Tag Australian politics
There have been lockdown protests around the world, and numerous academics and pundits querying government responses to Covid-19, from the ever populist Fox News to highly credentialed epidemiologists. The Australian government, with its inconsistent messaging and highly confusing fear mongering,… Continue Reading →
Australia’s Transport Workers’ Union is calling on the Federal Government to implement a national plan to lower the risk of infection and spread of COVID-19 in aviation as Qantas announces changes which the union claims fall short of measures of… Continue Reading →
Kurt Iveson, University of Sydney The Commonwealth government says if enough of us download its COVIDSafe app, restrictions on our movements and activities can be lifted more quickly and life can return to normal. As important as it is to… Continue Reading →
By John Varano The COVID-19 pandemic has ignited new debate on China’s flagship foreign policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Against the official position of the Australian federal government, the state of Victoria has recently signed on. The Victoria… Continue Reading →
By Emeritus Professor Ramesh Thakur Human beings are family- and community-oriented social animals. Sharing food and drink at home or in restaurants, enjoying the cinema, watching cricket, or appreciating a concert or a play are not optional add-ons but fundamental… Continue Reading →
By Ramesh Thakur Cockwomble: A person, usually male, prone to making outrageously stupid statements and/or engaging in inappropriate behaviour while generally having a very high opinion of their own wisdom and importance. Presently exemplified by Agent Orange who dwells in… Continue Reading →
Government spending on EY, Deloitte, PwC and KPMG persists at nosebleed levels although millions of Australians have lost their jobs. New data shows a damaging blow-out in contracts to the four firms, which are also among the largest donors to… Continue Reading →
By John Stapleton This week ten people were arrested in Melbourne for attending a protest against self-isolating, social distancing and tracking apps, the only real political protest in the country since climate demonstrations earlier in the year. The government perpetrated… Continue Reading →
By John Stapleton With Australia’s economy tilting into collapse and numerous questions now arising over the government’s management of the Covid-19 response, the question of surveillance of whistle blowers, journalists and dissidents is now front and centre of the debate…. Continue Reading →
By Michael Tanner with Michael West Media Yesterday, the Treasurer warned that restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus are costing Australia $4 billion a week. Is it fair for the younger generation to cop this economic fallout plus shoulder Australia’s biggest economic… Continue Reading →
Panicked and irresponsible responses to Covid-19 are destroying the very societies they purport to protect, some of the world’s leading experts claim. The scientific community is increasingly coming out to condemn the societal wide shutdowns ordered by numerous, increasingly authoritarian… Continue Reading →
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 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 →
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 →
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 →
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 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 →
The sprawling electorate of Dickson in Northern Brisbane is Ground Zero for the coming election; pivotal for the future of the country. Every major media organisation has sent journalists to the seat; almost all of them with an agenda to… Continue Reading →
Like many areas in a rapidly changing Australia, the seat of Dickson in the north of Brisbane straddles many divides. It is also a fulcrum seat which holds a key to the future of the country. It is the electorate… Continue Reading →
Just over a week to go in what is being condemned as the most turgid, dull, boring election campaign in Australia’s history. Daily politicians on both sides announce this, that and the other, all their various empty schemes backed with… Continue Reading →