The State of Israel can butcher thousands of innocents but New Zealand would not lift a finger to provide support to its victims. IDF soldiers can gun down old men and women waving white flags, shell lines of refugees queuing for aid and deprive hospitals of power and medicine – and all New Zealand does Continue reading »
politics
Japan finds itself at a crucial juncture in its relationship with China, with an opportunity to recalibrate and enhance bilateral ties through a seemingly simple yet impactful diplomatic tool: visa policy. As reported by Kyodo News on Tuesday, China’s proposal to Japan—granting visa exemptions for diplomatic and official passport holders in exchange for resuming visa-free Continue reading »
The Albanese Government was right to change its previous position on the already legislated Stage 3 tax cuts and to seek a fairer and more equitable taxation system for all Australians. However, its proposed changes fail to deal sufficiently with the increasing tax bites into the incomes of low paid working Australians. The focus on Continue reading »
One of the many things Australians should consider as they contemplate our nationhood on the day set aside for this purpose is our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars. We boast of our military traditions, our baptisms of fire and of our long traditions of unquestioning obedience and eager anticipation of Continue reading »
Netanyahu and his supporters in Washington are playing for very high and dangerous stakes indeed as the Middle East war threatens to widen beyond Gaza. I will try in this unavoidably long essay to draw together the main political-military threads of the now very tangled situation across the Middle East, with the Gaza war as Continue reading »
The International Court of Justice has responded rather toothlessly to South Africa’s appeal to the Genocide Convention. In less than a month, a similar result can be expected when Britain’s Royal Courts of Justice hear for Julian Assange’s last appeal against extradition to the United States. One case seeks to protect the lives and well-being Continue reading »
For many of us a burning issue in our lives at this time is clearly what is happening in the Middle East – or more particularly Palestine. That genocide on a massive scale has been occurring cannot be denied. One hoped for a stronger preliminary finding to support interim measures by the ICJ. But it Continue reading »
Dear children of Gaza, I am sorry. The world sees your tears. It hears your cries. It sees your bodies piled in the rubble. The world Witnesses but still it continues. We hear about your dreams and aspirations; to learn to travel; to visit your beaches with clear blue water; or play in playgrounds with Continue reading »
Within 24 hours of an allegation made by Mark Regev, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the BBC last Friday, that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) participated in the October 7 operation, foreign ministers of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and a few other countries, jumped Continue reading »
Isaac Herzog, Yoav Gallant, Israel Katz: Israel’s president, defence minister and foreign minister. The president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Joan Donoghue, chose to cite all three of them as evidence of suspicion of incitement to genocide in Israel. The judge did not cite the far-right fringes, neither Itamar Ben-Gvir nor Eyal Golan; Continue reading »