“Keep Calm and Carry On” posters should be put up in all Canberra government departments. The British Ministry of Information produced the original of this meme in 1939 to prevent public panic about widely predicted German air attacks. A new version is needed in Australia in 2023 to counter fears of imminent invasion and subversion Continue reading »
politics
At the National Press Club yesterday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong responded to her critics by laying out the role Australia must play in the world as she sees it, in order to help shape the future of our region. It was an extraordinary feel-good speech that nevertheless sent a very clear message to the region: Continue reading »
The Opposition’s Shadow Minister for Home Affairs Barnaby Joyce has condemned Senator Lidia Thorpe after she was banned for life from a Melbourne strip club, with the Member for New England telling Senator Thorpe that she needs to respect strip... Read More ›
Scholz’s corrupt past resurrected again, coalition sinking, and questions arising over who in German government is actually steering foreign policy.
In facing the great challenge of our time, a super-state resident in continental Asia and an itinerant naval power seeking to maintain primacy – the foreign minister was unable to nominate a single piece of strategic statecraft by Australia that would attempt a solution for both powers. Paul Keating’s response to Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s Continue reading »
Taking stock of the EU's economic divorce from Russia.
From his stronghold at Princeton University, Sheldon Wolin watched his political system collapse. In the latter days of his life, Wolin erupted into utter despair. His final testimony was heartbreaking: America had become ‘the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed.’ No opinion critical of the set-up is in any Continue reading »
Fascism is in the news again, with the nazi salute being banned. Fascism is much more insidious than a few extremist adherents. With careful rebadging it has begun to pervade some of our institutions. Fascism is a hideous ideology, think of German Nazism unleashed on Europe by Hitler and Axis allies (Mussolini, Petain) with its Continue reading »
It seems that Hong Kong is at risk of losing its twin city status! Travel around almost any part of the UK and Europe and you will pass innumerable signs saying that such and such a city/town/village is twinned with a similar city/town/village in another country. Hong Kong’s twinning is somewhat different as since the Continue reading »
The federal government needs to cut spending and raise taxes to rein in Australia’s structural budget deficit, according to a new Grattan Institute report. The pre-budget report, Back in black? A menu of measures to repair the budget, shows that Australia is on track for 25 years of deficits – teenagers who started high school Continue reading »