The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green). In mid-2023, Minister Gentleman chose not to act on the findings of the second and final report of Neil McAllister, the then independent inspector of correctional services. Instead, Gentleman Continue reading »
Human Rights
Let us be abundantly clear. What Israel is intending is against its obligations under international law. What Israel is intending is against its moral obligations as fellow citizens of the human race. The United Nations Relief Agency UNWRA has been in operation since the early 1950’s and has hundreds perhaps thousands of employees. Palestinian refugees Continue reading »
“The events since October 7 have been absolutely overwhelming. And that means they are overwhelming for everybody, but particularly for the people who are experiencing them, those who are suffering. The victims. It’s regularly said that October 7 represented the greatest killing of Jewish people since the Holocaust. And that’s correct. What’s said less frequently Continue reading »
A lot has been written in the past few days about Senator Lidia Thorpe and her courageous act of speaking truth to power when she confronted coloniser, King Charles, in the colonial halls of Parliament. Yet amidst the commentary, one voice remains absent: the voice of the criminalised community. As a formerly incarcerated woman, I Continue reading »
Calling Lidia Thorpe “un-Australian”, as occurred in Canberra on 22 October, is to be reminded that being “Australian” is to grovel to British royalty, to curtsy, genuflect and pay homage and allegiance to an anti-democratic institution, to a man who has wealth, position, entitlement and power due to birth, and birth only. To be “Australian” Continue reading »
Early in October 2024, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award of two major prizes: the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize to the Japanese grassroots peace organisation Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations), and the literature prize to the Korean novelist, Han Kang. From both winners came messages addressed to our troubled Continue reading »
So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra have been Pearls and Irritations and Canberra’s City News. On 22 October 2024, I finally received a response on behalf of Richard Glenn, Continue reading »
For years, the Israeli authorities have restricted food, fuel and essential supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, turning the deliveries on and off at will. This contributed to the desperate Hamas outbreak on 7 October 2023, which some experienced observers believe the Netanyahu government expected Continue reading »
“Our language shouldn’t be designed to appease the oppressor.” Steve Salaita Not “war in Gaza”. A war on Gaza. Not “lives lost”. Mass killing and mutilation of civilians. Not “self-defence”. A war on children. Snipers’ bullets in children’s heads. Not “a tragic conflict”. Genocidal erasure of Gaza and its people. Not defending “Israel’s right to Continue reading »
From 1946–1958, the US military dropped an estimated 318 explosive devices into the Pacific. This destroyed the environment and caused countless health issues for pacific islanders.