We live in a global community, and many of us enjoy the benefits. A far greater number have no such enjoyment, existing in disadvantage; in poverty, hunger, homelessness, oppression, violence of one kind or another- preventable travesties. Worse still, unacceptable numbers of our kin exist in dispossession, statelessness, destruction, mutilation, despair, death. And the privileged Continue reading »
Defence
March hasn’t been one of the better months for Kim Beazley, the former Hawke and Keating Government minister, leader of the federal ALP and governor of Western Australia and now chairman of the Council of the Australian War Memorial. In the ABC’s recent 4 Corners program, he was cornered on the AWM’s acceptance of funding Continue reading »
It is 22 years since Rachel Corrie was killed by the Israeli military as she defended a Palestinian home against a bulldozer. Adam Bandt on ABC’s Insiders says the priority should be to end AUKUS. Bombing continues in Yemen where Ansar Allah is maintaining a blockade in the Red Sea. The Australia Institute calls out Continue reading »
Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have proven too gutless, so far, to speak frankly to Australians about the implications of the imposition of new tariffs by the US, the first of many, to be imposed on Australia. They have expressed some ritual regrets and said it was a poor reward for their sycophantic grovelling over Continue reading »
The Albanese Government has jammed itself by trying to not talk about the greatest threat to Australia’s future, but has now opened itself to the charge of playing politics with security issues. The absurdity was on full display in a front-page story last weekend, when The Saturday Paper reported that the government gave a secret Continue reading »
Amazing? PM Albanese is the first Australian prime minister since John Curtin to push back publicly on our security against a global leader since John Curtin recognised the danger of an exploitative Britain eight decades ago. Curtin acted. Could it be that Albanese just might act too? Last week Anthony Albanese responded to a view Continue reading »
How should Australia respond when the US, our closest ally, is engaged in a very public and petulant global meltdown? Labor and the Coalition are desperately trying not to mention it while fearfully offering tribute to Donald Trump in the hope we will somehow be spared. This will not work. Bullies can smell weakness and Continue reading »
The failure of media to ask obvious questions was on full display as three ships from the Chinese People Liberation Army-Navy completed their circumnavigation of Australia. One of the most important, often frustrating, aspects of dealing with the Chinese is the importance of what is not said. No, it’s not some conundrum taken from the Continue reading »
There’s a simple solution to the problem of Chinese warships sailing around Australia: a reciprocal agreement – you don’t sail off our coast and we won’t sail off yours. I have no doubt China would accept and adhere to such a reciprocal agreement. The obstacle is not them. It’s us, Australia, or more precisely the Continue reading »
A significant intelligence failure to detect live-firing by Chinese warships near Australia, has exposed Defence weaknesses, and the fact that when it counts, we are all alone. Australia is caught in a jam, between an assertive American ally and a bold Chinese trading partner. America is accelerating its pivot to the Indo-Pacific, building up its Continue reading »