International Student activists succeeded in passing anti-transport discrimination motions at Transport Minister Jo Haylen’s Summer Hill Branch. Continue reading »
Government
Since the dawn of neoliberal policy time, at the start of the 1980s, the idea that the population must suffer short-term pain for the sake of longer-term gain has been frequently stated by government and senior public servants. It has been put again and again and still yet again, in recent times, by Reserve Bank Continue reading »
Despite claims to the contrary, Australia is not a well governed country. At all levels of politics, in businesses large and small, and in the wider society, governance systems right across the country have been hollowed-out. The term governance refers to how institutions that have varying degrees of power over us actually exercise that power. Continue reading »
Senior political office is a hazardous place where job security can be fortuitous. A few jump before things sour although the temptations to hang on are strong and the ends for those who do are often fraught with bitterness, anger and recrimination. This stew may be more risky now for Prime Ministers as politics has Continue reading »
The ACT’s prison is run by a clique, with detainee bashings covered up, staff bullied into silence and the library better labelled “a supermarket” where any drug desired was freely available. This is the picture that is being inked in by former detainees and staff who have shown the courage to come forward after recent Continue reading »
Last week the government launched a media campaign to “build awareness, trust, and use” of the system of aged care star ratings. The launch came a week after the Commonwealth Ombudsman told the Senate inquiry into the Aged Care Bill that “I am concerned that the current star ratings system is not sufficiently meaningful to Continue reading »
This ACT election is not an election about policies. Nor, by itself, about significant changes to the style of government. Andrew Barr, long-serving ACT Chief Minister is perfectly right in saying that it is not Labor’s fault that Labor has been in power for such a long time. Canberra voters have consistently returned Labor for Continue reading »
The prime minister is a political operator rather than a visionary. His inability to persuade and sustain arguments is beginning to show. Anthony Albanese has always been a party organiser par excellence. He has never been a big picture politician. Pushing and shoving his faction into line has long been his metier. Not articulating, as Continue reading »
In the eye of the hurricane is a moment of calm and silence, before wild chaos and destruction resume. Symbolically, the world now stands in such a place. Continue reading »
Open Letter to Antonio Guterres on the Australian Government’s failure to publicly defend the office of the United Nations Secretary General. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations UN Plaza, NEW YORK USA Email undesa@un.org Dear Sir, We write in shame that the Australian Government has failed to join over 100 Member states Continue reading »