June 9, 2016

KAITLIN WALSH. Nick Xenophon are your ears burning? Maybe they should take a leaf from your book (not put a target on your back)

If once upon a time my enemy’s enemy was my friend, then bizarrely enough it now seems that my friend’s enemy is my friend. Confused? Me too. I think I liked it better the way it was before.

Over the weekend, we had the coalition, Labor and that well known bastion of social good, the Australian Hotels Association (AHA), united against … ISIS? Donald Trump?

No. Nick Xenophon.

March 22, 2015

Tributes to Malcolm Fraser.

See below, tributes from Fred Chaney and Robert Manne on Malcolm Fraser’s achievements in public life. John Mendue.

Fred Chaney in The Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/20/malcolm-fraser-a-leader-who-believed-there-is-a-moral-compass-in-our-nations-life

Robert Manne in The Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/20/frasers-great-conservative-achievement-cementing-whitlams-progress-on-race

November 25, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Israel continue to bomb the homes of civilians in Gaza and Beirut while journalists on the ground investigate the damage under drones. In Pakistan Imran Khan supporters have taken to the streets while in Newcastle climate change activists have paddled in protest on Newcastle Harbour. Clare O’Neil speaks to the housing policy while US Senator Lindsey Graham reveals the rich earth minerals underpinning the Ukraine war.

September 8, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. The new compradors in the China Australia relationship.

In this blog on 14 October last year I wrote.

Compradors are sometimes described as those who help a foreign country exploit their own. I was reminded of this when I read that the ALP Caucus had compromised its concerns over jobs for Australians and was prepared to waive the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement through the parliament with only a ‘diluted’ list of demands as the AFR put it.

If this agreement proceeds, Australian workers are likely to be much more vulnerable. Not surprisingly the President of the ACTU, Ged Kearney said that ‘this is about Australian jobs so we will keep fighting for those jobs’. No wonder the unions are unhappy about the attitude of Labor parliamentarians.

There is a problem; a large Labor elite with fellow travellers whose careers outside parliament as consultants and lobbyists depend on Chinese connections and largesse. They are cultivated with money, travel and entertainment. They cling like limpets to the relationship with China. They have a lot to lose if they upset China. And it shows.

As Upton Sinclair put it so succinctly ‘It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it’.

The above was written almost a year ago. The problem has worsened since then.

February 5, 2016

Frank Brennan SJ. High Court not the answer to Nauru depravity

The moral depravity of Australian funded and orchestrated holding of asylum seekers, including children, on Nauru and Manus Island is to continue.

On Wednesday the High Court made clear that it is in no position to question the retrospective law passed by the Commonwealth Parliament on 30 June 2015 authorising the Australian Government to do whatever it takes to assist countries like Nauru with the detention of asylum seekers sent there by Australia as of 18 August 2012.

March 22, 2016

Evan Williams. 'The Daughter' film review

The ads for the new Australian film The Daughter are proudly informing us that the film comes from the same producer who gave us The Piano and Lantana. And that’s some pedigree. Lantana and The Piano were both distinguished Australian films (though the Kiwis shared some credit for The Piano), but what’s this about the “producer”? With all due respect to Jan Chapman, the producer of The Daughter, producers don’t make films. They raise the money for them, hire the main players, acquire all the rights and turn up to collect any best-picture gongs on Oscar night, but they don’t make the movie. Sam Goldwyn was one of the great Hollywood producers, but he didn’t make The Best Years of Our Lives (that was left to William Wyler), and who remembers Goldwyn anyway for Roseanne McCoy or The Adventures of Marco Polo?

December 27, 2016

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull's future.

The Chinese will be celebrating the year of the rooster. But for Malcolm Turnbull it is more likely to be just another year of the chicken. If not the feather duster.

May 21, 2016

SPENCER ZIFCAK. PNG Supreme Court Trumps Detention on Manus Island and Australia’s High Court too. It is regrettable that Australia does not have a similar Bill of Human Rights

In the latest legal saga to beset the Government’s troubled offshore processing program, the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea declared that the mandatory detention of asylum seekers from Australia on Manus Island was unconstitutional. The Court held that the detention of some 900 men on Manus violated the right to liberty guaranteed by PNG’s Constitution.

A closer look at the decision discloses just how far the Australian and PNG governments have been prepared to go in conspiring to keep asylum seekers, travelling by boat to Australia, out of the country and incarcerated indefinitely offshore.

June 18, 2016

BRUCE BAER ARNOLD. How Pathology Australia advocates for 'patient care' to achieve big corporate profits.

Each time we go for a blood test to investigate or keep track of an illness, or have a tissue sample from a Pap test or suspicious mole sent off for analysis, the wheels of the pathology industry are put to work.

Pathology in Australia is big business. One company draws an annual revenue of almost A$4 billion. And a proportion comes from the public purse, via Medicare rebates.

The industry features a handful of very large corporations – including giants Sonic and Primary Health Care – that typically use multiple brands, giving a misleading sense of competition.

Other large groups operate on a commercial basis but have a religious and thus notionally not-for-profit orientation, such as the St John of God group in Western Australia.

There are also a shrinking number of smaller independent operators trying to occupy market niches or leverage personal relationships.

The industry doesn’t speak with one voice; different providers have competing interests. The key private sector industry body is Pathology Australia. But it doesn’t representPrimary Health Care or religious entities.

April 6, 2016

John Tulloh. Erdogan leads Turkey back to the Ottoman era.

It is the time of the year when we have our annual bout of sentimental reflection on the heroics of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli a century ago. One of the Turkish military commanders whose resistance wore down the Anzacs and other allies was Kemal Ataturk, who went on to be the founder of modern Turkey in 1923. His name remains so revered in Turkey for modernising his country and transforming it into a secular state that insulting his memory is a criminal act.

April 7, 2017

NICK BISLEY. Learning to live with a nuclear North Korea?

North Korea perceives it is isolated in a world that is hostile to its existence. However loathsome the regime may be and however badly it misallocates resources to bolster the ruling elite, the reason for acquiring nuclear weapons is entirely rational: they are a vital means for North Korea to protect itself.

March 16, 2015

John Menadue. A capability review of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing (DHA)

In this blog I have raised many times my concerns about the major shortcomings of DHA and the barrier it presents to improved health policy and programs… We saw it most recently over the GP co-payment. I argue that the ministerial/departmental model in health has failed and needs review…

Since 2011 the Australian Public Service Commission ( APSC) has conducted a series of capability reviews of Commonwealth agencies. Late last year it released its capability review of DHA. It highlighted many problems in the Department. These include

September 2, 2014

Walter Hamilton. Copy and Paste

The Japanese have coined a new word, kopipe, from the English phrase ‘copy and paste’. It featured, for instance, in recent reporting of the discredited stem-cell researcher caught out copying images and data from one research paper to another. But the word kopipe has many possible applications, such as in the ongoing debates about history and Japan’s expanding security alliance with the United States.

On the matter of history, let me do some copying and pasting of my own from the text of the San Francisco Peace Treaty which Japan signed in 1951 to formally bring to an end the Second World War. Here is what it says in Article 11:

July 8, 2014

Woolworths and Pharmacies.

The response of the Australian Pharmacy Guild (APG) to Woolworth’s proposal for free health checks was entirely predictable. It was about protecting the territory of pharmacists.

But the APG did have a point. Are the leviathan department stores who sell large amounts of alcohol and tobacco really serious about our health? I don’t think so?

But if the challenge of Woolworths would help curb the anti-social behaviour of the APG that would be a real public service.

April 10, 2017

RODNEY TUCKER. The Tragedy of Australia’s National Broadband Network.

A National Tragedy

Australia’s National Broadband Network is heavily dependent on a soon-to-be-obsolete technology (FTTN) that most of the world has rejected. The FTTN-based network was sold to the Australian public based on an underestimate of Australia’s broadband needs ( Tucker, 2014), and continues to be justified using incorrect estimates of the cost differentials between FTTN and FTTP.

The FTTN network performs poorly compared to FTTP networks used elsewhere in the world. What is worse is that the NBN does not have a clear and affordable upgrade path. FTTN is of limited value to some users, such as high-end users and small businesses, who require affordable access to higher speeds than FTTN can deliver.

In the meantime, the rest of the world is moving to FTTP and gigabit cities are thriving. Leaders in broadband delivery around the world are already planning for upgrades in their FTTP technology to even higher speeds.

This situation is nothing short of a national tragedy and a classic example of failed infrastructure policy that will have long-term ramifications for Australia’s digital economy.

April 16, 2015

Paul Komesaroff, Alphonso Lingis, Modjtaba Sadria. Julie Bishop can reach out to Iran now that confrontation has failed.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s visit to Tehran this week presents a rare opportunity for Australia to take the lead in global diplomacy. The publicly stated goal of the trip has been limited to the dubious intention of convincing the Rouhani government to allow Iranian nationals seeking asylum in Australia to return without fear of victimisation. But the implications of the visit are much more important and far-reaching than that.

August 19, 2016

JOHN TULLOH. The uncertain future for Turkey and Erdogan.

My friend! Leave not my homeland to the hands of villainous men! Render your chest as armour and your body as bulwark! Halt this disgraceful assault! For soon shall come the joyous days of divine promise; Who knows? Perhaps tomorrow? Perhaps even sooner!

A verse from the Turkish national anthem.

More than ever before, Australian tourists bound for Turkey and Gallipoli had better be on their best behaviour. They will find this otherwise welcoming and hospitable country to be in a state of growing uncertainty regarding its future. It is part of a concerted move away from secularism in favour of Islamic policies under the increasingly autocratic style of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, its touchy president who tolerates no criticism.

October 1, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Cruelty and evil have become banal

Malcolm Turnbull told the UN that our treatment of refugees is world’s best practice. Only a guilty conscience could allow such self deception.

In her book ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’, published in 1963, Hannah Arendt refers to the ‘banality of evil’. Her thesis was that Eichmann was not a fanatic or sociopath, but an extremely stupid person who relied on cliché rather than thinking for himself and was motivated by professional promotion rather than ideology. She says ‘The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil’.

February 14, 2015

John Menadue. Fairness, Opportunity and Security - Filling the policy vacuum

I sense that there is great public concern that both the government and opposition keep playing the political and personal game at the expense of informed public discussion of important policy issues.

We have become concerned about the trustworthiness of our political, business and media elite. Insiders and vested interests are undermining the public interest. Money is unduly influencing political decisions. There is gridlock on important issues like climate change and taxation.

January 9, 2017

IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country – Introduction

John Menadue - introduction to Ian McAuley Series.

Many have been surprised and even horrified by the Brexit and Trump results. These events are likely to be followed by similar outcomes in elections in other countries this year.

Serious issues have been raised – a wave of anti-globalisation, an alleged swing to the right, blaming ‘deplorables’, racism and xenophobia. Establishment politics is being challenged. Russia is becoming an insider in Washington!

Some of these reactions to Brexit and Trump are over-simplified, but there is no doubt that we now face complex and challenging times.

Our attention has been focused on the UK and the US, but these issues, although important in Australia, may not take the same acute form here. But one thing we do have in common with Trump and others is the conservative protection of privilege by diverting attention from inequality , unfairness and the power of elites and focus instead on the most vulnerable, Muslims, refugees and welfare ‘bludgers’

Against this background I asked Ian McAuley to focus on these issues. His introduction and eight parts follow. Your comments would be welcome. John Menadue.

November 14, 2024

A five-minute scroll

Blinken says that Israel has met their strategic goals for Gaza, while Bisan Owda captures Israeli attacks on day 404 of the genocide. President Bident meets president-elect Trump at the White House and Andrew Napolitano reveals the new US Ambassador to Israel. Nury Vittachi reveals a a US interference plan for Cambodia while AAP Factcheck shows Dutton deceiving the media. A five-minute scroll on X reveals news we won’t see in mainstream media.

October 29, 2014

Eric Walsh. Gough Whitlam - Australia's greatest reforming Prime Minister.

Australian media had never seen anything like it. Suddenly print, radio, television and social media were overwhelmed - blanket coverage of a single event.

Edward Gough Whitlam, Australia’s 21st and greatest reforming Prime Minister, was dead.

Newspapers were turned over to almost complete coverage ,not only of the fact that the former PM had died, but with coverage of the extraordinary series of changes he made to life and living in Australia in a short three years in office more than 40 years ago.

April 21, 2015

Julianne Schultz. The Great War and Australia's future.

The Gallipoli centenary provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the many wartime legacies – human, political, economic, military – that forged independent nations from former colonies and dominions. Over the next fortnight, The Conversation, in partnership with Griffith Review, is publishing a series of essays exploring the enduring legacies of 20th-century wars.

It seems poignantly appropriate that the web address gallipoli.net.au, which features the logo, “Gallipoli: The Making of a Nation”, is owned by Michael Erdeljac of the Splitters Creek Historical Group. Splitters Creek is now a suburb on the western edge of Albury, better known for its active Landcare group, and as the home to the endangered squirrel glider.

February 13, 2014

Kieran Tapsell. Sexual abuse in the Church - the failure of the Vatican and Popes

As with so many other things on the sex abuse issue, the Holy See’s response to the findings of the United Nations Committee for the Rights of the Child is conspicuous for its failure to acknowledge the central issue raised by that Committee: pontifical secrecy imposed on the Church’s investigations of child sexual abuse by clergy.

The Vatican spokesman, Fr Lombardi complained that the Holy See provided ample written responses under the Convention, but the Committee did not take “adequate account of the responses, both written and oral”. Lombardi makes the gratuitous comment that the report suggests “that it was practically already written, or at least in large part blocked out before the hearing,” as if the Holy See’s responses were knock out blows to the matters raised by the Committee. He then claimed that the Committee did not understand “the Holy See’s responsibilities”. He said, “Are we dealing with an inability to understand, or an unwillingness to understand? In either case, one is entitled to amazement.”

October 15, 2024

A five-minute scroll

The world is reeling in horror of the people burned alive sheltering inside tents in Al-Aqsa martyrs hospital. First hand accounts and devastation flood our feed. ABC’s media watch chastises Australian media on lack of coverage of journalist’s death. In Britain, Anti-Zionism is now a protected belief. Bob Carr on the power of the Israel lobby.

April 13, 2016

Kerry Breen. What ails the national registration scheme for Australia’s 600,000 health professionals?

In response to one element of a 2005 Productivity Commission report , the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decided that the state and territory systems of registration of health professionals, some in existence for over 150 years, would be replaced by a single national scheme . The new scheme, based on a “national law” adopted by all jurisdictions, is run by the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Authority (AHPRA) which commenced operation in July 2010. It now covers 14 health professions and 600,000 health professionals. By the end of 2016, AHPRA will have been subject to two federal parliamentary inquiries (see here and here), one state parliamentary inquiry and an independent inquiry commissioned by the COAG Health Council. Such a record must lead to the question as to what is wrong with the scheme.

January 9, 2017

IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 1 – Who’s been left behind?

In “developed” countries the benefits of 35 years of economic growth have been unevenly distributed. Many people who once had well-paid manufacturing jobs and many who live in the country have fallen behind. While this has been most starkly manifest in the US, it is also happening in Australia.

June 19, 2018

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.

April 4, 2017

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Even in Malcolm Turnbull's own terms, it is a fizzer.

Well it wasn’t what was hoped for, and certainly not what was required; but it was better than nothing.

January 9, 2017

Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 2 – The response of those left behind

It would be hasty to attribute the Brexit and Trump votes to a “swing to the right”, or to an ill-informed electorate. The most compelling explanations are in terms of protest votes. People’s anger of electorates has given an opening for political opportunists.

August 24, 2016

PETER JOHNSTONE. A Plenary Synod in 2020 for the Australian Catholic Church

The Australian Catholic Church is planning a national/plenary synod of the Church in Australia. Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane has announced that the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) has decided to conduct a plenary council/synod in 2020. Few Australian Catholics would be aware that synods have been an integral part of church governance since the time of the Apostles. That’s not surprising as no plenary or provincial (roughly State-wide) synods have been held in Australia since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), despite that Council calling for synods to “flourish with fresh vigour” (Christus Dominus, n.36), and insisting that the laity have an active role in them.

April 27, 2017

GREGORY CLARK. Pingpong diplomacy and Whitlam's first visit to China.

April 2017 is the 46 anniversary of the pingpong diplomacy - an event that changed the future of China. It also changed the direction of Australian politics, leading to the ALP Federal election victory in November 1972. But as I explain in the link to this posting, the change in Canberra could well have not occurred but for a chance telephone call from myself to a small manufacturing firm in Nagoya.

March 26, 2016

What a godsend politicians and journalists are to ISIS.

In The Guardian, Simon Jenkins writes about the way that the ISIS recruiting officers will be thrilled at how things have gone since their atrocity in Belgium. He points particularly to the ‘paranoid politicians and sensational journalists’ who have perhaps unwittingly provided great support for ISIS. Jenkins comments

‘The atrocities in Brussels happen almost daily on the streets of Baghdad, Aleppo and Damascus. Western missiles and ISIS bombs kill more innocents in a week than die in Europe in a year. The difference is the media response. A dead Muslim is an unlucky mutt in the wrong place at the wrong time. A dead European is front-page news. … Everyone involved in this week’s reaction, from journalist to politicians to security lobbyists, has an interest in terrorism. There is money, big money, to be made - the more terrifying it is presented, the more money.’

July 4, 2016

JOHN MENADUE. Privatisation of Medicare has been underway for years.

In this blog before the election, I highlighted the risks to Medicare in many posts. See links below:

John Menadue. Privatisation and the hollowing out of Medicare. David Pope. Medicare - Eaten out from within. Ian McAuley. Bill Shorten is right: Malcolm Turnbull is a major threat to Medicare. Lesley Russell. It is disingenuous of the Coalition to claim it has no intention of privatising Medicare. John Menadue. Facts on the $11 b p.a. private health insurance industry subsidy.

May 20, 2016

IAN McAULEY. The more we examine the Coalition's 'plan' to cut corporate taxes, the more is revealed of its economic shortcomings.

The more we examine the Coalition’s proposal to cut corporate taxes, the more is revealed of its economic shortcomings.

Many have commented on the inequity of cutting corporate taxes while tightening eligibility for disability support, reducing benefits for new welfare recipients, freezing Medicare rebates, and inadequately funding health and education.

January 9, 2017

IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 3 – Globalization takes the rap, unfairly

Globalization has been only one of the developments that has led to widening inequality and social exclusion. Countries that have globalized have also introduced a raft of neoliberal domestic policies, against which people are reacting.

June 10, 2020

GEOFF MILLER. 'G5-Eyes': a very strange economic grouping.

According to a report in The Australian of 8 June Treasurer Frydenberg has “led the push” and succeeded in establishing a series of “regular and formal” economic dialogue meetings among the countries that make up the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group.

April 20, 2016

Ian McAuley. Are Conservatives better economic managers?

Here’s a short quiz.

Over the last fifty years Australia has had 17 federal treasurers. Which two have won the coveted Euromoney “Finance Minister of the Year” award?

As a memory jogger, below is a list of treasurers in chronological order.

William McMahon (Lib) Leslie Bury (Lib) Billy Snedden (Lib) Frank Crean (Lab) Jim Cairns (Lab) Bill Hayden (Lab) Phillip Lynch (Lib) John Howard (Lib) Paul Keating (Lab) John Kerin (Lab) Ralph Willis (Lab) John Dawkins (Lab) Peter Costello (Lib) Wayne Swan (Lab) Chris Bowen (Lab) Joe Hockey (Lib) Scott Morrison (Lib)

April 2, 2016

Chris Bonnor. Malcolm abandons the middle in schooling

Two plus years of conservative government has given oxygen to a number of strange solutions to ill-defined problems. Malcolm Turnbull’s proposal to have the States alone fund government schools, leaving the Commonwealth to look after private schools, is the latest.

As a serious suggestion it has been widely condemned, but it would be premature to dismiss it as a piece of spontaneous kite flying. Conservatives have been playing in this space for some time. In April 2014 the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) flagged having wealthy parents paying fees for public education. Around the same time Tony Abbott commissioned another Tony (Shepherd) to come up with ideas, including about funding for schooling. Most of his suggestions were wisely ignored - but issues arising from having schools funded by two levels of government struck a nerve.

December 9, 2024

Synagogue attack: The unashamed trashing of the rule of law by news outlets

The attack last week on a Melbourne synagogue is undoubtedly a criminal offence. But according to the News Limited media outlets, many in the Jewish community and the broader pro Israel movement, and now the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, it was an act of terrorism.

April 7, 2017

ANNETTE BROWNLIE. Keeping Australia out of US wars

It is time we, the people, asserted our sovereignty, took control of our foreign policies and reviewed the presence of U.S. bases and troops in Australia. It is time we started promoting genuine peace and security, human rights, a sustainable environment and our independence.

April 28, 2016

Ray Cassin. No moral mystery to 60 Minutes child snatch disaster.

The mystery of the 60 Minutes child snatch that went so disastrously wrong is that there is no mystery, although some people want to contrive one.

Ethically there are no shades of grey here. We know what happened, and we know that what 60 Minutes and TCN Nine agreed to do by helping Sally Faulkner abduct her children in Beirut violated a fundamental tenet of journalism.

That tenet can be simply expressed: don’t make yourself a player in the story, especially not by paying other players in the story. Because if you do, your audience has no reason to trust your account of what the story is.

June 18, 2016

JOHN AUSTEN. High speed rail – where to? Competing with airlines or cars?

This article proposes a change in focus for the high speed rail debate. Rather than seeking to compete with airlines, rail should contribute to settlement that eases pressures on capital cities. This change of focus does not require ego stoking thousand kilometre distances at 350kph plus speeds, but trains for comfortable commuting between second tier cities and capitals. Costs would be lower and demand higher. Newcastle-Sydney is the obvious first candidate.

January 9, 2017

IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 4 – Issues re-framed

Contrary to some interpretations, the trend in “developed” countries is still towards social and economic liberalism. But there is a strong reaction against the social exclusion that has accompanied liberalization. The economic models that guide public policy are not up to the task of dealing with exclusion.

February 19, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Francesca Albanese addresses a group in Berlin amidst challenges from the police. The City of Sydney passes a motion for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS), while Patricia Karvelas calls out the facts on Angus Taylor.

September 25, 2024

A five-minute scroll

A five-minute scroll of X uncovers abhorrent settler behaviour, questions about Peter Dutton’s nuclear platform, South Africa speaking out for Palestine in the UN, Chris Sidoti on the Israeli Army, Genocide Tourism and news of Julian Assange.

May 27, 2014

Chris Geraghty. Potiphar’s Wife – The Vatican’s Secret and Child Sex Abuse.

A few weeks ago the Roman Church gathered its heavenly forces, summoned her faithful from around the world to assemble in the eternal city, and in the midst of extravagant Renaissance-style splendor, infallibly declared two of her recent CEOs to have been translated into the presence of Almighty God, amid hosts of angels and Archangels on high. Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II were enrolled in the official canon of saints by Pope Francis, in the presence of his predecessor Pope Benedict and a gaggle of episcopal turkeys. Business as usual in Rome. Crazy triumphal ceremonial. A vial of papal blood in one reliquary, a sliver of Pope’s skin in the other. You have to admit that in view of what was happening down in the dungeons under the Vatican and the scandals unraveling in parishes and schools, the Roman Church was exhibiting a high degree of religious chutzpah. To engage in such a public display, she had to have real balls – and no brains. CEOs giving each other a brotherly leg-up, encouraging pats on the back, colorful ribbons, medals and badges, while in hot-spots throughout the world the company was coughing up blood.

February 17, 2025

A five-minute scroll

Bisan Owda shares how Israel is violating the ceasefire from Gaza. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in London, marching for Palestine. Gideon Levy writes in response to Palestinian prisoners on their knees wearing Israeli T-shirts stating “we will not forget nor forgive”. UK Palestine Mental Health Network says there is no PTSD in Gaza, it is ongoing trauma.

November 29, 2024

A five-minute scroll

“This should be frightening for everyone” said Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan in an eye-witness report of the genocide in Gaza at the UN on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 26th. In Pakistan, snipers are shooting Imran Khan supporters as they protest. Indigenous people confront settler colonial narrative on Thanksgiving, while the President-elect addresses his message to the radical left. Australia breaks international law in every US war we support.

Pearls and Irritations

John Menadue's Public Policy Journal