Tag A Sense of Place Magazine
By Michael West, Founder of Michael West Media Apart from the assorted state government stimulus initiatives, Australia’s Federal Government has been notching up stimulus at the rate of more than one per week. On March 12, a $17.6 billion stimulus — a $4.76… Continue Reading →
Fiscal Stimulus on Steroids The government which brought the nation some of the most expensive electricity in the world, worst, read truly abysmal internet, plummeting educational outcomes, highest household debt and soaring costs of living is in the act of throwing… Continue Reading →
By Michelle Fahy with Michael West Media A disturbing number of Australia’s military personnel, senior defence and intelligence officials and politicians leave their public service jobs and walk through the ‘revolving door’ into roles with weapons-making and security-related corporations. Nowhere is government… Continue Reading →
No one with two neurones to rub together trusts the Australian government. Their actions during the pandemic are being wildly and widely condemned. Australians have been suffering a slow death of democracy for years. A sclerotic bureaucracy and a greedy, dismally… Continue Reading →
An Unfolding Catastrophe The coverage has been excoriating. And so it should be. Australians have been abandoned by the political establishment. In a time of crisis, they’ve been doubly abandoned. There has been a catastrophic loss of faith in democracy,… Continue Reading →
The Failure of Australian Governance All politics is local. An adage Australia’s inept government forgot long ago. It is what is happening in people’s lounge rooms that matters the most. Now almost everyone is hunkered down in their own lounge… Continue Reading →
Australia’s Collapsing Democracy: A Deficit of Trust Experts have long warned that with the extremely poor quality of government which has characterised the last decade in Australia, the country was rapidly becoming ungovernable. Now the future has arrived. Normally in times… Continue Reading →
By Cherine Fahd and Sara Oscar Over the last few weeks, photographs in the news and on social media have documented our behaviour in response to COVID-19. Panic buying of pasta, rice and, surprisingly, toilet paper is represented in empty shelf after… Continue Reading →
By Caitlin Johnstone Powerful people will work to advance authoritarian agendas which they have no intention of reversing during this pandemic. They are working on it right now. This is not a possibility, this is a certainty. if your government… Continue Reading →
By Allan Patience with Pearls & Irritations Australia has been leaderless since the federal election last May. The Morrison government has shown itself to be woefully unprepared for the policy challenges now facing the country. It is a government that… Continue Reading →
By Michael West, founder of Michael West Media The Morrison Government’s emergency measures to protect the economy in the midst of a pandemic are another massive subsidy from embattled taxpayers to Australia’s largest corporations. They are a failure of government to… Continue Reading →
By Melissa Sweet, Editor of Croakey Immense disruption to societies, and people’s lives and work will be necessary over many months if there is to be any hope of preventing large numbers of deaths from COVID-19. That is the suggestion from modelling by… Continue Reading →
Malcolm Turnbull: A Bigger Picture This is an extract from the upcoming book Dark Dark Policing, by veteran Australian journalist John Stapleton. The book will be published next month. They weren’t so wrong, those who had painted the world as… Continue Reading →
By Michael Sainsbury with Michael West Media Despite the myriad failures of privatisation, not least the disastrous sale of the nation’s energy networks, which has delivered dazzling profits to foreign multinationals at the expense of every citizen in this country, the… Continue Reading →
Jack Waterford with Pearls & Irritations The US already has a two-tier health system: when the disease takes hold in the general population, many of its facilities will be swamped, with only the wealthy able to be sure of proper… Continue Reading →
By Dr Cathie Hull with Pearls & Irritations I was caught unawares by being exposed to COVID-19, despite thorough knowledge of the online medical research. I am now in home isolation. If I can be caught unawares, you can too…. Continue Reading →
By Alison Broinowski with Independent Australia ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. You’ve often heard that from leaders clutching at their last straw. Australia, you would think, has had enough this year. Enough of a scorched, smoky summer. Enough eviscerating loss of family. Enough… Continue Reading →
Malcolm Turnbull and Australia’s Bombs FROM Malcolm Turnbull’s first day as Prime Minister in 2015 the bombings on Iraq increased. That is, not to put too fine a point on things, he was responsible for killing more Muslims than any… Continue Reading →
By Jommy Tee with Michael West Media They cut domestic violence funding and National Parks, froze Australia’s unemployed welfare payment known as Newstart, and consigned the most needy to cashless welfare cards while spraying unprecedented billions in “invitation only” grants — our taxpayer… Continue Reading →
Alison Broinowski and the Case of Julian Assange Justice is on trial in London. Lady Arbuthnot, the Chief Magistrate in the extradition case against Julian Assange, says ‘no-one is above the law’. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison loyally says the same,… Continue Reading →
We’re Asking One Question In Assange’s Case: Should Journalists Be Punished For Exposing War Crimes?
By Caitlin Johnstone This is the transcript of a recent speech by journalist, iconoclast and all round rebel Caitlin Johnstone. Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, rots in a British prison facing extradition to the US. The geniuses in American… Continue Reading →
By Ian Purdie According to the ancient Mayan calendar, the fifth age of the sun ended on 21st December 2012. So did the calendar itself. Up until then the Mayans had plotted complex cycles of days that appear to bear… Continue Reading →
By Lachlan Gilbert In a breakthrough for quantum computing, researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney have made improved qubits using concepts from high school chemistry. The discoveries were made with assistance from experts in both America and… Continue Reading →
A Shakespearean tragedy played out in the Antipodes EVERY DOG has its day. And the most disappointing Prime Minister in Australian history certainly had his. The intoxicating fall of Malcolm Turnbull was a transfixing, delightful spectacle; a Shakespearean tragedy played… Continue Reading →
THE CAR ROSE SLOWLY from the fetid plains. For days, in tormented dreams, he had been a soldier going around a battlefield killing the wounded, firing shot after shot after shot. Most of the victims were already dead and his… Continue Reading →
By Anthony Klan The Big Four Australian banks and investment bankers Macquarie, big Liberal Party donors all, have received over $2.3 billion in taxpayer-backed funds from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. That is almost one-third of every dollar ever invested by… Continue Reading →
Will future historians see the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison era as the period of governance when totalitarian instincts were unleashed? The targeting of journalists is just the beginning of a much greater disaster, writes journalist and author, John Stapleton. Australia’s #RighttoKnow movement barely touches… Continue Reading →
By Jojo Moyes Below is an extract from Giver of Stars, the new book out this month from best selling author Jojo Moyes. Inspired by a true story, the book recounts the tale of five women living in perilous times…. Continue Reading →
By William Ried Not knowing where I was when I first woke up had become routine. But that next morning I knew even before I opened my eyes, with none of the struggle between dream and reality. I felt cold… Continue Reading →
Talent works hard. Genius is compelled. Caitlin Johnstone is compelled. There are more than ten million blog posts published every single day. According to Hosting Tribunal there are 70 million new blog posts each month on WordPress alone. How can… Continue Reading →
By John Stapleton Quiet Australians, so-called. They’ve become an article of faith for a victorious Coalition government. Against the odds, surprising pundits, pollsters and even themselves, the conservatives have just won government once again despite a history of internal division… Continue Reading →
By John Stapleton Australia’s major dental associations have all issued dire warnings about the dangers of travelling to Asia in an attempt to save money on dental work. The Australian Dental Association has produced a number of fact sheets about… Continue Reading →