In the unlikely event that Peter Dutton could manage the succession of problems with nuclear power stations – persistent massive cost overruns; State legislation banning nuclear; and NIMBY backlashes – he would still have a big problem – lack of staff to run the plants. Currently there is an international shortage of engineers and other Continue reading »
Government
Could the final act of the US’s Global War on Terror (GWOT) be the conviction of a US President for terrorism? Tantalising but implausible? Read on. The ICC request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and others is only the beginning. Around the world evidence is being gathered and cases are being prepared, including against British, Continue reading »
The Jewish Council of Australia renews our calls for the Albanese Government to use all possible diplomatic pressure to stop Israel committing the crime of genocide. Yesterday, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 45 people who were living in tents in the declared safe-zone of Rafah. The act is likely in breach of last week’s Continue reading »
Words and phrases used to define, classify, and order our world, combine to tell a good story. That story, told often enough, seems normal. But that story can hide, ignore, and distort, reinforcing unhelpful beliefs and stereotypes. This is what’s happening with stories about skills and occupations. Every week multiple reports are published by governments, Continue reading »
The rather timid headline for a recent aggressive story in the New York Times (NYT) introduced a detailed investigation by that newspaper of how the governance of Israel has been captured by brutalised backers of apartheid. Michael Edesess recently observed how headline writing is regarded a special skill in journalistic circles. The NYT, he noted, Continue reading »
What kind of population does Australia need? Jim Chalmers recently informed us that Australian citizens ought to have more babies. Commentators on various blogs and fora have returned to dwelling on Australia’s “carrying capacity” as though this is a farm and we are grazing cattle. Peter Dutton, in his Budget Reply, stated his intent to Continue reading »
Dutton has finally started to show his hand and build his campaign for the next election around energy policy and housing affordability. The problem is that his ignorance of the evidence demonstrates his incompetence. Ever since he became Leader of the Labor Party, Albanese has been determined to offer a small target by not departing Continue reading »
The ACT Labor-Greens coalition is widely seen as the most permissive and truly liberal government in the country. It is moving to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 and its criminal legislation is generally seen as quite generous, and its courts quite lenient, toward defendants. Indeed, many NSW colleagues are regularly Continue reading »
With the surgical precision of a scalpel, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has severed what remained of the moral authority of the West. The reactions and indifference, led by the United States, has done more to undermine the global rules based order than any action initiated by China, which is usually painted as the arch Continue reading »
What a twenty-five-year-old memo by Daniel Ellsberg says about the past failures of Lyndon Johnson and the current horrors of Benjamin Netanyahu. The conversion of my friend Ellsberg, who died last June of cancer, from avid supporter of and adviser on the Vietnam War to perhaps its most important critic is well known. One of Continue reading »