Beautifully written stories on politics, social movements, photography and books

Tag Australian Independent News Sites

Bankwest Closing Branches in ‘solely digital’ Cashless Shift

From TOTT NEWS Bankwest recently announced it will close more branches in Western Australia as it moves towards a “digital future”, citing staffing issues and a rapid decline of demand for cash services. The changes come as Commonwealth Bank pursues a plan… Continue Reading →

The Culture of Narcissism, first published in 1979, excoriated America’s self-absorbed society – The Legacy

Nick Haslam, The University of Melbourne A cultural critic rails against a society that worships celebrity and prizes images over ideas. A progressive intellectual attacks the dominance of corporate elites. A curmudgeonly academic condemns his society’s ignorance of its past… Continue Reading →

The River Ganges: The Photography of Russell Shakespeare

“Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at… Continue Reading →

As Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison quits Parliament at last, his ‘Legacy’ has Little to Recommend it

Frank Bongiorno, Australian National University The recent months have been kind to Peter Dutton and the Coalition. Scott Morrison’s announcement that he will leave parliament at the end of February is the latest instalment of the federal opposition’s good run…. Continue Reading →

The Review: Our Enemy The Government. Ramesh Thakur.

By Paul Collits The Covid era produced many villains, across countries, governments, major political parties, thebureaucracy, the legacy media, the universities, the corporates, Big Pharma and Big Tech. Many villainsand few heroes. Or as author Ramesh Thakur, one of Australia’s… Continue Reading →

No Money for Aerial Fire Fighting, Lots for Overseas Shipyards

By Rex Patrick: Michael West Media Despite repeated urgings from experts, the Federal Government is refusing to establish a sovereign aerial firefighting capability. There’s plenty of AUKUS cash to invest in US and UK shipyards but nothing to keep Australian… Continue Reading →

As the World’s Billionaires Gather at Davos in Switzerland, Oxfam releases major report Inequality Inc

John Quiggin: University of Queensland Gathering for their annual World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland this week, the world’s business and political elite will be digesting some unpleasant reading courtesy of the aid agency Oxfam International. Oxfam’s annual report on global inequality… Continue Reading →

Strangleholds on Power: Microsoft invests $5 billion to help Australia’s cyber security and “seize the AI era”

TOTT NEWS Australia’s secretive spy agency will join Microsoft to build “cyber shields” around the country, as part of a new $5 billion investment by the company. Microsoft will expand its ‘support’ for national cyber security systems and cloud computing… Continue Reading →

Bloody Colonials By Stafford Sanders: Holiday Listening Holiday Reading. From 2RPH and A Sense of Place Publishing

Bloody Colonials is a new Australian murder mystery set in an early penal settlement. Convict detective Seamus “Shameless” Halloran stumbles on foul play but doesn’t dare tell anyone in authority since they’ll give no credence to a convict’s accusations. So… Continue Reading →

The battle for Victoria Street, Kings Cross – Fifty Years on

By Wendy Bacon: Michael West Media Why is there more homeless today, per capita, but fewer squatters? Fifty years on, Wendy Bacon looks back on the landmark protests of Victoria Street, Kings Cross. Fifty years ago this month, hundreds of people gathered… Continue Reading →

How Big Pharma harnesses our Tax Money and News Media to Market their Drugs

Rebekah Barnett: Dystopian Down Under In most countries, Big Pharma is not allowed to advertise vaccines and prescription medicines direct to consumers, and advertising of over-the-counter medicines is tightly regulated.1 That’s not a problem for Pharma. There are plenty of… Continue Reading →

Meteors, Supermoons, a Comet and more: Your Guide to the Southern Sky in 2024

Nick Lomb, University of Southern Queensland What exciting events will we see in the southern sky in 2024? Meteor showers, Saturn covered by the Moon, close approaches of bright planets to each other, supermoons – and, if we’re lucky, a… Continue Reading →

One of the Most Glorious Stories of 2023: Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, last of the Covid Tyrants, Steps Down.

TOTT News In case you were too disillusioned with Australia’s hapless mainstream media, or too busy working to survive the cost of living and housing crises now afflicting the country, here from last month is one of the most truly… Continue Reading →

The Year in Review: March, 2023

The Year In Review: February, 2023

Here’s a selection of our best stories for February, 2023, as many of us now sigh with relief that 2023 is in the rear view mirror. Mind you, there’s the old saying, be careful what you wish for. We aim… Continue Reading →

The Complicated History of Human-frog Relations. Holiday Reading.

Susan Broomhall, Australian Catholic University; Andrea Gaynor, The University of Western Australia, and Andy Flack, University of Bristol When was the last time you saw a frog? Perhaps you came across one in your garden and wondered at its little… Continue Reading →

Why the Australian Secret Intelligence Service should be Abolished. Holiday Reading.

By Brian Toohey: Pearls and Irritations The Australian Secret Intelligence Service was established in 1950 to conduct spying overseas and morally repulsive covert operations. It had a slow start, but in the 1970s it sent three staff to Chile to… Continue Reading →

The Year In Review: January, 2023

Well, it was a year and a half for everyone. Here’s a pick of the stories we ran in the first month of 2023, as we all look back on a year like no other.

Shane MacGowan: A Timeless Voice for Ireland’s diaspora in England. Holiday Reading.

Sean Campbell, Anglia Ruskin University During a concert in Dublin in 2022, Bob Dylan paused between songs to pay tribute to another singer-songwriter who was in attendance that night. “I want to say hello to Shane MacGowan”, said Dylan, praising… Continue Reading →

Vale, John McBeth, Groundbreaking Asia Correspondent

By Lindsay Murdoch and Michael Vatikiotis: Australian Strategic Policy Institute John McBeth, one of Asia’s pre-eminent journalists with a record of scrupulous and groundbreaking reporting, has died after a short illness. He was 79. Over a career spanning more than… Continue Reading →

Join our Team! AUKUS foreign expenditure sinkhole blows out to $12B … already

By Rex Patrick: Michael West Media The Albanese Government has just announced another $3B into the US submarine industrial base, in addition to the $4.7B already committed. It’s money that should have been spent in Australia instead. Rex Patrick reports on a… Continue Reading →

As Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s fortunes slide, people start to wonder what sort of PM Opposition Leader Peter Dutton might make

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra Peter Dutton has his tail up, but he’s being careful to manage expectations. As the opposition celebrates its suddenly improved fortunes, Dutton told the party room this week that inevitably the government would recalibrate over… Continue Reading →

17 Life-Learnings from 17 Years of The Marginalian: The Extraordinary Journey of Maria Popova

A Sense of Place Magazine was an unabashed fan of Maria Popova’s celebrated blog Brain Pickings, which has now evolved into the more mature The Marginalian, easily one of the best literary journals in the world. Her book Figuring is a fascinating… Continue Reading →

Our Enemy The Government

By Professor Ramesh Thakur: The Brownstone Institute The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. Thus spake Mark Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. So let it be with Covid. I ask as… Continue Reading →

The death of Henry Kissinger: Statement by Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating

Henry Kissinger’s death draws to a close the epoch of intellectualism in foreign policy to which he was committed following his early study of and belief in a system of organised strategic balance and restraint of the kind that emerged… Continue Reading →

Australian Government’s Stalin Style Misinformation Bill Hits Roadblock

Ethan Nash: TOTT NEWS The federal government’s concerning ‘misinformation bill’ will face delays and head back to the drawing board, following significant criticisms of the dystopian legislation. But it will re-emerge in the future. The Albanese government is reportedly set to overhaul its… Continue Reading →

Australia’s Totalitarian Ecosystem: Control, Control and More Control

By Paul Collits Every Australian, or just about every Australian, knew what happened on the 14th of October.  The date for the massively divisive, ill-conceived and and problematic Referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament finally came to pass. We… Continue Reading →

The Painless Extinction of Formerly Free Australia 

By David Bell: Brownstone Institute If you place a frog in cool water and slowly raise the temperature, it’s said that you can boil it without it noticing and fighting to free itself. I never tested this, as I liked… Continue Reading →

Giant Eagles and Scavenging Vultures shared the Skies of Ancient Australia

Ellen K. Mather, Mike Lee, and Trevor H. Worthy, Flinders University Today, Australia is home to 17 species of hawks and eagles. But the fossil record shows some other, rather special raptors were present in the relatively recent past. Tens… Continue Reading →

The Times Create: A New Wave of Media Recreates the Australian Story

By John Stapleton. With TOTT News. In a first, the National Free Media Summit in Adelaide last weekend brought together a gathering of some of the liveliest journalistic talents to emerge from the past few dark and tumultuous years of… Continue Reading →

When Science becomes a Threat to Population Health

Kara Thomas: Australian Medical Professionals Society ‘The medical-political complex tends towards suppression of science to aggrandise and enrich those in power. And, as the powerful become more successful, richer, and further intoxicated with power, the inconvenient truths of science are… Continue Reading →

Bennelong and Phillip: Wrestling with Australian History through Two Entangled Lives

Anna Clark, University of Technology Sydney Despite the inherent chance and coincidence of Australian history, there’s a certain sense of inevitability when we trace our national narrative in hindsight. The sequence of chapters in our textbooks and syllabuses seems logical… Continue Reading →

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