Public Policy
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Furious and fit: refugee virtual walk encircles Australia in half the time
Canberra-based Piume Kaneshan, a 19-year-old Tamil from Sri Lanka, is the youngest of 39 refugees who walked and cycled thousands of kilometres across Australia last year. She explains what prompted her 640km trek from Melbourne to Canberra with 21 other women. Continue reading »
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Fight or flight response to Myanmar draft – Asian Media Report
In Asian media this week: Conscription law sparking Thailand exodus. Plus: Rich West building fences against the Rest; Pakistan poll-rigging whistleblower arrested; Economist says Hong Kong glory days over; Indonesian election ‘one of the darkest days’; High price paid for saving the tiger. Continue reading »
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The bucolic stupidity of nuclear energy – Weekly Roundup
The bucolic stupidity of nuclear energy, repairing the damage after the Coalition’s war on learning, why Dutton would be a lousy baby-sitter. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, reports and other media on current economic and political issues. Continue reading »
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Pearls and Irritations in the Pearl River Delta
Pearls and Irritations is widely read outside Australia. In particular, its content is now reviewed by certain media writing and presenting in Chinese in Hong Kong. Continue reading »
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Asia, Government, Media, Politics, Top 5
The coming of the fear
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear. ― George Orwell (Eric Blair) Continue reading »
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Genocide: The word that RNZ cannot bring itself to say
The very first principle of Radio New Zealand Charter, states unequivocally that the purpose of our national broadcaster is to be “…an independent public service broadcaster…” and “to serve the public interest.” Unfortunately, this principle appears to have been abandoned in its coverage of Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip that has Continue reading »
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A little support instead of billions on toxic cruelty
We must speak to people who require assistance and listen to their needs instead of speaking over them. In the case of Australia’s refugee policy, we wasted billions on toxic cruelty when we could have done much better by cooperating internationally and supporting people humanely. Continue reading »
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A tale of two poles
In a recent interview with Victorian Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, Melbourne ABC presenter, Raf Epstein, led off with a classic “gotcha” question: Continue reading »
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Jewish Council of Australia urges the Australian government to reject racism against Palestinian people fleeing persecution in Gaza
This week Sky News reported it had a list with the personal details of 500 Palestinian people who had obtained visas to flee overwhelming violence in Gaza, 81 of whom are in Australia. Continue reading »
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Antoinette v ABC: why did Lattouf lawyers move for ‘change of venue’?
Faced with what some saw as long odds at the Fair Work Commission (FWC) Antoinette Lattouf’s team moved her unfair dismissal case to the Federal Court on Friday. Andrew Gardiner asks why they felt the need to do so, and what that says about this country and its future: Continue reading »
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West Australia and the art of state capture
The idea of state capture is usually associated with the global south, but Australia, and Western Australia in particular, demonstrates that established democracies are far from immune. As the Australian Democracy Network explains, ‘a key element of state capture is the management of political parties both in government and opposition…a range of techniques are brought Continue reading »
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Denmark finds ‘Deliberate Sabotage’ of Nord Stream – but ends probe with no charges
The country is the second U.S. ally in the past month to end an investigation into the pipeline explosions. Continue reading »
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Australia’s First Nations still looking over the 1788 chasm
More than four months after a crushing defeat in the Voice referendum, and soon after the Closing the Gap report confirmed that there was almost no progress in improving Aboriginal lives last year, Aboriginal players in the yes case are moving towards an inquest into how their case went so terribly wrong. Continue reading »
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Is China repeating Australia’s mistake on Indigenous Affairs?
The South China Morning Post recently published an illuminating article on China’s policy towards ethnic minorities, with a particular focus on Inner Mongolia that has strived hardest to assimilate its Mongols with the rest of the Chinese population to promote a single national identity. But does China’s policy reflect the assimilation policies towards First Nations Continue reading »
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Medicare is bleeding to death. Will Labor ever do anything about it?
GP visits are down 37% since the government took office. But all we get is spin. Continue reading »
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Curing Australia’s dependent personality disorder
I arrived in Australia with my family at the time when Malcolm Fraser was the Prime Minister of Australia. He was preceded by Gough Whitlam and succeeded by Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. They were all intellectual, individualistic and humane leaders. I had never felt more secure and proud to be Australian. Continue reading »
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Environment: The wealthy cause climate change; the poor suffer its consequences
Richest 1% produce as many greenhouse gases as the poorest 66%. Climate denialists have a new lyric: ‘sure, it’s happening – so what?’ but Australians are concerned about climate change and want action. No, it’s not OK to shoot a hippo. Continue reading »
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In God we trust
The following words are from Canadian Dr. Yasser Khan (Eye-Facial Plastic Trauma Surgeon) who returned from a humanitarian surgical mission at the European Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. Continue reading »
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Misrepresenting the ICJ and muzzling our press – the Empire strikes back
On 26 January, the World spoke to Israel and its supporters – on the issue of Gaza. The World spoke through the International Court of Justice (ICJ). There can be no doubt about that. A number of provisional orders were made. Israel, and its primary accomplice, the United States – hereinafter “the Empire” – did Continue reading »
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Usual cruelties: Imbeciles who fear the borders
The imaginative faculties of standard Australian politicians retreat to some strange, deathly place on certain issues. In that wasteland, they are often unrecoverable. Like juveniles demanding instant reward, they find complexity hideous. Focus on the now, the punch, the bruising, the hurt. That, in sum, is Canberra’s policy towards refugees. Continue reading »
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A remarkable Hong Kong media story
In Hong Kong, a vibrant Chinese media-oasis is forming within the vast territory long staked-out by the exceptionally dominant Mainstream Western Media. Continue reading »
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Indigenous incarceration
More than a quarter of Canberra’s daily average prison population is Indigenous but only 2 per cent of people in the ACT identify as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person. Continue reading »
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Labor’s complete capitulation to elite private schools….again!
A few hours of testimony before the Education Committee of Senate Estimates exposed the canker at the heart of school funding in Australia. The canker is the double standard applied to the funding of public and private schools. The Assistant Minister for Education, Anthony Chisholm, announced that a tax rort worth hundreds of millions of Continue reading »
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Taylor Swift exposed as an agent of the Deep State – Weekly Roundup
Prospects for real tax reform – if only the Coalition would behave like grownups, early signs of real wage growth, no more visas for rich spivs, the case for nationalising the insurance industry, and Taylor Swift exposed as an agent of the Deep State. Read on for the weekly roundup of links to articles, podcasts, Continue reading »
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Assange’s draconian prosecution criminalises journalism and grants the US extraterritorial reach
In an extraordinary barely reported turn of events close to the conclusion of Julian Assange’s two day UK High Court Appeal against his extradition, a gaping hole appeared in plans to shunt him onto a plane to the US. Continue reading »
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Two boats and hysteria is unleashed
According to the evening news, Australia stands on the precipice of one of the greatest security threats to Australia since World War II, with the Imperial Japanese Army in the Owen Stanley’s overlooking the lights of Port Moresby. A few dozen impoverished, bedraggled refugees right up there with the Imperial Japanese Army as threat! It Continue reading »
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Dutton oversaw largest rise in asylum applications in history. They came by air
The arrival last week of a boat carrying 24 potential asylum seekers, and possibly another one carrying 13, sent Peter Dutton into his standard boat arrivals scare mode. The usual suspects at the Murdoch press went into a frenzy of panic with Chris Kenny calling it a ‘national dilemma’. Continue reading »
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It’s the OCCUPATION, stupid: What have Australian journalists got against Palestinians?
In 2007 I visited Palestine with my late husband Hal Wootten AC, QC, the founding Dean of the Law School at the University of New South Wales and well-known for his pursuit of justice. Hal was determined to understand the conflict from both Palestinian and Israeli perspectives, and he collected a substantial library on middle-east Continue reading »
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Julian Assange and the ugly reality of war crimes
Free Palestine. Free Assange. Free the world. Continue reading »
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Government’s response to Long Covid inquiry an exercise in sophistry
Preparing government responses to reports from Parliamentary inquiries often involves finding a plausible excuse to reject a perfectly sensible suggestion. The Department of Health and Aged Care failed this task in its response to the House of Representatives Long COVID inquiry. Continue reading »