A good way to scare people is to suggest your chief security body has written something so frightening that you can’t possibly let anyone read anything about it. Or maybe your top spooks have just produced something that would embarrass the government greatly, and therefore it really must stay hidden. It’s more likely to be Continue reading »
Government
Australia has no business playing the victim when the lines between strategy and economic interests have become increasingly blurred. Beijing should treat with caution renewed efforts to get relations back on track, and avoid rewarding Canberra for its coercive behaviour. Representatives from the Australian government embarked on a trip to Beijing last week, signalling the Continue reading »
It will probably shock most Australians but the political system which they take for granted to be a democracy capable of safeguarding their and their kids’ interests is hardly a democracy at all. The reality is that the “democracy” we live in is a very limited one because it is governed by a Constitution under Continue reading »
One of the most important aspects of the government’s Fair Work Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Bill is the detailed provisions covering gig workers. Those provisions account for 100 pages of the 284-page bill. The ‘Loopholes Bill’ fulfils promises Labor made before the election to regulate two types of workers: road transport owner-drivers (one of the original Continue reading »
In discussions of the upcoming referendum on establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a question often raised is how will it make a difference? This has been difficult for advocates to address because instances of governments’ empowering our First Nations peoples are few and far between. There is, however, a valuable example in Continue reading »
A new multicultural framework needs to recognise that the well-being of Australia’s multicultural communities is closely related to, and inevitably affected by, geopolitics, and by Australia’s foreign policy towards migrants’ countries of origin. It is no longer viable to conceptualise foreign policy and multicultural affairs as two separate entities. The Australian government is currently conducting Continue reading »
The Australian Government’s current Multicultural Framework Review is looking at ways for government and the community to work together to support a cohesive multicultural society and advance a vibrant and prosperous future for all Australians. The Review coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Whitlam Government’s 1973 report ‘A Multi-cultural Society for the Future’, which Continue reading »
“When elephants fight the grass dies” – African proverb. At 90 seconds to a midnight and a few decades to +4oC will ’sapiens’ end up on the beach? Under the guise of lies and cover-ups, the global powers to be have set the stage for the unthinkable, a world-wide hair-trigger human suicide system taking much Continue reading »
Loud warnings of climate disaster continue. We could be in for a catastrophe from which there is no recovery. But we are dawdling along. It is time for more decisive action. Last November, opening the COP27 world climate conference in Cairo, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, proclaimed “We are on a highway to Continue reading »
There is a lot more substance to the Members of Parliament (Staff) Amendment Bill now before the Parliament than the Public Service Act Amendment Bill. But, once again, a key reform proposed by the Thodey Review and endorsed by the Robodebt Royal Commission is missing. The MOP(S) Amendment Bill originates primarily from the Jenkins Review Continue reading »