Australia, and my Party too, must make a commitment to restoring the primacy of reason, rejecting a paranoid view of history and ‘telling truth to power’. Our blind adoption of irrational policies, supine and unquestioning acquiescence to anything the United States proposes must end. Our species, facing an existential threat to civilisation from climate change, Continue reading »
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Australia has been paying insiders of the US war machine for consultation on how to run the nation’s military, a massive conflict of interest given that Washington has been grooming Australia for a role in its war agendas against China. In an article titled “Retired US admirals charging Australian taxpayers thousands of dollars per day Continue reading »
P&I Editorial: Conflicts of interest at the heart of AUKUS and the Defence Strategic Review (DSR) – including the principal author of the DSR benefitting from US State Department funding designed to build support for AUKUS and the US alliance – demand independent investigation. Australia’s independently-led Defence Strategic Review will shortly be released to the Continue reading »
It is understandable that Australian leaders may feel insecure, even paranoid, about Australia’s future in the Asian twenty-first century. As Western power recedes from the world – especially from East Asia – Australia and New Zealand will be left stranded as lonely Western outposts in Asia. But it’s fatal to find emotionally comfortable solutions to Continue reading »
In August, it will be three years since Australia’s China-based correspondents were harried out of China. In an extraordinary over-reaction, the ABC, Fairfax, and News Corp closed their offices in Beijing and Shanghai. The ABC opened its Beijing office in 1973. It was one of a handful of European and Canadian news organisations to have Continue reading »
Australia’s health system is under significant pressure. The Labor government has inherited a system with declining bulk-billing rates for GP visits. These fell from almost 90 per cent of all GP attendances bulk billed in December 2021 to just over 80 per cent a year later. Significant workforce shortages remain in rural and remote Australia, Continue reading »
‘I believe the time for the Voice has come’. With those words from the Liberal MP Julian Leeser announcing his resignation as shadow minister for Indigenous Affairs, the path to a successful referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament just got a lot clearer, as did Peter Dutton’s dire miscalculation in opposing it. Leeser is Continue reading »
…. not the path to a life of harmony and peace. The 1924 Hibbert Journal published what appears to be the earliest printed version of a very well-worn joke with the final punchline: “a gintleman with a face like your honour’s can’t miss the road; though, if it was meself that was going to Letterfrack, Continue reading »
Last month, the Djab Wurrung, Gunnai and Gunditjamara Senator Lidia Thorpe, cut ties with the Greens. In moving to the crossbench, she claimed it was her intention to represent the “black sovereign” movement in the Parliament – a movement that had strong grassroots in Australia, “full of staunch and committed warriors”. The black sovereign movement Continue reading »
If the Australian Public Service and its satellite institutions were to last a thousand years, people will still say “The Robodebt was one of its most dismal hours”. Robodebt was conceived by a government, one of whose operating principles was defined by the despicable distinction made by former Treasurer Joe Hockey between “lifters and leaners”. Continue reading »