The Guardian newspaper reports that history professor Allan Lichtman is known as the Nostradamus of US presidential elections since he has correctly predicted the results of nine of the past ten ballots. And even the one he missed in 2000, he insists was stolen from Al Gore because thousands of black votes got rejected on a Continue reading »
Government
The latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics paint a grim picture of a nation becoming more and more entangled in the web of incarceration. During 2022-23, the total number of people behind bars surged by three percent, accompanied by a one percent rise in the imprisonment rate. These figures not only reflect a Continue reading »
With a couple of minutes Googling, your favourite Martian could be well informed on the role of government in the Australian economy from the moment of the arrival of the British colonialists. It’s been big. Colonial and other governments have not only provided legal and economic frameworks within which private organisations can work, they’ve done Continue reading »
Even good minds can get criminal justice wrong, but usually for only so long. Several years ago, a veteran magistrate was speaking over lunch with a bunch of us criminal-law practitioners. Inevitably, the judicial colleagues came in for some free and frank character analysis, but the most telling comment was about a relatively recent arrival Continue reading »
The Jewish Council of Australia is horrified by what we are witnessing Israel do in Rafah. Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank is the greatest impediment to peace for Palestinians and Israelis. As Rafah assault continues, Australia must vote yes to Palestine at UN and do more to prevent genocide May 8th, Continue reading »
The loss of Western authority as a result of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza has merely sped up changes already underway for a generation. It was a coincidence of course. As Australia Day came to an end the seventeen judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) were preparing to deliver their preliminary response to Continue reading »
The ABC now faces an awful dilemma. If, as now seems certain, it loses the media bargaining code revenue it has been receiving from Facebook, now Meta, it will have to sack many of the 60 journalists and support staff it has recruited since entering into commercial contracts in 2021. The ABC is legally obligated Continue reading »
Politicians are increasingly using the word to justify bad policy initiatives and fend off criticism of their decisions. I doubt if you’re waiting with bated breath for next Tuesday night’s federal budget, but since it’s the big set-piece event of my year I’ve started limbering up. I’ve set my bulldust detector to ping every time Continue reading »
Inches upon inches of press releases have heralded how Build to Rent (BTR) is coming to Australia to provide affordable and stable rentals. However, the draft legislation released by Minister Collins contains precious little for public interest outcomes. Millions of dollars are being gifted to the BTR industry at state and federal levels and the Continue reading »
A sense of crisis now pervades discussion of what to do about violence against women, made obvious by recent marches demanding action, statistics suggesting that the rate of fatal attacks is increasing, and general unease after several knife attacks in Sydney, in one of which women represented five of the six victims. Anthony Albanese and Continue reading »