Politics
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Crossing the William Barak Bridge
The woman with the Yes pamphlets outside the MCG on Saturday was unwavering. Continue reading »
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Side stepping the politics of cruelty
Anyone who has spent time in a National Labor Conference will understand the way ideas, propositions, policies and platforms swirl and merge and disappear, only to reappear in a whole other form just hours later, often without anyone quite tracking the process. The most recent Conference held in Brisbane was a study in this form Continue reading »
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Our media won’t tell us but Huawei’s Mate60 is set to challenge iPhone
The moon waxes and wanes, the tide ebbs and flows, empires come and go but some empires come more than once. This is, once again, China’s time. While there have been moves to prevent this from occurring, one recent event proves they are unsuccessful. Continue reading »
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Ukraine: Western military commentators finally accept the obvious
While not all politicians are yet there, the military and intelligence specialists, who are part of the western propaganda squads, have made their conclusions. From their mouth the truth is dripping to the media. While the headlines below may not express it, the content of those pieces, especially in the first four, is finally admitting Continue reading »
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Wilful ignorance drives civilisation collapse
In May 1971, I published a full-page letter in The Australian addressed ‘To Those Who Shape Australia’s Destiny’. It was signed by 730 Australian scientists including Sir Mark Oliphant and Sir Macfarlane Burnett. Continue reading »
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A funny thing happened on the way to Beijing: Reflections on spy recruitment practices
An innocent invitation to a conference could turn into a nightmare. Next month I shall be on my way to an Australian Studies conference in Beijing, but already I am nervous about my travel plans because of recent stories about the attitude of Australian spy agencies to information exchanges with China. Friends, if I fail Continue reading »
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Albanese: The overseas Prime Minister
Prior to his most recent overseas trip to Jakarta, Manila, and New Delhi, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been abroad a dozen times. Not bad for a government that’s been in office for just on eighteen months. The next few months will see him flying off again for half a dozen more summits, head to head meetings Continue reading »
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Business should serve, not enslave
It is time for government to get the suits back under control and manage the economy for the benefit of us all. Continue reading »
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“Our last, best chance”: How our schools must change to help the most disadvantaged
Without reform, Australia’s schooling system threatens to create a lost generation of young people. Continue reading »
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Biden in Hanoi: The ‘Domino theory’ rises again
By chance, US president Biden’s goodwill visit to Vietnam’s communist government in Hanoi came just 50 years after the notorious 1972 Christmas bombings. Continue reading »
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The G20 returns to earth
The American diplomatic starship, USS Exceptionalism, fell to earth at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi. Continue reading »
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Going to the mountain for Assange
Later this month I’ll travel to Washington, as part of a Parliamentary delegation, to advocate on behalf of Julian Assange. The Parliamentary delegation includes representatives from across the political colour spectrum – Forest Green (senior Nationals member Barnaby Joyce), Green (Senators Peter Whish-Wilson and David Shoebridge), Red (Labor backbencher Tony Zappia), Navy Blue (Liberal member Continue reading »
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Here’s what the U.S. is doing to prepare for war in Asia
Preparations for the United States to launch a war against China are far more advanced than many people realise. And when you look at just how much work has been done, it no longer looks like a matter of “if”, but more of a question of “when”. Continue reading »
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US decides to supply depleted uranium shells to Ukraine
At the G20 summit in Bali last year, most of the world’s most influential leaders had strongly deplored ‘the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine’. By contrast, the joint declaration from the just concluded summit in New Delhi does not mention Russia by name. Instead, it talks about ‘the human suffering and negative added impacts of Continue reading »
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Where are the better angels of our soul?
The Age/SMH Resolve Strategic poll on the Voice referendum was a dramatic reminder that progressives should always be ready for a profound kick in the guts. Continue reading »
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Earth System Treaty: Towards a positive human future
It is easy to be pessimistic about prospects for our children, in the face of the climatic events that are now confronting humans everywhere. But there is also some very good news around the idea of developing a Global “Earth System Treaty” (EST) that could radically alter the trajectory we humans are currently on. Continue reading »
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A commuter’s rebuttal to the shuttle, or why the Bankstown metro is a mistake
There is little to celebrate in the Minns’ government commitment to the conversion of the Bankstown line to a metro – basically a train to nowhere but high-rise hell. Opposition to it from locals and community groups was dismissed by the greedy and the aspirational as NIMBYism, but our reasons lie in its genesis, and Continue reading »
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Fukushima’s nuclear waste: Stigmatising Russia, approving Japan
Twenty years ago, Japan demanded Russia halt disposal of nuclear waste in the Sea of Japan. What changed? Is it the case that there is felonious nuclear waste – and respectable nuclear waste? Japan seems to believe that this is so and the Mainstream Media understands why this narrative may deserve its support. Continue reading »
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The paranoia of China going global
Empires are anxious creatures, run by those predatory types with egos vast and awareness minimal. The awareness only gets pricked when risks are posed to the financial returns, military security, what might be called, at a stretch, their way of living. Such risks can come in many forms, and for the US imperium, it’s less Continue reading »
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G-7 and BRICS visions of the future: Coercive unipolarity or cooperative multipolarity
When the Cold War ended in 1991, the West, and particularly the United States, found itself at a fork in the road. One road led to peace, justice, cooperation, nuclear disarmament, a revitalised UN, inclusiveness, pluralism, human rights, multilateralism, fair trade, regulated markets, food security, energy transition, sustainability, and humane governance. The other road led Continue reading »
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Okinawa is becoming a garrison state for war with China
I have come now to the bitter realisation that from no matter what angle you consider it, the Henoko New Base plan has become a ‘solid block of injustice.’” – Urashima Etsuko Continue reading »
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Dutton has made himself the Voice target
It may be too late for supporters of the Yes cause at the referendum to retrieve their initially majority support among the population. Continue reading »
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Will number of temporary entrants in Australia continue to rise?
At end July 2023, there was an all-time record 2.554 million temporary entrants in Australia. The crucial policy question is whether that will be a peak or whether the number of temporary entrants in Australia will keep rising? If the latter, what will that mean for the number of temporary entrants in ‘immigration limbo’ – Continue reading »
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Insulating foreign policy from domestic politics: The legacy of Marise Payne
Marise Payne’s tenure as Australia’s Foreign Minister was rightly marked with criticism. Australia’s international and strategic interests went backwards during her time. But was she really Australia’s worst Foreign Minister as some commentators assert? It’s important to consider the root cause of the damage done to Australia’s national interests: the belligerent interference and harm done Continue reading »
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Government’s abject failure to understand the gas industry’s huge health impacts
Current articles on the government’s climate policies increasingly use words such as reckless, hypocrisy and betrayal referring to approval of coal mines. But it is even more difficult to find words to describe the gas industry’s infliction of pain on humanity by the approval of gas mines. Continue reading »
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Australia Post loss another death-knell for essential services
Australia Post’s $200.3 million loss for 2022-23 is only the second in its corporate history. It also confirms that, with Christine Holgate gone, Australia Post is once again being set up to fail to justify removing its community service obligation and possible privatisation. Continue reading »
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It’s time Canberra took back strategic autonomy
That Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese chose to confirm his visit to China almost two months in advance after his “frank and constructive” meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Jakarta last week shows his earnestness to further improve Sino-Australian relations. Continue reading »
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Biden: Chinese among “bad folks” who do “bad things”
At a political fundraiser in Utah on 10 August, U.S. President Joe Biden described China’s economy as a “ticking time bomb”, adding that “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. It’s not only an unusually undiplomatic comment, but an unfair one that borders on the ridiculous. Continue reading »
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Nuclear subs challenge trains 10 year old children for war
It’s time for education ministers across the country to show leadership and protect our children from vested interests and pro-war propaganda. Continue reading »
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America’s “unique” relationship with Australia? Few countries are as gullible
Last week the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet released a brief press release about Mr. Albanese’s forthcoming trip to Washington from the 23rd to the 26th of October which will be his first such visit since becoming Prime Minister. The enthusiasm of the members of Albanese’s staff seems to have run away with them. Continue reading »
