Top 5
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Myanmar: the US howls and seethes from the sidelines but it has no influence
America is calling the military takeover in Myanmar a coup. Not quite. Myanmar’s fragile democracy always existed at the pleasure of the military and the military became displeased when it appeared the people wanted to strengthen democracy…. Continue reading »
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Taiwan: a ‘wicked’ strategic problem for Australia
ASPI’s executive director Peter Jennings is banging the war drums over Taiwan again. He would have Australia automatically marching into a war in defence of the island. Why would Australia go to war over Taiwan?… Continue reading »
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Coalition’s political games don’t mix well with existential threat
We could secure a spectacular future for ourselves and help the planet. Instead the federal government dodges the hard decisions; passes the buck. Fortunately, state and territory governments are stepping up to the plate…. Continue reading »
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Parable for Australia Day: rewriting history with Japanese as victors
I recently wrote an article suggesting we should be sensitive to the pain our choice of the date of Australia Day causes our original inhabitants. A friend replied that we can’t bow to the opinion/demands of every minority group and change the date. I noted that a people who’d been here 300 times longer than… Continue reading »
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A Rightful Place, from colonisation to reconciliation
In the lead up to Survival Day this year, three key reports have been released, the interim Report to the Australian Government by the Indigenous Co-Design team on the Voice; the Human Rights Watch World Report for 2021; and the 2021 State of Reconciliation in Australia Report released last week by Reconciliation Australia…. Continue reading »
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What do we really celebrate on Australia Day?
Spare a thought for Australian representatives abroad who face awkward questions about what we celebrate on our National Day. It just goes to highlight the confusion and hypocrisy about pretending it was a noble venture by heroic and benign colonisers…. Continue reading »
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An ‘ugly plot’ by the ‘Democrats’ in Hong Kong
The arrest of 53 persons on January 6-7 this year in Hong Kong on suspicion of subversion has, once again, raised a frenzy of condemnation by western leaders and the media…. Continue reading »
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A Letter to President Biden: Rebuilding US credibility
You will be acutely aware that, after the ravages of the Trump years, you have a big healing job ahead of you, not only at home but abroad…. Continue reading »
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The Irrepressibles tame the Invincibles in their impregnable fortress
A transformative cricket series will do more to strengthen Australia–India bonds than any amount of public diplomacy…. Continue reading »
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Australia’s Covid-19 quarantining – an abrogation of federal responsibilities! There is no national plan
Perhaps the most contentious issue of our Covid year is who is in charge of quarantining? With continuing outbreaks of Covid-19 linked to incoming travellers, Australians have reacted with astonishment that quarantining issues were not foreseen and planned for years ago. How did we end up where we are and what should be done about… Continue reading »
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Latest hits from His Master’s Voice – Little Johnny and the Trumpettes
While our parliament houses will not be stormed any time soon, Sky News is still around, as is Rupert Murdoch, Trump’s great backer, and The Australian. So, too, are George, Pauline and Craig…. Continue reading »
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Western governments will have blood on their hands unless they stop persecuting Julian Assange
The case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is complex, containing elements of law, freedom of speech and of the media, journalism, politics, international relations and health. In the recent hearing to determine whether Assange should be extradited to the US, health became the dominant discourse. He may die if several Western governments do not stop… Continue reading »
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Copying and pasting government drops?
Spruiking the Coalition’s 2020 tax cuts; Australians’ ‘$200 billion’ war chest; Google’s experiments; free speech; and even a Liberal Party self-congratulatory piece on the NBN. … Continue reading »
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Planting booby traps for Joe Biden in Taiwan
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dying days of Donald Trump’s presidency, announced on 9 January that all “contact guidelines” regulating when and how US officials could interact with their Taiwan counterparts were “null and void.”… Continue reading »
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The love affair that made America grate.
Between rides and walks on the Trump Golf Course and embracing at the White House, Murdoch and Trump have debauched democracy…. Continue reading »
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The ALP – the Australian Liberal-lite Party
When Labor leader Anthony Albanese dumped his party’s franking credits policy, the mainstream media duly trotted out the “retiree tax” line. “Subsidies to wealthy superannuants to continue” doesn’t have quite the same ring…. Continue reading »
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Right outcome, wrong reasons on Julian Assange
British justice has been done, but it is hard to fathom. Assange’s crime is different from the usual. He embarrassed the US by revealing activities recorded by Americans themselves, and the lawlessness of the US military that continues every day, all round the world…. Continue reading »
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The world after 2020
What a year 2020 was for Australia, with first the fires and then the pandemic. Now at the end of it, we’re still confronted with the challenges of climate change in the shape of floods, not fires, and our Prime Minister unable to get a speaking slot at an international climate change conference…. Continue reading »
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Is the Darwin Dan Murphy’s Woolworths a Juukan Gorge moment?
As time has passed, opposition to Woolworths’ plans for a massive alcohol store near three dry Indigenous communities in Darwin has strengthened and become more vociferous. Even with the assistance of a pliant Northern Territory Government, approval of this shocking plan remains in doubt…. Continue reading »
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What real reform looks like: increase wages and tackle inequality, climate change
The economy has been stagnating for years under successive Coalition governments. It badly needs fixing, but it can be done. This is how…. Continue reading »
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The long-term global balance of power is favouring China
The twenty-first is likely to be China’s century. Over the period since I first started visiting and living in China in the mid-1960s, the global balance of power has shifted enormously in China’s favour. The US and the West have not declined, but China has grown more quickly, in economic, technological, infrastructure and political terms…. Continue reading »
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Post Brexit? It is not pages of legal text that sustains communities. It is political commitment.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government may have got Brexit across the line, and avoided the embarrassment and discomfort the country would have suffered had they not, but clearly they have not delivered on what was promised at the 2016 referendum…. Continue reading »
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We thought you saw us nurses – seems we were wrong
In 2020 the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife there has been a focus on nurses and nursing. Not the one planned, but nonetheless, nurses have been seen: by politicians and the public. But not by the medical doctors with their vested interests…. Continue reading »
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Media in the Asian Century: Read all about our media expertise on China!
This week Sharri Markson exposed the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the British MI6 and others for a gormless bunch of gumshoes and naifs…. Continue reading »
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We have already ceded our sovereignty, not to China but to America for no good reason.
Racism, fear and lack of moral courage sees Australia tied to a declining America, suffering, as a result, a lack of self-respect, independence and a viable and progressive relationship with our largest trading partner…. Continue reading »
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Heart of Darkness: Our expeditionary imperial culture and alleged war crimes in Afghanistan – and elsewhere
We tend to forget that our military, political and other cultures were formed in the frontier wars of British imperial expansion in the 19th century. Because those wars were fought in the process of taking the land of Aboriginal and Maori peoples and of inflicting partial genocide en passant, they were always going to produce… Continue reading »
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Prime Minister: Saying you no longer intend to cheat on climate change does not merit applause
The Prime Minister has brushed off his failure to gain a speaking role at the Glasgow global warming summit as inconsequential. But the reality is that the Prime Minister and his government continue to fail us…. Continue reading »
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Cricket Australia continues to feast on unhealthy product advertising
The advertising of alcohol, gambling and junk food, especially in sport and during children’s viewing times, has been contentious. With summer upon us, cricket is again swamped with these ads, exposing millions of kids to them and threatening their health and wellbeing. The release of new drinking guidelines calls into question the future of this… Continue reading »
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Tamed Estate: IR changes good for workers. Really? The fine print is buried.
With workplace reform winging its way towards the Senate, the mainstream media’s coverage of the changes was predictably unbalanced…. Continue reading »
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Top 5 most read
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