Top 5
Used for weekly email
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NACC boss ‘misled Dreyfus’ over Robodebt
Commissioner Paul Brereton said one thing to his top NACC colleagues and another to the Attorney-General. Continue reading »
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Israeli hostages, Palestinian prisoners: the worthy and unworthy
Israeli citizens’ demand to bring home an estimated 100 Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas is assumed to depend on a Gaza ceasefire which would include a Palestinian prisoner release. Continue reading »
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Tucker Carlson and Jeffrey Sachs confirm mainstream Western media mostly a shabby cabaret
A recent, comprehensive social-media interview has provided an acute reminder of how hard it now is to imagine certain flagship, Western current affairs programs drowning their cherished war-drums in a lead weighted bag and applying themselves to investigating pivotal geopolitical challenges with intelligent thoroughness (as Four Corners can still manage (see:Inside Iran: The proxy war Continue reading »
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Professor Wang Gungwu: important recent China reflections
Prof Wang Gungwu, who is now 94, is an historian without equal. When someone alerted me that he would be giving an online lecture at HELP University in Kuala Lumpur on 10 August, I lost no time in signing up for a seat at the university’s Damansara auditorium. Continue reading »
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The Gaza conflict: Nothing comes out of the blue
The outcome of the latest conflagration pitting Israel against the indigenous population it has sought to displace, but failed to subdue since long before 1948, remains impossible to predict. Continue reading »
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Record numbers of temporary graduates in immigration limbo
Temporary graduate visas are for overseas students who complete their study and wish to undertake work in Australia, often as a pathway to permanent residence. These visas work best when the bulk of temporary graduates seeking permanent residence are able to secure skilled work and eventually a permanent residence employer sponsored (or other) permanent visa. Continue reading »
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Will Australia be off to war in the Middle East again?
There is a disturbing void in Australian political debate about the prospects of another regional war in the Middle East. Continue reading »
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Confronting censorship: on media bias and the war in Ukraine
Editing a book about the media and the war in Ukraine taught me first-hand lessons about censorship. It also confirmed that the Western media’s pro-elite bias is as strong as ever. At an academic conference in Europe in the summer of 2023, I witnessed how several audience members shouted at one of the speakers. That’s Continue reading »
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The Albanese Government has consistently ignored advice about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza
Since the onset of the Gaza War, many Australians have urged the Albanese Government to speak up in condemning the Netanyahu regime’s constant breaches of international law and to act urgently to protect innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. Continue reading »
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End the private hospital blame game by exposing the cost of care
The federal Department of Health will soon finish a “health check” of private hospital finances. Warnings of an emerging crisis sparked the review, with private hospital closures, claims that more hospitals are on the brink of collapse, and high-profile disputes between private hospital companies and health insurers. Continue reading »
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Nuclear-capable B-52H Stratofortress bombers: a visual guide to identification
The primary aim of this Nautilus Special Report is to provide robust, authoritative and transparent information for use by governments and their publics in countries that host the B-52H Stratofortress bomber, as to which of the 76 B-52H aircraft in the current (as of mid- 2024) US Air Force active fleet are capable of delivering Continue reading »
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‘They will tell me.’ Malcolm Fraser’s Cold War nuclear heterodoxy and Labor’s willed ignorance today
The United States Government doctrine of neither confirming nor denying the presence or absence of nuclear weapons on board US aircraft has been virtually unchanged in almost 70 years, with a very small number of exceptions. Continue reading »
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Retirement villages: are they really a safe haven for retirees?
The looming question for me and my partner is “where might we live as we grow older and frailer?” For us, the ideal place is likely to be a retirement village. But at what cost? Continue reading »
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Inquiry into anti-semitism a Trojan Horse for the Israel lobby
In June this year, Liberal MP Julian Leeser introduced a bill in Federal Parliament for a Commission of Inquiry into Anti-semitism at Australian Universities (2024). Continue reading »
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Evil fruit of seeds sown long ago – what makes Gaza genocide different?
These massacres bring us closer to the central questions that the inquiring mind might ask about the Gaza genocide. Continue reading »
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NT election result may point to the end for Labor
Labor has got its comeuppance in the Northern Territory, losing power in a double-digit swing to the Country Liberals. With a first-ever seat for the Greens, it sets a pattern that could carry through all the way to Canberra and the Federal Election due by September next year. Continue reading »
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Ukraine, Russia and the West
It would be fairly uncontroversial to describe Ukraine’s recent military advance into Russia’s Kursk region as a deliberate provocation. Kyiv’s claim that it was intended chiefly to prod Moscow towards a negotiated peace, if true, appears to ignore Vladimir Putin’s tendency to stick to his guns in the face of embarrassments. Continue reading »
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How China moved from a command to a free market economy and is now restoring socialism
This short history of China over the last three decades is mainly based on the first of a three part series in the SCMP. It describes how the adoption of neo-liberalism by President Deng made China rich but also created social problems that President Xi is trying to fix. Continue reading »
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Labor on the AUKUS battleground
One of Lyndon Johnson’s sage pieces of political advice was that one should never get into a piss fight with a skunk. Kamala Harris should take note. But so should Anthony Albanese, who is inadequately equipped for an argument over AUKUS and the submarine deal with his predecessor Paul Keating. Continue reading »
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Replacing Dutton’s bottom of the barrel ideas about leadership
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton seems bereft of the qualities required in a leader, so it’s worth pondering how he and those who support him could show leadership. Continue reading »
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Dutton’s psychological projection
I write as a child of Holocaust survivors because I am disturbed by the demagoguery engaged by the leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, labelling hapless Palestinian refugees as potential terrorists. Continue reading »
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Militant, independent unions can tame the concrete jungle of the building industry
Only a fool would think that removing the union from the equation will rid the building industry of criminality. Continue reading »
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Accusations of US regime-change operations in Pakistan and Bangladesh warrant UN attention
The very strong evidence of the U.S. role in toppling the government of Imran Khan in Pakistan raises the likelihood that something similar may have occurred in Bangladesh. Continue reading »
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The military Americanisation of Northern Australia
The headline in the Weekend Australian said it all: NT Bases Key to American War Plans. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, the Chair of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Australian, after a ten day visit to Australia that our geography offered key advantages to the US “as it sought to deter Chinese Continue reading »
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Albanese’s impotence gives Dutton undue credit
One of the first things Tony Abbott did soon after becoming Prime Minister of Australia in 2013 was to abandon the fibre-to-the-premises model that had been the hallmark of the previous Rudd Government’s National Broadband Network rollout. Shortage of labour and supplies had bedevilled the rollout under Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, but it promised a Continue reading »
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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra strikes the wrong note on Gaza
A well-known Australian band, The Cat Empire, has decided not to perform three shows scheduled with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over the treatment meted out to Australian-British classical pianist Jayson Gillham. Continue reading »
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Is peaceful cooperation a hopeless pipe dream?
According to Matt Pottinger, ‘a China expert and deputy national security adviser in the Trump White House…anyone who has entertained the idea of stable ties with Beijing is really smoking dope.’ If that’s what it takes, it might be time to light up. Continue reading »
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Comparing Palestine’s prospects for independence and peace
In trying to Palestine’s prospects of independence and peace with Israel, one is reminded of Tolstoy’s observation that ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. This is to say that, successful claims to independence share common features, but the circumstances of Palestine’s aspiration for independence are distinctively its Continue reading »
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Greens blast new conditions set by US and UK for AUKUS deal
The revelation that the US and UK have imposed additional conditions for their being part of the tripartite AUKUS deal with Australia has not gone down well in some quarters. Continue reading »
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While the world discussed the Games, Israel was focused on rape
In the second and last week of the Paris Olympics, most of the world was discussing sporting performances and medal tallies. Continue reading »
