As the shock waves from last weekend’s Voice referendum reverberate, a deeper reality is beginning to more fully reveal itself. The ‘division’ that Voice opponents claimed the proposition would create already exists among non-indigenous Australians and it is reshaping how politics is done in this country. We are moving ever closer towards a politics of Continue reading »
Government
Your fear is our fear, your safety is our safety, your blood is our blood, our blood is your blood, make no mistake. When I see a Jewish mother crying for her loss, I feel with her. I want you to feel with the thousands of Palestinian mothers that have been crying for years and Continue reading »
As vanquished Australians, white and black, fell back in ruin, defeat and humiliation on Saturday, the most galling prospect they must face is that for many of the victorious, the Voice battle was but the first engagement in a longer war. They do not want to give their enemies time for regrouping, or even for Continue reading »
Can Australia reconcile the American and Chinese strands of its foreign policy? Soon the Prime Minister will be meeting the heads of government of the two contending great powers of the Asia-Pacific: China and the United States. What will the background be? Many years ago, when the Timor crisis was at its height, I felt Continue reading »
We have “likely crossed a tipping point for Australia’s temperate broadleaf and mixed forests when a critical level of heat or drought triggers a massive, devastating event. … Climate change is driving a new era of ‘unnatural disasters’ – and as a country we are not prepared to cope.” – Australian Climate Council, 2021. September Continue reading »
Glyn Davis may have been ‘shocked’ by the Pezzullo revelations but, as several other observers have noted, many other people inside and outside the public service were not really surprised. Pezzullo has always been a divisive character with a management style that takes no prisoners. His has never been the collaborative leadership approach long espoused Continue reading »
I don’t think it’s too controversial or anti-American to suggest that our long-term strategic partner has been having a few issues lately. We may have grown used to people in the US shooting each other in large numbers, taking too many drugs, and generally over-indulging in self-destructive and planet destroying ways, but we still expected Continue reading »
Last week was China’s “Golden Week”. It is so called because it is the longest holiday of the year, with the period of Spring Festival and the National Day fused into one marathon stint. During this time, millions of Chinese pursue leisure and travel activities throughout the country in trips that amount to hundreds of Continue reading »
Rent controls may be off the immediate political agenda, but they are very much an issue for the nearly 30% of voters who rent. As more and more people face deep poverty and homelessness, the ethical imperative for revisiting rent controls is impelling. And yet, the recent negotiations between the government and the Greens revealed Continue reading »
On 11 October President Erdogan of Turkey came out and made a speech offering himself as a mediator in the current conflict. The first step in any mediation process had to be an immediate ceasefire on the part of both sides. It is time for Australia to accept its independent responsibility and to support Erdogan’s Continue reading »