ACT Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury might get the feeling that the new Law Reform and Sentencing Advisory Council he established in November last year is channeling Freddie Mercury: they want it all, and they want it now. Council chair Lisbeth Campbell has made it clear that hers is an independent body. She even had to have Continue reading »
politics
Lobbying has been part of politics for the past two millennia, but in the past twenty years it has become an artform in persuasion and influence. At times it is scarcely possible to distinguish the elected representatives from unelected politicians. It seems now that a political career is not just election to a parliament, but Continue reading »
The environment is a key policy concern for Independent MP Kylea Tink, as for the other “Teal” Independents. Continue reading »
It is easy these days to grab a headline about the end of peak China. China’s imminent economic stagnation is becoming conventional wisdom, unless of course one happens to be in the resources, energy, green industry, or automobile sectors, just to name a few. There, China’s demand continues to surge or, alternatively, depending on the Continue reading »
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 »
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 »