Search Results
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BEVAN RAMSDEN. The Force Posture Agreement between the U.S. and Australian Governments
This Agreement makes Australia a base in the Indo-Pacific-South East Asia for the U.S. military and from which they can parade their strength, intimidate and launch hostile acts against our neighbours…. Continue reading »
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ALEX MITCHELL. The Great Drought: Panic or Policy?
Desperate farmers in rural communities across Australia are being led into a cruel dystopia where reality is being smothered by false hopes…. Continue reading »
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KERRY GOULSTON. Why not commemorate the Frontier Wars in the Australian War Memorial?
As an Australian schoolchild I learnt the history of England, including a long list of English Kings, but nothing at all about the Frontier Wars here in Australia or indeed the history of our Indigenous, the oldest people on the planet. … Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. A planet to heal (Hiroshima Remembrance Ecumenical Service, Adamstown Uniting Church, Newcastle, 5 August 2018).
I join with you in acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet. This weekend at the 20th Garma Festival held on Yolgnu lands in Arnhem Land, the acclaimed Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan spoke. Having disclosed his own potential Indigenous heritage for the first time, he told the audience:… Continue reading »
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ROY GREEN. World class container terminal for Newcastle and the investigation by the ACCC
Connectivity isn’t everything, but it’s almost everything. Faster, better and cheaper is transforming our daily lives. And connectivity isn’t just about broadband access. It’s also about fast and efficient freight transport. Even in a digital world where so much of what we produce is intangible, Australia’s fortunes as an island continent depend on its transport… Continue reading »
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QUENTIN DEMPSTER. ‘Because it’s wreck-able’: Anger mounting at decision to end Fairfax.
The proposed end of Fairfax Media as an entity governing the editorial output of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and regional newspapers has provoked mounting anger by some of Australia’s most prominent journalists…. Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN SJ. Woe to the shepherds (Homily, 22.07.18 at St Michaels’ Church, Kaleen)
Sometimes the lectionary throws up a reading from scripture which just hits you in the face given what’s been going on in your world the previous week…. Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. The litany of anti social and failed privatisations. ( Edited repost from 21 July 2017)
Coalition politicians, bankers, accountants and lawyers still persist with their fixation with privatisation despite the fact that it is failing in one area after another and the electorate shows very clearly that it does not want it. … Continue reading »
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FRANK BRENNAN. The sentencing of Archbishop Wilson. (Eureka Street 3/7/2018)
Philip Wilson has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment to be served by way of home detention. It’s very likely that he will appeal his conviction and sentence. An appeal may well succeed, but that’s not the end of the matter. This has been a six-year saga relating to events which occurred more than 40… Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Australian freight policy: after the chainsaw? Part 3
A recent report on freight and supply chains leads Governments astray. This is the last of three articles seeking to put them back on course…. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Australian freight policy: where is my chainsaw . Part2.
A recent report on freight and supply chains leads Governments astray. This is the second of three articles seeking to put them back on course…. Continue reading »
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JOANNE McCARTHY. Australia’s bishops still don’t get it – things have changed (SMH 13/6/2018)
Everything changed on December 15, 2017 when the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse presented its final report and recommendations to the Australian public. It’s a shame Australia’s Catholic bishops missed the memo. … Continue reading »
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RICHARD DENNISS. The big con: how neoliberals convinced us there wasn’t enough to go around
Australia just experienced one of the biggest mining booms in world history. But even at the peak of that boom, there was no talk of the wonderful opportunity we finally had to invest in world-class mental health or domestic violence crisis services. … Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Revolving doors at the infrastructure club
Infrastructure Australia should be made a Commission and do its work in public…. Continue reading »
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MICHAEL MULLINS. Wilson conviction exposes Australian bishops’ lack of contrition
Recently a friend abused by a priest in Newcastle 40 years ago took his own life. Archbishop Philip Wilson was convicted this week for concealing sexual abuse in that diocese around the same time. Church leaders valued the institution ahead of its people, and unfortunately it appears little has changed in the attitude of the… Continue reading »
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LUKE FRASER. Freight: fresh disappointment for our Prime Minister
Pity Prime Minister Turnbull – an intelligent man, trying to secure productive reform of this sector, yet met with fresh disappointment at each turn. Turnbull has made a number of moves in the transport space to suggest he has seen through a lot of second-rate advice and now wants something better: a more efficient freight… Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Newcastle port restriction – action not words please!
Instead of handwringing politicians should act to reverse the outrageous restriction on Newcastle port…. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Trouble in infrastructure paradise NSW revisited.
The mixed reception for the infrastructure works of NSW Premier the Hon. Gladys Berejiklian MP continues. It is mostly bad news punctuated by the odd piece of what the NSW Government considers good news…. Continue reading »
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MARGARET O’CONNOR. Institutional reform following the Royal Commission on child sex abuse is women’s work.
Women – from those who quietly brought pressure on parliamentarians through to the Prime Minister and Governor General – brought about the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Yet the response to the Commission is being handled as if it is all blokes’ business…. Continue reading »
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DAVID STEPHENS. Lest We Forget again: Anzac Day is an opportunity to confront our violent frontier past and its shadow today.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a young Somali-Australian Muslim woman, was driven out of Australia last year after she implied that the Anzac sacred cow might be ready to graze new territory. ‘Lest. We. Forget.’, she said, ‘(Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine …)’. I thought she was on the right track and I said so, copping some of the… Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Media catch-up on Newcastle Port.
Drawing on a report from Deloitte yesterday, Matt Wade in several Fairfax newspapers breathlessly told us that restrictions on privatised ports was adding to Sydney’s gridlock. He added that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is now investigating the secret restrictions on Newcastle Port which were introduced when Port Botany and the port of Newcastle… Continue reading »
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HENRY REYNOLDS. Brendan Nelson and the War Memorial – what about the Frontier Wars?
On Friday the Director of the Australian War Memorial Brendan Nelson announced plans for a massive redevelopment of the institution which would cost up to $500 million.He hoped to receive the required funding in next year’s budget and he is likely to be given what- ever he asks for having already received strong support from… Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Immigration and infrastructure.
While immigration – and a big Australia – is presented as the cause of infrastructure woe the real culprit is policy failure: deficient planning, bad structural arrangements and absence of road congestion pricing. … Continue reading »
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ALISON BROINOWSKI. Happy Anniversary Iraq
If there are any Australians who think we have anything to celebrate on the 15th anniversary of our invasion of Iraq and the start of our longest war, they must know something the rest of us don’t. In fact, there’s a lot nobody knows…. Continue reading »
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JERRY ROBERTS. Populism and Social Democracy.
So-called “populist” parties in recent European elections have all but wiped out established social democratic parties. The exception was Britain where Labour improved its position under the uncompromising social-democratic leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Two questions arise at home. What fate awaits our social democratic party, the Australian Labor Party? More importantly, what is populism?… Continue reading »
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BOB CARR. Whitlam had it easier on China policy
When Labor statesman Gough Whitlam opened relations with China it was a Maoist tyranny, more like today’s North Korea than today’s China. It was sunk in poverty. Its people could not travel overseas. They couldn’t move from village to village without party permission. It was illegal to own a small business. And China ran revolutionary… Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Infrastructure, rent-seekers and lobbyists.
As our mining boom has receded, Australia has seen unprecedented sums flow to transport infrastructure projects -mostly in our two biggest cities. But we have a real mess on our hands…. Continue reading »
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JOHN AUSTEN. Newcastle port – some progress in undoing a privatisation fiasco
Pressure is mounting to overcome the ridiculous anti-competitive constraints on Newcastle port…. Continue reading »
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ROGER SCOTT. Postscript on Australian universities: ‘are we near the Kodak moment’? Part 3
In March 2017, under a headline ‘Digital disruption lowers costs of pricy masters degrees’ the Australian Financial Review reported: A round of price-cutting has broken out in the market for high-priced masters degrees with four Australian universities offering students a pathway to complete part of their degree online at a steep discount. [Tim Dodd, AFR… Continue reading »
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HENRY REYNOLDS. Memories and Massacres- A REPOST from July 10 2017
The release by Newcastle University’s Centre for 21st Century Humanities of a map of colonial frontier massacres has attracted a burst of media attention. It draws national interest back to those questions that were highlighted during the history wars of a decade and more ago…. Continue reading »
