My first article published here at Pearls and Irritations, titled Built on a tower of lies, described how positive feedback loops have created at a societal level an enormous tower of lies that guide public discourse. I further warned that if we failed to dismantle this tower the consequences would be traumatic. Unfortunately, the horrifically Continue reading »
politics
Opposition to the AUKUS deal among rank and file Labor supporters and similarly aligned voters is increasing by the day. It’s not simply because AUKUS is a malignant inheritance from the Morrison government that people who voted Labor at the last election are expressing their alarm about it today. On every level it is so obviously Continue reading »
Next week’s primaries will show whether progressive populists can win the same way they did four years ago: by rejecting corporate cash.
The post Virginia’s Democratic Party Is Letting Energy Money Back In appeared first on The Intercept.
With billions of dollars on the banquet table, Australia should choose its dinner guests wisely. The defence lobbying firm Pyne & Partners – chaired by the former Australian Defence Minister Christopher Pyne – co-hosted an AUKUS reception and dinner in Washington at the swanky Cosmos Club on Embassy Row, with Northrop Grumman Corporation, on 3 April Continue reading »
Since I was elected, I have consistently called for media reform. This is due to my concerns that the absence of media diversity and the resulting concentration of power are leading to a lack of accountability and eroding public trust in the fourth estate. The publication of leaked text messages in relation to the high-profile Continue reading »
There is a widespread misconception that the powers given the Federal Parliament by the Australian Constitution may be altered only by referendum. Section 128 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1901 prescribes the mode of altering the Constitution and is premised on there being a proposed law for the alteration ‘passed by an absolute Continue reading »
The Albanese government’s embrace of the AUKUS security pact faces a second internal rejection in as many weeks, with the Victorian branch of the Labor Party poised to condemn it on multiple fronts, writes Phillip Coorey in the AFR. Two weeks after the Queensland branch of the ALP, at its state conference, refused to support Continue reading »
I take this opportunity to urge, to recommend with utmost urgency for our brothers in Ukraine and in Russia to come as soon as possible to a secession of hostilities. And I would like to declare at this present moment that Indonesia is prepared to contribute military observers and military units under the peacekeeping auspices Continue reading »
America is no longer the dominant hegemon in our region. In its place Australia can and should play an important role in establishing a true multipolar system of governance. But that will first require Australia to resolve the present contradiction between our foreign and defence policies. The future US-China relationship The starting point for any Continue reading »