As an increasing number of countries move to recognise Palestine and welcome its U.N. membership, the Israel lobby is being hit by a pincer movement. On the one side, American voters, especially young American voters, are aghast at Israel’s brutality. On the other side, America’s geopolitical position is crumbling. We owe an ironic debt of Continue reading »
Top 5
Australian university students are setting up encampments in universities across Australia. They are not only calling for an end to the war on Gaza and freedom for Palestinians, they are calling for key changes needed in Australian universities’ relationships with Israel, including divestments in weapons research and development and sales and the cessation of links Continue reading »
A call to women to put social needs, not just economic needs, back on the political agenda. If we want to fix that most of the world is in politically divisive macho mode, feminist women need to create new and recreate old priorities to create more equitable, survivable worlds. The macho basis of male economic Continue reading »
Claims that industry assistance comes at a cost to other industries and consumers are too often right. Industry policy should therefore be limited to areas of identified market failure and requires tight evaluation of each case and that performance targets are met. Editor’s note: We apologise to the author, Michael Keating, and to our readers Continue reading »
Readers will recall my article of 16 April, The end of occupation: A state of Palestine at the UN. It advised of an anticipated vote in the Security Council on April 18. The Security Council was sitting in New York. Because of the time difference, that was early in the morning of 19 April in Continue reading »
Almost unnoticed, the federal government has quietly pushed a Bill into parliament that will transform the NDIS as we know it. Make no mistake – this Bill is about containing costs. And for good reason. The spiralling cost growth of the NDIS – the National Disability Insurance Scheme – threatens its very existence. Doing nothing Continue reading »
The major obstacle to lobbying reform is that for members of parliament, their staff and senior officials, lobbying provides a very lucrative income when they leave parliament, the military or the public service. So they refuse to act on the lobbying scourge. Submission to Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee re Lobbying, February 8, Continue reading »
Recognition of the Palestinian state is an essential step to achieve peace and stability in the world and to bring an end to the Zionist colonial expansionist project in the Middle East. It is time that Australia be on the right side of history, recognise the state of Palestine and stand up in defence of Continue reading »
I support recognition of a Palestinian state, in the UN context, as an affirmation that our values apply in our approach to dealings between states as well as within states. It should be a lower order of priority for Australia than seeking an immediate and durable end to the conflict in Gaza, and the return Continue reading »
The prospects for significant health reform looked good at the end of 2023. A mid-term review of the main Commonwealth-state agreement – the National Health Reform Agreement (NHRA) – had recommended that the focus of a new agreement, due mid-2025, should be broader than public hospital funding. States seemed to be on board and the Continue reading »