Politics
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Following up on Otto and Eric Abetz
A Google search for the German-born Abetz’ condemnation of the Nazis produced very little, except that, according to Wikipedia, his great uncle, Otto Abetz, was a convicted war criminal, a Nazi SS officer and the German ambassador to Vichy France. Continue reading »
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Sunday environmental round up, 25 October 2020
The absorption of solar energy by the earth is getting faster and faster. This is having dramatic effects on the dynamics, chemistry and life of the oceans, and bringing ‘Hothouse Earth’ closer. Over half of residents of the USA are now concerned about climate change. Farmers in the Riverina create Bittern-friendly rice fields. Continue reading »
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Homily to Susan Ryan
As we gather here in the Lady Chapel at Newman College, people are gathered in socially distant numbers at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney for the state funeral of Susan Maree Ryan. Continue reading »
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Shaoquett Moselmane MLC returns to Parliament despite the media. (AMUST Oct 23, 2020)
Mr Shaoquett Moselmane MLC returned to the NSW Parliament on Thursday 22 October 2020 following months of controversy after the Parliamentary Privileges Committee exonerated him and cleared the way for his dignified return to the House. Continue reading »
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Conflicted cuts at the Audit Office (Inside Story Oct 20, 2020)
The federal agency that revealed the sports rorts scandal has had its funding cut — again. Continue reading »
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End our national crisis: the case against Donald Trump (NYTimes Oct 19, 2020)
Donald Trump’s re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. Continue reading »
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When does incompetence become a crime? (Counter Punch Oct 20, 2020)
Instead of relying on experienced public health experts with a successful record in finding, containing and isolating people infected with HIV and TB, the government handed the project over to the private sector, pouring great sums of money into the creation of a new but, in Sage’s judgement, dysfunctional system. Continue reading »
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy Continue reading »
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Dan Oakes, Witness K and Bernard Collaery
Dear Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, please demonstrate that the decisions whether or not to prosecute, and the decisions to continue the prosecutions of Collaery and K, are not influenced by possible political advantage, disadvantage or embarrassment to the Government. Please apply the Prosecution Policy to the facts in front of you, uninfluenced by what Continue reading »
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Tamed estate: ‘no holes in Gladys’ story’ … give or take 152 moments of amnesia
The Premier then went on 2GB to discuss with shock jock Kyle Sandilands her relationship. Not a sentence I thought I would ever write. This one doesn’t really require further elaboration. Continue reading »
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“When a scholar meets a soldier …”: Why I’ve decided not to speak to the senate inquiry on diaspora communities in Australia (ABC Oct 21, 2020)
What purpose does Senator Abetz’s questioning of Chinese Australians serve, other than to make them feel that they will never belong, no matter how long they have lived here or how hard they have tried? Continue reading »
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The Un-Australian Activities Committee and Eric Abetz. Media in the Asian Century
Is Senator Eric Abetz working for the Chinese Communist Party’s United Work Front Department?…Not one Australian newspaper has editorialised about his conduct. Continue reading »
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COVID 19 and Victoria: responsibility in Australian politics – Part 2
The COVID epidemic has laid bare many of the stresses that have been building up in Australian society, polity and economy over the past four decades. Continue reading »
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Protests against Indonesian economic reform: stability and a minimum wage have gone
Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants to snare foreign investors. They’re a wary lot. Though excited by big markets and the chance of bigger returns, they’re fearful of losing fortunes, and with good reason: Risk. Continue reading »
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Darylgate: a Federal matter as well
A week is a short time in politics. In less than that time, an affair emerged that had lasted five years if you believe Gladys, or seven if you believe Daryl. Continue reading »
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Home Affairs is too heavy handed to handle immigration
The 2020 Budget highlighted the dependence of Australia’s economic growth on a continually rising population. The Covid-19 border restrictions have caused negative net migration for the first time in more than a century. In a double whammy, the pandemic-induced anxieties have caused a drop in annual births per woman from 1.69 to 1.58. Continue reading »
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Who runs Crown? Packer’s enablers
The latest revelation is that Crown is being formally investigated by AUSTRAC for breaches of money laundering regulations. But these are the tip of what is becoming a fairly substantial iceberg. Continue reading »
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Exorbitant cost of the Coalition’s renewed interest in manufacturing
Before the budget Scott Morrison announced through Michelle Grattan a $1.5 billion plan to boost manufacturing in six priority areas – resources technology and critical minerals processing, food and beverage, medical products, recycling and clean energy, defence and space. Not surprisingly there was no critical examination by the mainstream media. Continue reading »
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China is not the urgent threat; climate change is
Spending priorities by the federal government are increasingly questionable, if not indefensible; they raise fundamental questions about the competence and intelligence of our policymaking elites. Continue reading »
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Joseph McCarthy smiled in his grave
McCarthyism was re-incarnated when Senator Eric Abetz asked three young Chinese Australians to “unequivocally condemn” the Chinese Communist Party. Congratulations to Chiu, Jiang and Chau for having the courage to defend themselves when bullied. Continue reading »
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Forgotten East Timor: Island, principles, people
Did Gough Whitlam greenlight Indonesia’s violent seizure of East Timor in 1975? The invasion and 24-year occupation took the lives of up to 300,000 people in a population of 650,000 living on a wretchedly poor leftover from European colonisation. Continue reading »
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The renaissance of nuclear energy is a myth
Nuclear energy is often abused to secure power political and geopolitical strength. Renewable energy, on the other hand, strengthens democracy, participation and prosperity. Continue reading »
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Will our Glad have a chair when the music stops?
Spare a thought for the personal tragedy of Gladys Berejiklian, a genuinely hard-working and on the face of it a decent premier of NSW. Brought low because she formed a long-term personal relationship with a spiv, one whose general dishonesty and abuse of power seems to have extended to trading on her credit. Continue reading »
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Abetz fearlessly proclaims he is not a Fascist by birth
Likely, none of the three distinguished Australians of Chinese ethnicity appearing a Senate committee hearing expected to be comprehensively done over by two ideologues from the Australian right – Senators Eric Abetz and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. Continue reading »
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COVID 19 and the transformation of Victoria – Part 1
As Melbournians waited with bated and unbated breath for the announcement last Sunday about relief from the Stage Four lockdown, the pressure that has been increasing dramatically for the past month has eased. Will a new normal be reached? Continue reading »
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Reform of the waterfront, with its dogs and security guards, was minor compared to what’s needed for health sector
Medicare funds the established system of health care delivery, a system that has not seen major changes since Medicare was established 56 years ago. It needs serious reform and particularly in the way the health workforce is structured. The pandemic has revealed serious weaknesses. Continue reading »
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Necessary but insufficient: Anti-corruption commissions won’t stop corruption
Unfortunately, it’s patently obvious that we need anti-corruption commissions to expose corruption in Australian politics. But history shows such commissions to be necessary to expose corruption but insufficient to prevent it. Continue reading »
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A once in a century opportunity missed- A Liveable Income Guarantee
Ignoring for now the failure to promise an increase in Newstart, the general chorus emanating from commentators on the budget has been critical of the omission of serious money for social housing, for an increased childcare subsidy, and for increased rental assistance – all of which would have provided instant and widespread stimulatory bang for Continue reading »
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Gladys’ arrogance paves the way for Federal ICAC
The most remarkable thing about the revelation of Gladys Berejiklian’s love life was that it was remarkable at all. Continue reading »
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The ACT Election – a loss for Liberals but not really a win for Labor
The ACT election on Saturday was the 15th consecutive Australian election in which the Liberal Party has lost ground. Why has it swung so far to the right, away from its own principles? Continue reading »