One should never feel sympathy for a politician caught in a rule-in rule-out game. Perhaps the period should be after the eighth word, but there is something spectacularly dumb about foreclosing on policy options even when they are not under active contemplation, narrowing the range of debate and allowing its terms to be set by Continue reading »
politics
It must be so disappointing to be in the left faction of the Australian Labor Party. First, its guy, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, is not being very left of anything. Second, a progressive agenda seems to have popped off the list of anything important. Third (wimps), members of the left faction aren’t criticising their Continue reading »
The default for people who are older and near the end of life when they suffer an acute deterioration is often hospitalisation. They are placed on a conveyor belt - ambulance, Emergency Department (ED), hospital, often ending up on life support in the intensive care unit. Continue reading »
The AUKUS agreement is controversial. It covers advanced military technologies whose future is contested by experts. There is also a vigorous discussion over whether the agreement has compromised Australia’s autonomy on strategic policy making and implementation. Yet this latter debate completely misses why AUKUS is at risk of failure. AUKUS’ “Tier One” objective is to Continue reading »
The most important role of government is to protect its citizens. In Australia this is usually taken to mean military defence, alliances with other countries and considerable expenditure. However the governments of many countries including ours have not yet grasped the fact that we are facing defeat in the current battle against the advancing threats Continue reading »
It was almost impossible to listen to Benjamin Netanyahu speak at the United Nations General Assembly without a feeling of despair and disgust. Israel’s ‘friends’, which include Australia, must change their rhetoric in defence of Israel when they say: “Israel has the right to defend itself”. No nation has the right to use this slogan Continue reading »
Five minutes on X reveals the outrage toward the Australian government for its response to weekend protests while Israel is bombing Beirut. The Malaysian PM calls for western leaders to put the narrative right, while Craig Mokhiber calls for the arrest warrant of Netanyahu and Netanyahu offers the people of Iran a better future. The Continue reading »
Successive Australian governments have allowed the United States to carry out a program of militarisation in Western Australia which has made it a vital U.S war-fighting base and thus an inevitable target for retaliatory strikes should hostilities commence, for example between the U.S and China. Continue reading »
It’s clear that the Quad are not looking for anything remotely like an open and free Pacific, they are looking to further contain and incite China. Continue reading »
Penny Wong’s Australian fig leaf UN proposal is designed to cover Australia’s lack of support for the enforcement of the existing agreements and protections for humanitarian aid workers. Continue reading »