Politics
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Leadership from Paul Keating on recognition of Aboriginal dispossession -1992
“Nowhere in the world, I would venture, is the message more stark than it is in Australia. We simply cannot sweep injustice aside. … the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians. It begins, I think, with that act of recognition. … Down the years, there has been Continue reading »
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AUKUS consensus is collapsing under weight of Labor blunders
When Anthony Albanese addressed his federal electoral council on July 6 he rebutted criticism of AUKUS by saying Labor governments always have to prove themselves on national security. Continue reading »
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Pezzullo story points to serious systemic problems in the APS
The revelations in the Nine newspapers that Mike Pezzullo, secretary of the powerful Home Affairs department, shared with Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs are certainly extraordinary. But, just like the revelations about Robodebt from the royal commission, they must not be treated as an isolated case but as evidence of serious systemic problems in the Continue reading »
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Assassination allegations: The caution of Canada’s allies is well grounded
Seemingly out of nowhere, Canada and India are embroiled in an escalating diplomatic crisis after PM Justin Trudeau implicated India in the June 18 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent British Columbia (BC) Sikh leader. India has strongly rejected the ‘unsubstantiated’ charge as ‘absurd’. Continue reading »
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Let’s avoid more Covid disasters. The public already knows who to blame
During Australia’s Covid-19 pandemic response, some companies received billions in contracts made without tender, sometimes by ministerial intervention. It would be too much, of course, to hope that anything the inquiry into the pandemic response does to address this issue will be taken up with any enthusiasm by the Albanese government. It seems to have Continue reading »
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Federal Court weighs antisemitism and free speech in Australian schools
The recently concluded Federal Court case brought against Brighton Secondary College in Victoria, resulting in a distressing confirmation of antisemitism during 2013-2020 is a case study in institutional bias against members of a minority group. Continue reading »
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Why Rupert Murdoch came to New York
With the announcement that Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from the board of FoxNews and Newscorp, I thought was it an apt moment to reprint one of the most detailed portraits ever written of the press mogul: Alexander Cockburn’s 1976 profile and interview with Murdoch published in the Village Voice in 1976, shortly after Murdoch had acquired Continue reading »
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On Nord Stream anniversary, Ukraine war at a turning point
Tuesday 26 September is the anniversary of the Biden administration’s destruction of three of the four pipelines of Nord Stream 1 and 2. There is more I have to say about it, but it will have to wait. Why? Because the war between Russia and Ukraine, with the White House continuing to reject any talk Continue reading »
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America can’t stop China’s rise
There’s little doubt that the American government has decided to slow China’s economic rise, most notably in the fields of technological development. To be sure, the Biden administration denies that these are its goals. Janet Yellen said on April 20, 2023, “China’s economic growth need not be incompatible with U.S. economic leadership. The United States remains the Continue reading »
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Health impacts of sanctions deleted from UN declaration on universal health coverage (with Australian support)
In the lead up to the high-level UN meeting on universal health coverage (UHC) Australia has joined the US, UK and the EU in blocking any acknowledgement that ‘unilateral coercive measures’ (sanctions) can have negative impacts on the achievement of universal health coverage. Continue reading »
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On carrots and sticks and the unemployed
Australia’s main Active Labor Market Program, the Duttonesque sounding “Workforce Australia”, is the latest iteration of a long line of models for Employment Services inflicted on the unemployed since the demise of the CES 25 years ago. It’s yet another Morrison government turd that the Albanese government should have flushed away the minute the ink Continue reading »
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Earth Systems Treaty: John Hewson calls for action on ‘mega threats’
Former Liberal party leader John Hewson, in a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, enquired why the United Nations was not acting on proposals to deal with a series of well documented and interacting catastrophic threats. Continue reading »
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Catholic boarding school experiences: the need for a balanced perspective
Avid readers each day of Pearls and Irritations (of which I am one) hopefully enjoyed Paddy Gourley’s review of Martin Flanagan’s new memoir ‘The Empty Honour Board: A School Memoir’. Stimulated by that review I have now read Flanagan’s remarkably honest and painful memoir. His story is consistent with repeated accounts of sexual abuse and Continue reading »
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Okinawa disproves the US narrative about overseas bases
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki has implored the UN for international backing in his opposition to the prefecture being overrun with US military bases. Continue reading »
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Environment: Rich countries must do more to advance Africa’s economic and climate transition
African leaders and communities call for action to tackle the social and economic damage done by climate change. Warmer oceans lead to warmer conditions over land. UNESCO still looking for more government action to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Continue reading »
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Strategic ambiguity: a weapon of mass destruction
Strategic ambiguity is the greatest oral weapon of mass destruction that the Western world has ever invented. Continue reading »
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In the chorus of Yes, why aren’t the bishops joining in?
The official position of the church on the Voice referendum is curious, because, despite overwhelming support for a YES vote from an extraordinary range of Catholic agencies, religious orders and congregations, and voluntary Catholic organisations, the highest national church authority, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, has not followed suit. This is surprising because the whole Continue reading »
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Want to solve Australia’s housing crisis? Look to Vienna
What do you think of when you think of Vienna? Probably not a model for affordable housing in Australia. Continue reading »
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Murdoch stepping down – Don’t believe it!
Rupert Murdoch is addicted to media and politics. He will be continually looking over Lachlan’s shoulder. Continue reading »
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An ugly smudge on an exceptional bike race: When bosses attacked a worker in the Vuelta a España
“It will be the workers, with their courage, resolution, and self-sacrifice, who will be chiefly responsible for achieving victory. The petty bourgeoisie will hesitate as long as possible and remain fearful, irresolute and inactive; but when victory is certain it will claim it for itself and will call upon the workers to behave in an Continue reading »
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On sidelines of UN General Assembly, Sri Lankan president calls Aukus ‘a mistake’ and rejects fears over China
President Ranil Wickremesinghe also derided the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ as an artificial framework with an inconsistent definition. He also countered recent claims by New Delhi that Beijing was sending ships to Sri Lanka to spy on India. Continue reading »
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The mass-media memory hole: Ukraine, Libya and war crimes
A key function of state-corporate media is to keep the public pacified, ignorant and ill-equipped to disrupt establishment power. Continue reading »
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Freedom of the press barons?
The ‘disinformation’ (read: lies and bullshit) being propagated about the indigenous Voice to Parliament by the Murdoch media, among others, harms our society. It promotes division, celebrates and cultivates ignorance and bigotry, oppresses a minority and diminishes us all. Why do we tolerate such behaviour? Continue reading »
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Trudeau ruins India’s global triumph – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Canada, India tensions have sorry history. Plus: BRI shows most countries shun ‘decoupling’; Myanmar rebels ‘will never give up’; China to dominate green car market; Putin and Kim lead ‘axis of outcasts’; China decline the fashionable chatter in Washington. Continue reading »
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‘Little Crappy Ship’: report excoriates ship building program behind USS Canberra
A new US investigative report has excoriated the controversial Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program which included the USS Canberra – commissioned in very unusual circumstances with great fanfare by the US Navy recently in Sydney. Should its revelations about the manifest failures in the USN’s procurement performance – with former officers describing the LCS class Continue reading »
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The Great Australian Silence
Voice proponents flood the streets of major cities as Australian media battles its ‘cult of forgetfulness.’ Continue reading »
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Has Australian Catholic University just lost the right to call itself “Catholic”?
Where’s Cardinal George Pell when you need him? Gone to God, I know, but as one of the founders and a former Chancellor of Australian Catholic University (ACU), he would be horrified at what is currently happening there. Why? Continue reading »
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Environment Minister resorts to ‘drug dealer’s defence’ for coal mine approvals
The Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ) has been in the Federal Court this week arguing that the Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek has acted irrationally and unlawfully in her risk assessment of the expansion of 2 very large coal mines in NSW. The proponents of these mines, the Mount Pleasant Optimisation coal mine expansion and Continue reading »
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Humanitarian imperialism created the Libyan nightmare
NATO’s military intervention in Libya in 2011, which overthrew the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, resulted in a chaotic and murderous failed state. Libyans pay a horrific price for this catastrophe. Continue reading »
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NATO admits that Ukraine war is a war of NATO expansion
During the disastrous Vietnam War, it was said that the US government treated the public like a mushroom farm: keeping it in the dark and feeding it with manure. The heroic Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting the unrelenting US government lying about the war in order to protect politicians who would be embarrassed Continue reading »
