Tag Australian politics
By Paul Collits Should Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, leader of Australia’s second most populist state, resign? Should his NSW counterpart, Premier Gladys Berejiklian? The chances are that each of these paragons of morality and competence has covered up the truth… Continue Reading →
By John Stapleton For more than 100 days in a row Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has held lengthy press conferences where he details the latest Covid stats and answers questions from a tame media pack. This daily piece of theatre,… Continue Reading →
By Paul Collits We now inhabit a strange world where politicians and health bureaucrats, working in tandem, run just about every element of our lives. This weird new system has replaced democracy as we once knew it, and it may… Continue Reading →
From the Australian Covid Medical Network A group representing more than 500 Victorian doctors and medical experts have called on Premier Daniel Andrews to bring an immediate end to lockdown restrictions in Victoria, raising concerns over the alarming and growing… Continue Reading →
By Brian Toohey with Michael West Media The Joint Strike Fighter has been plagued by problems since it was just a sketch on paper, when in 2002 John Howard jumped the gun and committed to buying them. But the F-35… Continue Reading →
By Paul Gregoire. Sydney Criminal Lawyers Blog. Friday 25 September 2020 saw the Morrison government begin cutting back JobSeeker unemployment benefits. The increased rate provided to the escalating numbers of unemployed during the pandemic period is being reduced, as treasurer Josh Frydenberg… Continue Reading →
By William De Maria with Michael West Media The big brand theme park that is the Australian War Memorial, bankrolled by international arms manufacturers, is an object lesson in dishonesty. Conceived during World War I amidst the mustard gas, the… Continue Reading →
By William De Maria with Pearls and Irritations When Australian soldiers lifted their boots off Afghani ground for the last time in December 2013 the Koh-e Paghman mountains outside Kabul moaned for a nation broken once again by invasion. Up… Continue Reading →
With TOTT News Mobile surveillance units are being used in parks and public spaces across Melbourne to remotely monitor citizens during stage four restrictions, fueling privacy concerns. The technology is the latest step in Melbourne’s ongoing shift towards a techno-fascist… Continue Reading →
By Michael West, founder of Michael West Media Gas fracking and a new fossil fuel power plant got a big leg-up today as News Corp, Nine Entertainment, ABC News and Guardian Australia faithfully splashed with the latest government gas plan… Continue Reading →
By Julian Savulescu, University of Oxford Melbourne’s lockdown has been described as one of the harshest in the world. And jurisdictions outside Australia have taken other measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 once case numbers have eased. So, in… Continue Reading →
By Paul Collits Politicians are said to love “killer facts”. And to want to “follow the science”. Sadly, those running our Covid policy responses seem not to want to do either. An old boss of mine, an estimable Director General… Continue Reading →
By Allan Behm with Michael West Media Instead of crafting policies to tackle causes rather than symptoms, Australian leaders have used terror laws to turn social and national problems into security issues that demand a military response. Allan Behm investigates. In 1933,… Continue Reading →
By Michael West, founder of Michael West Media Paul Keating seized on a huge jump in productivity in this week’s horrific GDP release but the effect of the pandemic will profoundly change the structure of Australia’s economy for good. Michael West reports…. Continue Reading →
By Fergus Ryan, Audrey Fritz and Daria Impiombato While most major international social media networks remain banned from the Chinese market in the People’s Republic of China, Chinese social media companies are expanding overseas and building up large global audiences…. Continue Reading →
Professor Ramesh Thakur: The Interview Australia is in chaos from one end to the other, borders closed and the economy tanking, with millions of people in Melbourne under some of the world’s most draconian lockdowns and those who dare to… Continue Reading →
By Maria O’Sullivan, Monash University The Victorian government is taking a hard line against protests as it tries to get COVID-19 under control. As Premier Daniel Andrews said on Thursday, it’s not the time to protest […] regardless of what… Continue Reading →
By Michael West If it’s good enough for tennis stars and entertainers, it’s good enough for multinational tax avoiders and consultants. Michael West addresses the Senate Inquiry into Finance and Public Administration. This is an edited version of the opening statement to… Continue Reading →
By Terrence O’Brien and Robert Carling. Centre for Independent Studies. Current policies against Covid are unsustainably costly to jobs and living standards. They produce downsides for other health outcomes, such that the net impact on health over time is becoming… 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 →
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 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 →
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 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 George Grundy with Independent Australia The use of controversial technology developed by Clearview AI by Australian police forces raises serious privacy and human rights concerns. As the Morrison Government continues to avoid scrutiny relating to its curious allocation of sports grants, Home Affairs… Continue Reading →
By Callum Foote with Michael West Media Australia’s banking sector is a haven for government ministers, prime ministers, state premiers and a slew of top bureaucrats. Our Revolving Doors investigation into this most mollycoddled of industries begins today. We expose,… Continue Reading →
By Professor Ramesh Thakur On 26 May, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said if Australia’s mortality rate matched the UK’s, we’d have had 14,000 Covid-19 deaths. This is just tautological rubbish. It would be just as true and equally pointless to… Continue Reading →
Kristy Hess, Deakin University With swift and savage force, the COVID-19 pandemic has inadvertently attacked Australia’s local news media ecology, which was already battling a weakened immune system. As a researcher working on Australia’s largest academic study into the future… Continue Reading →
By Callum Foote with Michael West Media The blow-out in Government spending on Defence continues unchecked and unabated despite the coronavirus. The bulk of it goes to multinationals who pay little or no tax in this country. Is nobody watching? Callum Foote looks… Continue Reading →
Extract from Dark Dark Policing Everyone felt like a stranger now. The announcement came, the legendary Kidman properties, spanning three states and the Northern Territory, reportedly some 2.6 per cent of the nation’s land area, 101,000 square kilometres, was being sold… Continue Reading →
By Bruce Mountain, Victoria University and Mark Lintermans, University of Canberra The controversial Snowy 2.0 project has mounted a major hurdle after the New South Wales government announced approval for its main works. The pumped hydro venture in southern NSW… Continue Reading →