There are twice as many international students from Singapore than there are from Indonesia studying in Australian universities, although Singapore has a population of 6 million and Indonesia has a population of 277 million. In 2019 (before Covid) more students in Australian universities came from Nepal than from any SE Asian country. There are many Continue reading »
politics
On October 14, we can change our Constitution to recognise the original inhabitants – now one of the most disadvantaged groups in Australia. Their suffering stems from the autocratic decisions made about and for them by Colonial and Australian governments. But how can we decide which way to vote? Here is a decision-making model that Continue reading »
A campaign of ethnic cleansing, or what the former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has warned may qualify as ‘Genocide’, is currently taking place against the 120,000 indigenous Christian Armenian population of Artsakh (aka Nagorno Karabakh). A historic Christian Armenian enclave within the borders of today’s Azerbaijan, its Armenian population Continue reading »
The ten years of the Belt and Road Initiative has proven that the rise of China has not brought colonialism, disaster, war, refugees, and crises. Instead, it brought the world trade, commodities, tourists, infrastructure, economic growth and civilisation. No matter how Western politicians, media, and think tanks vilify the BRI, they cannot cover up a Continue reading »
Today, we live in an era of high tension between China, our largest trading partner and the US, our closest ally. We risk being goaded into war by the Australian and American hawks and their Chinese equivalents in reaction. Of seeing our sovereignty eroded and becoming the “USS Terra Australis” the largest aircraft carrier in Continue reading »
There’s a heartbreaking graphic going around right now showing the almost microscopic changes that have occurred to the frontline of the war in Ukraine this year despite nonstop death and destruction of unfathomable horror the entire time. The graphic comes from a New York Times article titled “Who’s Gaining Ground in Ukraine? This Year, No Continue reading »
It was OK with ASIO, the Defence Department, the Treasury Minister of the day (Scott Morrison) and it was definitely OK with the Northern Territory government to lease the Port of Darwin to a Chinese contractor. It was even OK with the Obama Administration who would have vetoed it for sure if they had a Continue reading »
The RSL was once one of the most influential lobby groups in Australia. Today it is better known for the number of poker machines it operates. Back in the day, as they say, they were knocking on doors in Canberra where the people they met to lobby often had returned service badges in their lapels. Continue reading »
Commentary on the tenure of Secretaries of Commonwealth Government departments is becoming perilous territory as those wading into it continue to make basic errors of fact. Geoffrey Hawker is the latest to do so (“Tenure and its Troubles”, Pearls and Irritations, 17 September 2023). Let’s take four of Hawker’s statements. “The trajectory from Whitlam through Continue reading »
If stress has its own Richter scale, the people standing outside political offices of late seem to be under massive pressure. Vigils by stranded refugees have been ongoing for the past fortnight outside the Victorian electoral offices of Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles. These events have been characterised by chants, music, heart signs Continue reading »