Top 5
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Xenophobia and threats to Australia’s knowledge of China
The failure of the latest round of government-funded research grants to include any topics related to China weakens Australia’s capacity to understand and manage relations with the region’s biggest power, writes Louise Edwards. Continue reading »
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Colonies of the US empire: Will the Cocos Islands become the new Diego Garcia?
The 2000 residents of Diego Garcia were forcibly removed to make way for a giant US military base. Will the same happen to the Australian residents on the Cocos Islands that lies south of Sumatra in the Indian ocean? Continue reading »
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Regulatory certainty and entrepreneurship: Unlocking Australia-China climate collaboration
Entrepreneurs occupy a pivotal role in bridging the gap between Australia and China, especially when it comes to climate collaboration. Continue reading »
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Deception: Radicalised groups are infiltrating Australian democracy in your town
West Australia’s council elections seem a strange place to pinpoint a warning about American radicalising political games infiltrating the Australian landscape. While it is strange, it is nonetheless important. Continue reading »
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Australia’s three wars
In a lead article last week in The Sydney Morning Herald the political and international editor Peter Hartcher declared that Australia was ’connected to three wars’, but only one of them would be measured in decades. He was referring to the conflict in Gaza and the war in Ukraine both of which ‘affect Australia’s security’. Continue reading »
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War with China: Babbling incoherence and missing evidence
With the expansion of all services of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – no matter that it is consistent with a defensive posture – China’s every strategic move now is rendered totally unacceptable after passing through a prism designed and issued on a complementary basis by the US. Hyper-suspicion is the attitude and threat inflation Continue reading »
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White Man’s Media: The Chinese warship sonar incident
What a feast of anti-China stories we have had again from the Coalition and our media over the incident between HMAS Toowoomba and a Chinese PLA-N destroyer. Continue reading »
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COP-out: Why the petrostate-hosted climate talkfest will fail
After a succession of record-breaking months of record heat including 1.8°C in September, global warming for 2023 as a whole will likely tip 1.5°C, with 2024 even hotter as the effect of the building El Nino is felt more fully. Already hundreds of thousands have died and millions displaced, primarily in countries least responsible for Continue reading »
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The cost-of-living crisis: How should the Government respond?
Living standards have fallen recently. The Albanese Government has responded with targeted assistance, but the policy options to alleviate the damage for working families are limited, especially in the short run. However, one readily available policy option would be to reshape the Stage 3 tax cuts due to take effect next July. Continue reading »
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Crown successfully overturns Nuremberg war crimes principles in Australian court
In direct contradiction to the 1945 Nuremberg trials, the Crown successfully argued in the prosecution of Afghan Files military whistleblower David McBride for breaching the Defence Forces Act that the sole duty of an Australian soldier is to follow orders. An Australian soldier does not serve Australia, or the Australian people or the public interest. Continue reading »
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Antisemitism and criticism of Israel: open letter to Julian Leeser MP
Shocking discrimination suffered by Jews in the past does not give Israel a warrant to make victims of others. You say anti-Zionism is a cover for antisemitism. Let me tell you why your view is wrong. Continue reading »
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Managerialism is crushing the human connection: The Care Economy series
Unpacking the care economy, Dr Robbie Lloyd investigates some of the key issues impacting our communities in a series of articles that explore ageing, disability, mental health reform, the challenges of health policy and reform, drugs and alcohol and domestic family violence. Continue reading »
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Two-state solution won’t deliver peace for Israel/Palestine. But this might
At the end of October, three weeks after the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli civilians and soldiers that killed around 1200 people, US President Joe Biden said that he still firmly believed in the justness of the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. Two states for two peoples. Continue reading »
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Is a re-set likely in our media’s China coverage?
Andy Park, the host of Drive on ABC Radio National, asked one of his guests the following question about Albanese’s visit to China: ‘Scoring an invitation to go to Beijing is obviously a coup for Mr Albanese. Obviously, much was said and done under the table diplomatically speaking. … Do you think the average Australian Continue reading »
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Does Israel have a right to exist?
Israel’s membership of the United Nations was approved in 1949. Unlike other states, it was approved conditionally upon Israel complying with Partition Resolution 181 as to the limits of the Israeli State, and UN Resolution 194, allowing the return of refugees. Israel has complied with neither condition. It refuses to define its borders and is Continue reading »
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US ranks last on adherence to UN Charter
At the very bottom of a new index ranking 74 countries adhering to the UN Charter is the United States, with Israel being the second from the bottom. Both countries are frequently at odds with the UN multilateral system. The US needs to recognise that the UN system, operating under the UN Charter, is the Continue reading »
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“Unconscionable”: Albanese government’s massive fossil fuel developments mock mitigation efforts
Anguish, despair and fear for the future will ravage your brain when you read the latest edition of the UN Production (emissions) Gap Report. Your distress will further increase when you read that Australia will increase the Gap with the development of the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct, when to stand any chance of addressing Continue reading »
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“We Are Spartacus”: Resistance and the unmoving shadow of war
War today is an unmoving shadow. The bravery of David McBride and Julian Assange has allowed many of us, who might despair, to understand the real meaning of a resistance we all share if we want to prevent the conquest of us, our conscience, our self respect, if we prefer freedom and decency to compliance Continue reading »
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Gaza and ‘the graveyard for children’: the moral decline of Western politics
Weak Western leaders, certain of their own exceptionalism, have endangered world peace by peddling narratives that justify the unjustifiable. Abuse of the charge of antisemitism silences those calling for an end to the bloodshed, fomenting a callous response to the killing of Palestinians. Continue reading »
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The Federal lobbying code is toothless and it has failed
Commercial lobbying is a multibillion dollar industry in Australia. A code of conduct which allows our Defence Minister to discuss defence business with a global contracting firm in cabinet, then take a job with that firm nine days after leaving politics, is a code which is corrosive of public trust in democracy. Continue reading »
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A rude awakening: Israel’s occupation shaken to the core
In the early hours of that fateful morning, October 7th 2023, the silence was broken by a wake-up call like no other. A group of Palestinian freedom fighters, young men who had never known anything but occupation, siege, and subjugation shook the Israeli Occupation foundations to the core. Like birds of prey, those fighters flew Continue reading »
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Time for Labor to focus on those who are hurting
It was only in March this year that The Sydney Morning Herald claimed in a series called Red Alert that Australia “faces the real prospect of war with China within three years that could involve a direct attack on our mainland”. There were no grounds to believe this then and even fewer after Anthony Albanese’s Continue reading »
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Our national failure to equip ourselves for Asia
Very few of the people briefing Anthony Albanese have much knowledge or experience of Asia. Many are Austral Americans as Paul Keating rightly calls them. Continue reading »
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Gaza: Israel is winning the battle but losing the war
As was to be expected, Israel is winning the battle for Gaza, albeit at an enormous cost in lives. But what are Israel’s and its backers’ plans for winning the peace, as without an enduring peace settlement the war can never be won. Is a US-led, UN mandated Trusteeship for Palestine the way forward? Continue reading »
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The day after: Destroying Gaza will only yield future war
At the core of the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine is “the studied blindness of two people to see the other, to accept that they have a legitimate place on the landscape”. Without such acceptance, this horrific war in Gaza will not be the last. Continue reading »
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High court launches full frontal assault on indefinite immigration detention
Mandatory immigration detention is a policy that has caused indiscriminate harm, including death, and permanent incapacity. It has been rightly described as our national shame. On Wednesday November 8, the High Court of Australia found indefinite immigration detention constitutes punishment, making the relevant legislation unconstitutional. Continue reading »
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Medicare is changing for the better
Last week another important suite of changes to Medicare came into effect. Since the election of the Albanese government, we have seen a willingness by government to introduce a range of policies designed to update and strengthen Medicare to position it better for the future. Continue reading »
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Scott Morrison’s heartless yearning for Armageddon
I was wondering what was taking prominent Christian Zionists so long to visit Israel. And then I saw him…Scott Morrison landing with the arrogance of someone totally convinced he’s betting on the winning horse. Continue reading »
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The moral abyss: Israeli doctors call for the bombing of hospitals
Even as the moral abyss that is the war in Gaza had seemed as if it could not deepen, it now appears to be a bottomless pit. It is reported that about 100 medical doctors belonging to a group called Doctors for the Rights of Israeli Soldiers signed a letter last weekend stating that it Continue reading »
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Australia-China relations: Diplomacy and a win “Without a Fight”
We should be greatly encouraged by Prime Minister Albanese’s visit to China. Isolation is always a bad thing. Dialogue is essential for relationships to be sustained or nourished. This is the most important aspect of the visit, far outweighing in importance any specific outcome. Continue reading »