Australian citizens are at risk of being prosecuted under Australian law if they commit, or are complicit in crimes being perpetrated by the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza. Since the commencement of the Gaza war, when the Israeli government issued an order to 360,000 military reservists to engage in the onslaught of Gaza, multiple dual Continue reading »
politics
Australia’s reluctance from afar to recognise Israel’s genocide in Gaza is being challenged by the genocide case against Israel in the World Court. Australia has finally made clear its official position on the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Continue reading »
Australia’s assistance in striking targets in Yemen, obediently abiding by the direction of the United States and United Kingdom, had a certain curious resonance to another event that involved foreign shipping, the wounded pride of imperial powers, and meddling Arabs. From November 2023, the Houthis initiated a number of measures against Israeli shipping and vessels Continue reading »
We should be concerned about conditions for prisoners. Why? The obvious answer is that if the recidivism rate is high then the system is not working. A young unkempt man presented to the community centre at which I worked as a volunteer Chaplain. Struggling to make conversation, wanting to be left alone yet attending because Continue reading »
The founding secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo, was dismissed late last year for egregiously breaching the public service code of conduct. The man who lectured public servants they should live by that code, broke it in a manner no previous secretary in living memory had done. While that should have provided an Continue reading »
Gaza is surely now among the internet’s most recognisable words, for obvious reasons. It used to be far less familiar to Australians. Up to about 1948, if they knew it at all it was as the place where the Biblical blinded Samson pulled down the temple, or where the Light Horse fought in 1917 to Continue reading »
The January release of the Cabinet papers for 2003 reminds us of the failure of the second attempt to introduce an economy wide carbon price in Australia through an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It marks the ascendancy of the energy and resource sectors in influencing the Coalitions climate change policies. This decision to reject emission Continue reading »
To initiate a war of aggression has been described as the supreme international crime. If a regional war breaks out in the Middle East, triggered by the illegal recent strikes by the USA and UK against the Houthis, Australia could well be complicit in the commission of the supreme international crime. The United Nations Security Continue reading »
The Lattouf story shows that the same level of white colonial supremacist attitudes that have forged the bond of western leaders on the Middle East issue permeates the leadership of public broadcasting. Antoinette Lattouf should be reinstated by the ABC. Her case goes before the Fair Work Commission today. For good reason, her sacking by Continue reading »
The transcript of the detailed and moving closing arguments for the South African case against Israel to the International Court of Justice by London-based human rights barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC, in the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) Continue reading »