. In Victoria, his propaganda campaigns have made him the magnate who cried wolf. The state’s integrity infrastructure is in perilous condition but Newscorp’s constant invective against Labor governments, and Premier Dan Andrew’s government in particular, has made it more Continue reading »
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Weaponised unreality
Having spent decades inculcating their base in poisonous nonsense, there is now no external authority to which right wing media can send their audience when the lies become troublesome. Continue reading »
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Grotesque Dutton drums up another pedophilia crisis
Dutton is the right politician for the post-QAnon age: in fact the radical right zeitgeist caught up with him. His decision to drum up (another) pedophilia crisis to stain the referendum on the Voice to parliament is both grotesque and on trend. Continue reading »
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The AAT: abolishing a system of indefinite torment
The abolition of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is a crucial part of Attorney General Mark Dreyfus KC’s integrity platform. In the last decade of Coalition governments it had become overwhelmed by partisan appointments, creating a bedlam of incompetence and politically-motivated decisions. Continue reading »
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Secrecy is our enemy: whistleblowers must be defended
One of the most hated aspects of the Morrison government was the secrecy. Over and again, we continue to shock to revelations of hidden wrongdoing long after their defeat last May. Continue reading »
