The rather timid headline for a recent aggressive story in the New York Times (NYT) introduced a detailed investigation by that newspaper of how the governance of Israel has been captured by brutalised backers of apartheid. Michael Edesess recently observed how headline writing is regarded a special skill in journalistic circles. The NYT, he noted, Continue reading »
Government
What kind of population does Australia need? Jim Chalmers recently informed us that Australian citizens ought to have more babies. Commentators on various blogs and fora have returned to dwelling on Australia’s “carrying capacity” as though this is a farm and we are grazing cattle. Peter Dutton, in his Budget Reply, stated his intent to Continue reading »
Dutton has finally started to show his hand and build his campaign for the next election around energy policy and housing affordability. The problem is that his ignorance of the evidence demonstrates his incompetence. Ever since he became Leader of the Labor Party, Albanese has been determined to offer a small target by not departing Continue reading »
The ACT Labor-Greens coalition is widely seen as the most permissive and truly liberal government in the country. It is moving to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 and its criminal legislation is generally seen as quite generous, and its courts quite lenient, toward defendants. Indeed, many NSW colleagues are regularly Continue reading »
With the surgical precision of a scalpel, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has severed what remained of the moral authority of the West. The reactions and indifference, led by the United States, has done more to undermine the global rules based order than any action initiated by China, which is usually painted as the arch Continue reading »
What a twenty-five-year-old memo by Daniel Ellsberg says about the past failures of Lyndon Johnson and the current horrors of Benjamin Netanyahu. The conversion of my friend Ellsberg, who died last June of cancer, from avid supporter of and adviser on the Vietnam War to perhaps its most important critic is well known. One of Continue reading »
Tranche 2 Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terror Financing Laws Protect Us All. In 1988, I was a trainee detective with the Australian Federal Police working in Sydney, when Australia passed the Cash Transaction Reports Act 1988 (later renamed the Financial Transaction Reports Act). This was the beginning of the introduction of Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering Continue reading »
Knowing with any degree of certainty what motivates the behaviour and decision making of political leaders whose skill set is focused on creating public perceptions, is problematic. Accordingly, it’s prudent to look less at what they say and more at what they do or don’t do. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland Continue reading »
“It’s not the word I would use”… As Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman breaks party ranks to condemn the Gazan genocide, Defence Minister Richard Marles, in defiance of the International Court of Justice and United Nations, is attempting to shield Israel and deter MPs from using the term ‘genocide’ . Last week Federal Parliament was Continue reading »
The Extradition hearing of Dan Duggan, an Australian citizen and father of six who has been held in solitary confinement for 19 months in breach of U.N. conventions at the request of the United States, will be held this Friday in a Magistrate’s Court in Sydney. Astonishing details have emerged of his relationship with the Continue reading »