By mid-May, Budget time, the Albanese government will be a week short of two years in power. Albanese is moving into the zone where he could confidently approach the Governor-General, new or old, for an early election, perhaps as early as July, unexceptionably in October or November. I can’t see any parliamentary problem needing to Continue reading »
Government
Boris Johnson did it, Donald Trump specialises in it, Peter Dutton is trying it. All these conservatives whose economic policies serve the special interests of the highest income earners have based, or are trying to base, their political strategy on winning the votes of working class voters, particularly working class men, and even more specifically, Continue reading »
The world today is disastrously misgoverned by a paranoid generation of ageing political leaders. There’s not a statesman among them, let alone a stateswoman. Meanwhile, the once dominant mainstream political parties are retreating into their bunkers, fearful of the exposure of corruption that has remained hidden in their ranks, terrified of malevolent media moguls, and Continue reading »
Samantha Mostyn will become the next Governor General in July, taking over from outgoing former General David Hurley. I am greatly cheered by this news, not simply because she is only the second woman to hold this office but because I believe she has the capacity to heal this nation at a time of its Continue reading »
I congratulate Samantha Mostyn on her appointment as Governor-General. Such an appointment is a great honour. Ms Mostyn has given much service to public life as she has to both community and business life. This service marked her out as a distinguished communitarian with a complex range of interests. And with those interests, experience. Accordingly, Continue reading »
It’s well past time that Australia’s English language requirements for working holiday visas was addressed and applied consistently for young people in all countries. Australia has two types of visas for backpackers – young people who want to combine a holiday with work in Australia. The Working Holiday Maker visa (sub-class 417) and the Work Continue reading »
Australia, with its brief white history, once had an opportunity to be positively exemplary among nations, conscious and remedying of its colonial and penal acts and origins. It had fewer mistakes to wipe, and more physical riches to value and to share. Yet in a very short time that opportunity and those resources have been Continue reading »
Top spy agency urges Chinese citizens to step up cybersecurity as attacks by overseas agencies have been ‘rampant’ in recent years. The message comes as Beijing broadens scope of anti-espionage law to cover online attacks and prepares to expand penalties for data violations. China’s state security authority warned that the networks of “hundreds” of Chinese Continue reading »
The latest Migration Act amendments reflects the fact that Pezzullo’s protégées are still running the Department of Home Affairs. They are actively papering over the mess that their own indefinite detention decisions created. A sharp new broom is needed to clear out the departmental debris. On Tuesday, a bunch of bright young refugees went to Continue reading »
The government’s new deportation legislation is both radical and at the same time addresses two issues that have been around for at least 30 years. But is it good law and why the urgency? Australian governments have long been frustrated by people subject to deportation or removal not co-operating in their removal. They simply refuse Continue reading »