The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green). In mid-2023, Minister Gentleman chose not to act on the findings of the second and final report of Neil McAllister, the then independent inspector of correctional services. Instead, Gentleman Continue reading »
Government
By focusing on punitive programs instead of community-driven support over a ‘youth crime crisis’ that did not exist, the incoming Queensland LNP government appears to be blind to the systemic issues that drive children toward vulnerability. Their policies will reinforce a cycle of criminalisation that will haunt our communities for generations. It’s several days after Continue reading »
The second New South Wales Drug Summit will be held in regional centres for two days in October and the final two days will be in Sydney on the 4th and 5th December to be co-chaired by Carmel Tebbutt and John Brogden – a balance of politics. Do summits achieve worthwhile outcomes? The first Drug Continue reading »
The world’s biodiversity crisis gathers pace and any effective action depends on the reduction of economic growth. High-level leadership is needed to explain the fundamental conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation which threatens humanity possibly sooner than the ravages of climate change. COP16 on biodiversity commenced on October 21 with the role to explain Continue reading »
“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases and the alcohol.” – Paul Keating, Redfern speech. Reaching out to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can be daunting for non-indigenous people, until respect is safely established, and an equal listening Continue reading »
Those who work in the social service sector in Alice Springs, as I do, know this fact intimately: there is an incredible amount of money funding our response to a community who have incredibly little. Our system watches as desperate people stumble and waits for them to fall before extending a paternalistic hand or one Continue reading »
Calling Lidia Thorpe “un-Australian”, as occurred in Canberra on 22 October, is to be reminded that being “Australian” is to grovel to British royalty, to curtsy, genuflect and pay homage and allegiance to an anti-democratic institution, to a man who has wealth, position, entitlement and power due to birth, and birth only. To be “Australian” Continue reading »
Australia now has a government and parliament wanting timely transition to net zero. We have a government and parliament wanting to build Australia as the renewable energy superpower of the zero-carbon world economy. For the time being, we have favourable international settings for using our opportunity. The government of Australia has embraced this superpower narrative, Continue reading »
Albanese once said his purpose in life was to “fight Tories.” In government he has done little more than surrender to them. The menu for Anthony Albanese over the next few weeks provides good examples of Labor’s problems in controlling the agenda and sticking to the narrative over the lead-up to the next federal election. Continue reading »
Being vital deportment behavioral protocols in the face of British flapdoodle Continue reading »