Community
-
Smothered indigenous voices
This is a story of what a voice can achieve and how easily it is undone by external forces. Continue reading »
-
Is Pope Francis preparing for the next pope and an “October revolution” in Catholicism?
Its mid-summer in Rome and last week there was a heat wave with a top temperature of 38° Celsius. Hot days in Rome are stifling, with the heat compounded by the over-whelming influx of tourists. Continue reading »
-
Profit-making from government funded community services should be banned
Why the new ALP government’s new Child Care funds should restore its social benefits and stop funding the failing profit/market model. Continue reading »
-
Greg Melick, the AWM and Frontier Wars
Major General Greg Melick, a member of the Australian War Memorial Council, would be in a very interesting position in any public company committed to best practice corporate governance principles. Continue reading »
-
Look out! Here come The Elders…
There is rising wrath, out there in Elderland. The Elders, it seems, are no longer happy to look on as a bunch of corporates and their political stooges pillage the planet and lay waste their grandchildren’s future. With growing resolve, resources and organisation, older people are fighting back. Continue reading »
-
Bruce Haigh: time for some revolutionary Australian art
Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone? – Joni Mitchell Continue reading »
-
Senators call for ‘people’s bank’ solution to regional branch closures
There is growing support for a government-owned “people’s bank”, like the original Commonwealth Bank, operating through post offices, which could provide full banking services to every community and force the Big Four private banks to truly compete. Continue reading »
-
A deep sadness: reflections about the racist treatment of Stan Grant
As the people of Thailand say, ‘same, same.’ Here we go again. Another indigenous Australian, and this one an educated, travelled, and articulate First Nation public intellectual is being maligned. Continue reading »
-
The Voice is a “mirror to Australia”
The Uluru Statement from the Heart is a mirror to Australia saying, “Look how much we’ve already done as a nation.” It’s just time to bring it home. – Professor Megan Davis, John Menadue Oration, 2020 Continue reading »
-
Unity: Living together with a more ‘Sympathetic Imagination’
The spirit of the age seems to foster division more than it nurtures unity. The G7 Summit is meeting in Hiroshima where thousands were killed at breakfast time on a summer’s morning, August 6, 1945. The G7 leaders meet as a hostile imagination fuels a terrifying arms race. How can we yet pull out of Continue reading »
-
Australians can now see whether parliaments are working for them
Many Australians might not realise that the 2022 federal election was the first to be accompanied by an independent report on the performance of the outgoing parliament in building a better Australia. Continue reading »
-
Passing of Tony Pun a great loss for all Australians
Prominent Chinese community leader, Dr Anthony “Tony” Pun died last night in Sydney, aged 77. In 1989 he came to public prominence when he lobbied then prime minister Bob Hawke to allow Chinese students to remain in Australia, in the wake of the crackdown on Chinese student protests that led to the Tiananmen Square incident. Continue reading »
-
Abundant life: honouring the discovery of Mungo Lady
On Wednesday I met with a wonderful Australian geologist, Jim Bowler, famous for discovering the Lake Mungo remains – ‘the oldest human remains in Australia, dated to 40,000 years ago.’ ‘Mungo woman’; Mungo Man’. Jim and I will dream dreams on Sunday, within the abundance of the divine. Asking, against the backdrop of nuclear bombs Continue reading »
-
Father Bob’s passing leaves big shoes to fill
It’s hard to imagine there would be too many residents in the COPP (City of Port Phillip) who hadn’t met Father Bob Maguire over his 52-year tenure at the South Melbourne, St Peter and Paul parish. Continue reading »
-
National day of prayer for just peace in Mayanmar
After years of cruelty to their own people (whose safety it is their duty to protect), just after Easter, the Myanmar junta’s airforce dropped multiple bombs on a civilian gathering of several hundred people in Sagaing Region while attack helicopters strafed the crowd. Later the same day jet fighters returned to kill anyone left. Continue reading »
-
Chinese voters in Australian democracy
The last Federal election in 2022 saw a massive swing of voters of Chinese heritage away from the Coalition to Labor and Independents. The pattern was the same in the recent NSW state election and the Aston by-election in Victoria. All these indicate is that a long suffering marginalised victim of Australia’s geopolitics has finally Continue reading »
-
Easter: A new beginning for wounded humanity and our depleted planet
An Easter reflection on romantic weddings, love, and our global context. Towards a ‘Calming of souls’ and a ‘lightness of being’. Continue reading »
-
Guardian Essential Poll: AUKUS support collapses, 3-in-4 oppose
Reflecting the diminishing public support for the AUKUS deal, a new Guardian Essential Poll has found that only one quarter of Australians support paying the $368bn price tag to acquire nuclear submarines. For decades Australians were gung ho about going to war – almost any war. Today – despite the best efforts of the Nine Continue reading »
-
Guaranteed protection of home and hearth for next to nothing?
There is a simple, relatively costless government move that should give about half a million Australians confidence in homeland security. Continue reading »
-
To all who care about humanity’s and the planet’s future
Humanity has reached a tipping point. It is time for governments, international institutions and people everywhere to take stock and act with renewed urgency. Continue reading »
-
The VVV — Vietnam Veterans’ Vigil, 3 August 2023
The 3 August Vietnam Veterans’ Vigil (VVV) is separate from the 18 August government-sponsored Commemorative Service on Vietnam Veterans’ Day. Continue reading »
-
Straddling 65,000 years: Vale, Dr Yunupingu AM
It has been my privilege to know Yunupingu, and for our lives to have criss-crossed and intertwined all these years. I think that now – finally – I have answered my own puzzlement about his life’s choices. Continue reading »
-
Vale Allan Gyngell
A dear friend, amazing mentor and an invaluable China Matters board director who was instrumental to ensuring independent voices on China issues were still alive in Australia. Continue reading »
-
Vale Allan Gyngell
Perhaps now – more than ever – is the time when Australia needs outstanding foreign policy thinkers. It has lost one of its best with the death of Allan Gyngell after a short illness. Continue reading »
-
Time to accept the truth about the legend of Anzac
The ‘Anzac Cloak’ smothering any matter of opinion that does not adorn the ‘Anzac Spirit’ has become pervasive. Too often, this appropriation of one facet of development of a uniquely ‘Australian’ character – rooted by the establishment of the Commonwealth of Australia – has at least one of two perverted purposes: political or commercial. Continue reading »
-
Vale Sir Les Patterson
The passing of my distinguished predecessor, Sir Leslie Colin Patterson deserves a tribute. Continue reading »
-
Bruce Haigh: a farewell
Bruce Haigh, who died on April 7, was a diplomat, an adventurer, an artist and writer, a humanist, a romantic and a man with a deep love of his country, who mourned its fading ideals and values. Continue reading »
-
John Kerin: Obituary from a staffer “The best policies are the best politics”
John Kerin’s contribution to the success of the Hawke-Keating government has been grievously understated and uncelebrated. Continue reading »
-
On the passing of Dr Yunupingu AM (1948 – 2023)
Not long after six am on Monday the third of April news began to flow south from Yolngu heartland. The most significant Aboriginal leader of our generation had passed. Continue reading »
-
Slowing “the roaring river of violence”
‘Avulsion’ refers to river science and how a number of little incidents can slow the river’s flow and, over time, cause the river to go in a different direction – a fallen tree, for example, that slows down the river’s flow, causing further deposits until the resistance to flow leads to change. If enough of Continue reading »
