politics

Created
Wed, 20/03/2024 - 04:53
The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) this week published full year data on onshore asylum seekers in 2022-23 compared to 2022-21. The data highlights a post-pandemic high of 18,738 asylum applications in 2022-23 compared to 10,564 in 2021-22. That is still well below the record set under Peter Dutton of almost 28,000 asylum applications in Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 20/03/2024 - 04:51
On the ground reporting by Western media of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been weak. Most have a pro-Ukrainian bias and prefer to operate from hotels in Kiev or further west. Interviews from the trenches seem partly staged and rely on interpreters, though VICE News Tonight has good Russian-speakers who in the past have done some Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 20/03/2024 - 04:59
We need much more than the “Gaza Pose”. We’ve seen the furrowed brows and sorrowful looks. We’ve heard the regretful tones, the exhortations, the warnings, the carefully studied words. Often that’s all there’s been: words and more words. So the question for Anthony Albanese and his Minister for Steely Gazes, Penny Wong, is this. Have Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 20/03/2024 - 04:55
What has changed since 2003? Nothing, except for the worse. Australian governments continue to accept the US enemies as their own, and shoot whoever the sheriff says. All but two of the missing Iraq War Cabinet papers have now been released to the long-suffering public. But those of us who remember the Howard government’s secretive, Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 18/03/2024 - 13:35
The Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Wang Yi, is in Australia this week to participate in the China-Australia Foreign and Strategic Dialogue with his Australian counterpart, Foreign Minister Penny Wong. This is a good development and very much to be supported. While observing the reporting of this upcoming dialogue from the distance of my office in Continue reading »
Created
Tue, 19/03/2024 - 04:51
On the eve of the Russian election, Vladimir Putin exudes confidence, discounts nuclear war, but warns West on the dangers of escalation.  Meanwhile the mainstream western media obfuscates and misleads as usual. There is no better purveyor of unobtrusive, misleading propaganda than Reuters. With most mainstream Western media outlets the agenda is obvious even when Continue reading »