Author aSense
By Professor Augusto Zimmerman. Augusto Zimmerman has been one of the few Australian academics to speak out boldly about the dysfunction in the nation’s family law and child support systems. He does so from a position of strength, being a… Continue Reading →
By Jodi Rowley, Australian Museum Curator This article is part of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a special project by The Conversation that tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last summer’s bushfire tragedy. Explore the project here and… Continue Reading →
TOTT News: New online Task Force will Target Critical Thinkers The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will establish a new taskforce to counter “online disinformation campaigns”, in a bid to further clamp down on social media activities. The move… Continue Reading →
By Gregory Moore, University of Melbourne If you fondly remember May Gibbs’s Gumnut Baby stories about the adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, you may also remember the villainous Big Bad Banksia Men (perhaps you’re still having nightmares about them). But… Continue Reading →
By John Patykowski, Deakin University Grass trees (genus Xanthorrhoea) look like they were imagined by Dr Seuss. An unmistakable tuft of wiry, grass-like leaves atop a blackened, fire-charred trunk. Of all the wonderfully unique plants in Australia, surely grass trees… Continue Reading →
The 6×6 Global Talent Program from the World Press Photo Foundation recognises six visual storytellers from six global regions, to highlight talent from around the world and present stories with diverse perspectives. Launched in 2018, the initiative completed its first cycle last… Continue Reading →
By Marcus Reubenstein with Michael West Media Funded by the Department of Defence, the Australia Strategic Policy Institute collects millions more as it drives the “China threat” narrative. As Marcus Reubenstein reports, while ASPI is the media’s go-to experts for public comment,… Continue Reading →
By Jonathan Benjamin, Flinders University; Geoff Bailey, University of York; Jo McDonald, University of Western Australia; Michael O’Leary, University of Western Australia and Sean Ulm, James Cook University For most of the human history of Australia, sea levels were much… Continue Reading →
By John Stapleton Walter ‘Whacky’ Douglas looked like he was having a fine old time when he was arrested and deported from Thailand in 2014. Douglas, known as “The Tartan Pimpernel” and once described as one of Britain’s ten wealthiest… Continue Reading →
By Leisa Armstrong of Edith Cowan University In recent months, food security concerns have emerged for nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as swarms of desert locusts wreak havoc on crops. While the same level of damage isn’t… Continue Reading →
By Augusto Zimmerman All the worst elements of Australian governance have been released during the so-called “Pandemic”. Every little autocrat in the country is telling you where to sit, where to stand, where you can and cannot go, how many… Continue Reading →
By Jacqui Sol, CSIRO; Annie Kelly, and Suzanne Prober, CSIRO In box gum grassy woodlands, widely spaced eucalypts tower over carpets of wildflowers, lush native grasses and groves of flowering wattles. It’s no wonder some early landscape paintings depicting Australian… Continue Reading →
By The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s International Cyber Policy Centre Against the backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has become the subject of a diverse and rapidly expanding universe of conspiracy theories. As an example, a… Continue Reading →
By Tarric Brooker with Independent Australia A huge number of Australians will be plunged into poverty overnight as others get to renovate their homes — courtesy of Australian Government programs. Tarric Brooker reports. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has begun pulling back stimulus measures, despite… Continue Reading →
By Gisela Kaplan, University of New England Calling someone a “bird brain” is not usually meant as a compliment. But as research continues to reveal, birds are much smarter than was once thought. Australian birds are arguably among the smartest… Continue Reading →
By Caitlin Johnstone Twitter has censored a post by the president of the United States, this time for “a threat of harm against an identifiable group.” This despite the fact that this president routinely uses the popular social media platform… Continue Reading →
Australia’s Crony Capitalism: Government Fights Off Move to Shut Loophole for Old-Money Billionaires
By Michael West The Government has grovelled to its billionaire donors yet again, killing a Senate amendment to force the richest Australians to disclose their financial statements. Michael West reports on the crusade by independent senator Rex Patrick to hold the Morrison… Continue Reading →
Professor Jenny Hocking recently won her longstanding campaign for the National Archives of Australia to release the so-called “Palace letters” about the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975. This is her account of that campaign. In August 1975, speaking at… Continue Reading →
By TOTT News Out of all the technologies to emerge in the past couple of decades, facial recognition is one of the most controversial issues. Its benefits come at a price — a price that some deem too great. How… Continue Reading →
By TOTT News Workplaces are looking very different from what they used to, as people begin to return to their jobs after months at home amid the coronavirus lockdown. From mandatory ‘COVID Safe’ guidelines and work-from-home normalities, to online surveillance… Continue Reading →
By Callum Foote with Michael West Media Witness K has been in court, in closed-court proceedings nobody is meant to know about. He is on trial for doing the right thing. With the release of his book, Oil Under Troubled Water,… Continue Reading →
By John Flanagan In terms of human suffering, the Australian public has already paid dearly for the failure to reform outdated, badly administered and inappropriate institutions dealing with family breakdown — and for the failure of governments to take seriously the voices… Continue Reading →
By Gary Dickson of Monash Unversity The Yarram Standard and Great Southern Star, both of which have covered South Gippsland for well over a century, won’t be returning from their coronavirus-enforced suspensions. The two papers are the latest in a… Continue Reading →
By Professor Ramesh Thakur There has been a remarkable lack of observed statistical difference in the rates of death for countries, and for US states, that have and have not locked down. An assessment of the models used to project… Continue Reading →
By Shireen Daft, Macquarie University. In the ongoing protests over the killing of George Floyd and the broader issue of racial injustice, we have been bombarded with images of demonstrators being hit with tear gas and pepper spray. In the… Continue Reading →
With Ethan Nash of TOTT News Two months ago questioning the wisdom of government lockdowns in response to Covid-19 could easily get you banned from Facebook or Twitter. Google executives clearly stated they would be removing what they regarded as… Continue Reading →
By Catherine Waters, University of Kent “Charles Dickens the misogynist”, ran a headline in the Mail on Sunday on May 23 2020, publicising a new book marking the 150th anniversary of his death on June 9 1870. “The novelist was… Continue Reading →
By Professor Ramesh Thakur If ever there was justification for a Royal Commission, this is it. Its primary term of reference should not be to apportion blame, but to identify how we can prepare better for the next big one. With 102… Continue Reading →
By Michelle Fahy with Michael West Media After 28 years with Defence Science and Technology, on Friday 28 October 2016 Dr Tony Lindsay, one of Australia’s most eminent defence scientists, said goodbye. The following Tuesday, 1 November, he started work with… Continue Reading →
By TOTT News Technologies allowing thoughts and feelings to be translated and shared into digital form are already a reality, and in the era of neurocapitalism, your brain will soon require its own rights. In the modern world, brain-computer interfaces… Continue Reading →
By Alex Joske What’s the problem?The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is strengthening its influence by co‑opting representatives of ethnic minority groups, religious movements, and business, science and political groups. It claims the right to speak on behalf of those groups… Continue Reading →
The role of the Silicon Valley tech companies in manipulating public opinion during the Corona lockdowns has thrown a harsh light straight back on their own conduct. The creation of at scale emotional contagion and high levels of compliance in… Continue Reading →