Justin O'Connor

Recent articles by Justin O'Connor

Picking up the pieces in the cultural sector but where to put them?

Picking up the pieces in the cultural sector but where to put them?

The recent Federal election was greeted with much relief by the cultural sector, and understandably so. As Tony Burke said in his first speech as Arts Minister: The nine-year political attack on the arts and entertainment sector is now over. The neglect, the contempt and the sabotage of the previous government has ended. The culture wars are done, let the cultural policy work begin!

Notes for the new minister: arts and culture on a knife edge

Notes for the new minister: arts and culture on a knife edge

Australia is at a tipping point. Our democracy is at stake, and cultural policy (or lack thereof), is an integral part of the crisis. Forty years of hollowing out the public sector, degrading the public service, and a winner-takes-all attitude to the electoral process fuelled it. The result is Australias embrace of authoritarian managed democracy, and the disappearance of the line between the needs of the public good and the demands of big donorsespecially, but not limited to, the fossil fuel industries.

Knowledge, skill and flexibility is missing in Australia's response to China's rise

Knowledge, skill and flexibility is missing in Australia's response to China's rise

Fear of China is rooted in Australian history. But today's policymakers are ensuring that we will remain the lonely continent, adrift in an Asia we dont recognise as part of ourselves, with our identity and geography at odds.

A fearful university in Adelaide abandons academic freedom in attempts to better understand China

A fearful university in Adelaide abandons academic freedom in attempts to better understand China

It wasn't foreign interference and influence legislation that got in the way of a recent university event, but the universities themselves, fearful of standing up for academic freedom.

Driving in the dark in our conflict with China

There is a co-ordinated front from the defence and security establishments, the Coalition back-bench, US-financed think tanks and the Murdoch-dominated media in attacks on China

JUSTIN O'CONNOR. The domestic agenda for Australias anti-China rhetoric

Australias anti-China rhetoric is not just about foreign policy. In demonising China as a malign communist power it distracts us from looking at what ails Western liberal democracies, presenting us with a stultifying either/or.

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