Madeleine King, Minister for Resources in the Albanese government, recently announced that she will curtail the ability of Australians to challenge resource corporation projects in court (The West Australian 26/3/24). This attack on democratic rights is built on decades of disinformation shaping the global discussion on fossil fuels and climate change. King’s action comes from Continue reading »
politics
The order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 28 March 2024 to stop genocide in Gaza is not a go-to-jail card for Israel. So Israel just ignored it. In so doing, it followed the example of the US which had ignored an ICJ decision against the US and in favour of Nicaragua in Continue reading »
Former Australian Prime Minister (yep, really), Scott Morrison, has posted on social media of how he tricked his wife and children into believing that he’d been raptured after hiding from them yesterday morning. ”You should’ve seen the looks on their... Read More ›
A tip to take a wee shot at understanding the way of doing politics in Indonesia: Suspend rationality. Now imagine PM Anthony Albanese offering Scott Morrison a ministry – choice from five. Not such a smart move for Down Under but OK for next door. Come May, the Indonesian Constitutional Court should respond to challenges Continue reading »
During the early 1990s, I once asked an experienced media adviser with whom I worked and admired what his thoughts were on the Australian Journalists Association (now the MEAA) Code of Ethics. His answer was that the code amounts to a point of departure in the way that journalists practise. I understood he wasn’t saying Continue reading »
Albanese’s practice of preferring to govern and legislate through deals with the coalition rather than with Greens and Independents is plainly because of a theory or strategy of what is in Labor’s long-term interests. It presumably includes the fear that Labor itself could atomise, as the coalition has done, if the influence and power of Continue reading »
We are getting used to mega-sized investment announcements from the government – a couple of billion for hydrogen projects, four or maybe six billion for “critical minerals” and now a billion for solar panel manufacturing. Of course, these numbers are small compared to government commitments such as the NDIS or of course AUKUS, but they Continue reading »
The Western press is filled with stories of foreboding about the Chinese economy. We are told regularly that China’s fast growth is over, that China’s data are manipulated, that a Chinese financial crisis looms, and that China will suffer the same stagnation as Japan during the past quarter century. This is U.S. propaganda, not reality. Continue reading »
As paediatricians and child health professionals we have committed our professional lives to promoting the physical and psychological health of children. Every society places great importance on the care and protection of its children in addition to the dignity it attributes to all human lives. War harms children disproportionately. It destroys their right to thrive Continue reading »