The death of young aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza last week was a tragic reminder that we have all failed to stop this unrelenting violence against the innocent. Many Australians have been horrified that the six months war continues, because governments fail to uphold international law and even our own leaders have hidden from Continue reading »
politics
In 1890 Henry Parkes spoke of “The crimson thread of kinship running through us all.” He believed this “crimson thread” – evocative of blood – united all white people in the Australian colonies and bound them to Britain. The federation he was advocating for Australia was to be exclusively white and eternally British. In contemporary Continue reading »
A few years ago, I gave a talk at the annual conference of the Australian Institute for International Affairs. Afterwards, one of the local luminaries observed that it sounded like I was channelling Bernie Sanders. It was not meant as a compliment. On the contrary, both of us were clearly regarded as unrealistic and naïve, Continue reading »
This former leader of PNG’s state energy supplier says we should take a leaf from the China playbook by using a “tied aid” model. The leadership turnstile at Papua New Guinea’s state energy provider, PNG Power (PPL), is spinning once again as the search is on for another chief executive. This latest shift at one Continue reading »
Peter Dutton thinks the Coalition is on a winner by promoting nuclear power but unbiased opinion polls find that support for nuclear power in Australia falls short of a majority, that Australians much prefer renewables, and most do not want nuclear reactors built near where they live. A February 26 page-one article in The Australian Continue reading »
Writing on the heels of Stuart Rees’s recent article in P&I, A Plea for Gaza: ‘Remember humanity & forget the rest’, and as a participant in last Wednesday’s Gaza plea for humanity event at Parliament House, Canberra, I’d like to commend Stuart for his leadership, courage and tireless efforts to bring peace with justice to Continue reading »
I read Professor Percy Allen’s interesting article (P&I, 28/03/24) and was astounded by the claim based on a list of “invasion” he was given that China was historically an imperial nation and thus dangerous. The fact that China was an imperial nation is as beyond a shadow of doubt as the Pope is Catholic. China Continue reading »
Dr Sue Wareham OAM, President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) talks with Helen McCue AM, recently awarded the Jerusalem peace prize for forty-one years of passionate advocacy and support for Palestine, through her work as founder of Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA. They discuss the destruction of medical facilities in Israel’s Continue reading »
I recently heard the British-Palestinian Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah tell of the horrors of Israel’s total destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and healthcare system. Many children who have lost both parents and extended family in Israel’s inhumane and incomprehensible slaughter of Gazans, have also lost their limbs, eyes and certainly their futures. Dr. Abu-Sittah alerts the world Continue reading »
It seems our PM and Foreign Minister remain able only to show a carefully graduated and modified ‘outrage’ over the death of an Australian aid worker in Gaza. Expressed directly to Netanyahu, Albanese could only deliver restrained diplomatese: sought was a “thorough investigation” with “full accountability and transparency”. That hardly rocked Netanyahu to the core: Continue reading »