Government
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The States can establish the Voice now: Why wait?
There is a widespread misconception that the powers given the Federal Parliament by the Australian Constitution may be altered only by referendum. Continue reading »
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Time to right wrongs with much-needed media reform
Since I was elected, I have consistently called for media reform. Continue reading »
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AUKUS Coming to dinner
With billions of dollars on the banquet table, Australia should choose its dinner guests wisely. Continue reading »
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Australia preparing for war- can it stop the rot?
As the new Australian Labor government took power following the 2022 election, its China policy barely changed and the “China threat” narrative continued unabated. I did not vote for the Labor party to see Australia’s government channelling the ousted Morrison Government! Continue reading »
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The corporate-government power nexus
Mass surveillance and manipulation should not be allowed to become the new normal. Continue reading »
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Propaganda, the drive to war, and the battle for the mind
A battle of ideas is being fought in Australia. And the front line is the drive to war and the demonisation of China. There is a battle but it is a one-sided affair. Continue reading »
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War or peace? Immanuel Kant turns in his grave
In 1795, in his Treatise on Perpetual Peace, philosopher Immanuel Kant advocated rationality about peace by repudiating any plans for military domination, by respect for non-violence and by aiming to abolish standing armies. Continue reading »
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Our greatest blunders
Ten years ago Anthony King and Ivor Crewe published their book – The Blunders of Our Governments. Continue reading »
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PwC, existentialism and the nation state
Now is the time for the Nation State to reassert its control over multinational entities. Continue reading »
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Can the Pacific Engagement Visa deliver positive outcomes?
Earlier this year, I wrote on the potential risks of the new Pacific Engagement Visa (PEV) that will provide a lottery-based pathway to permanent residence for nationals of Pacific Islands and Timor Leste. Continue reading »
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An inquiry of self-limited curiosity
Senator Linda Reynolds is suggesting that she might seek to take her complaints of ill-treatment during the controversy of the Bruce Lehrman rape allegation to the new National Anti-Corruption Commission. That would include, we gather, allegations that Senator Katy Gallagher was briefed by the alleged victim and her boyfriend before the allegations had been made Continue reading »
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Shattered Idol, synchronised drowning
The judgement on Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation case delivered a heavily damning summary of conduct. That would have come as little surprise to many; rumour abounded for a decade or more. Continue reading »
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Terrorists, Saudi Arabia, and the CIA
Documents publicly available make it clear that Saudi Arabian government officials assisted the two 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf Al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Midhar, who crashed an airliner into the Pentagon. Newly released testimonies further reveal that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was aware of the activities of the two hijackers before the 9/11 attacks and suggest that Continue reading »
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In Australia, reality bites back
Australia is fast approaching a reckoning with its past, its present and the state of the nation’s soul. And if the last month is any indication to go by, we will be found wanting. Continue reading »
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All’s not quiet on the home front
Labor’s ability to seamlessly follow in the Coalition’s strategic footsteps is showing welcome signs of weakening as opponents of AUKUS and the submarine deal find their voice. Continue reading »
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Audit Office slams Morrison government mismanagement of health grants
The latest Audit Office report documenting mismanagement by the Morrison government of a grants program – in this case the Community Health and Hospitals Program – has generated outrage. At a time when the health system is under great pressure, over a billion dollars in grants were allocated on the basis of a dodgy process. Continue reading »
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Brand Loyalty
I am in complete sympathy with Jennifer Bush Pearls and Irritations 5, June 2023 in resigning from the Labor Party because of Prime Minister Albanese’s congratulations to Israel despite its government’s disgraceful treatment of Palestinian people. Continue reading »
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Australia’s real test
A few days after coming to power in 1972 Gough Whitlam declared that ‘Australia’s real test as far as the rest of the world is concerned is the role we create for our own Aborigines’. More than foreign aid programmes, more than any role the country plays in agreements or alliances, treatment of the Aborigines Continue reading »
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The cowardly conduct of the media, government and AFP
When former NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane was vilified, his home raided and false claims made by a journalist who wanted to promote himself, no apology was given, no restoration made. Instead, the victim became the guilty party, punished for something he did not do. Sounds familiar? Continue reading »
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Australian peacekeeping: our best kept secret?
Why are Australian political leaders so insecure about our capacity to be independent and create a peacebuilding role for our nation when so many Australian military and police personnel have already demonstrated their capacity for strong leadership as peacekeepers? Continue reading »
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The real world shatters the myth of personal choice
When a government proposes a policy to improve our diet, it can trigger a gag reflex. Some people feel that deciding what to eat is purely a personal choice, and the ‘nanny state’ should stay out of the way. No-one wants to be lectured, shamed, or forced to eat their greens. Perhaps it goes all Continue reading »
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Big business cries poor on wages even as profits mount
Don’t believe anyone – not even a governor of the Reserve Bank – trying to tell you the Fair Work Commission’s decision to increase minimum award wages by 5.75 per cent is anything other than good news for the lowest-paid quarter of wage earners. Continue reading »
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American security establishment continues the persecution of Assange
News that the FBI continues its investigation into the case around Assange appears to have taken both supporters and the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus by surprise. Continue reading »
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Shirtfronting Australia
Australians are more used to pointing the accusing finger at other countries than having it pointed at us. Continue reading »
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The Shangri-La dialogue and aUStralian strategic thinking
Interpretations are being offered about prime minister Albanese’s speech to the so-called Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore. This sounds like an Asian event but is hosted each year by the International Institute for Strategic Studies of London, an august and AUKUSian institution of such eminence that I was once invited to join. I declined. Life Continue reading »
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Catholics should go where the government isn’t
I do hope that the Catholic Church remains closely involved in providing health care to Canberra citizens, particularly the poorer ones, after the takeover by the government of Calvary public hospital. Indeed I suspect it could be making for itself, and Canberra citizens, greater treasure in heaven if it got entirely out of the provision Continue reading »
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Managerialist and consultancy deceits: PWC and others
Sudden political excitement about the unethical, almost certainly illegal conduct of a large, too big to disappear, accountancy company, deflects attention from the primary site of a cancerous managerialist disease. That site was infected with the idea that individuals labelled managers, usually but not always accountants, could be trusted to decide how government departments, universities, hospitals Continue reading »
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Here’s why I can no longer be a Labor Party member
I am the child of holocaust survivors. I cannot remain a member of a party which turns a blind eye to the ongoing persecution of millions of people who have a right to live in peace and freedom in the land of their ancestors. Continue reading »
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Slowly changing the trajectory?
At the post-budget Press Club lunch, Treasurer Chalmers made a telling comment about the meaning of social security and, by extension, the role of government. Continue reading »
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Consultants like PwC are loyal to profit, not the public. Governments should cut back on using them
The PwC scandal reveals appalling behaviour by an individual consultant and his company that provided consulting services to the federal government. Continue reading »
