Give the man credit where it’s due. Few could possibly be congratulated for selling the sovereignty of a country in full view of its citizenry, but Peter Dutton, former Queensland copper turned sadistic Home Affairs minister turned Defence Minister, is very capable of it. Australia promises to become a throbbing bordello for the strategic affairs…
By Peter Hughes The Howard government released long-term detainees into the community, but the current Coalition government refuses to do so for political reasons. Novak Djokovic’s few days at the Park Hotel in Carlton briefly shone light on the ongoing horrific plight of long-term immigration detainees. The most publicised case at the Park Hotel was that…
With a hostile Senate, a Labor government would be severely hamstrung in pursuing their legislative agenda. We have seen the irrational demands and horse-trading from One Nation in the current Senate, withholding their vote on everything until they get their way on their latest attention-getter. At the moment, the Senate is comprised of 36 Coalition…
By Denis Bright When Australia was the land of hope, our best political leaders could inspire the electorate with occasional commitments to longer-term community welfare and peaceful international relations. The federation era prior to 1914 brought real debate about the best priorities for the new social market. Even during the wartime emergency, Curtin and later…
In February last year, Andrew Wilkie introduced a Private Members Bill, seconded by Zali Steggall, calling for an end to the immoral, illegal, and extremely expensive practice of indefinite and arbitrary immigration detention. In presenting the Bill, Wilkie drew attention to the staggering cost of this irrational cruelty. It costs approximately $346,000 to hold someone…
Diary No 6, Saturday, January 22 2022 1 When lying comes back to torment you, you cannot just tell another to make the first one go away. Last week in familiar fashion, our Prime Minister, in answer to a question, said that those held in detention in Australia for eight, maybe 10, years had not been…
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test has been the mainstay of COVID-19 testing. But reliance upon such a regime, which requires the administration of middlingly competent personnel at appropriate testing sites, has caused its fair share of global disruption. The dreaded queue, where one waits for hours only to be possibly turned away for…
So who will speak on behalf of the dead? Will they ever lie as forgotten sacrifices in the putrid side gutters of the golden path to profit and mindless economic growth? Who decided to let a sickness reign unfettered across our land? Was it a collective decision? Did the People agree? Or did one person…
The French Parliament has approved a new law that effectively prevents citizens who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 from going out in public. I want to look at a couple of reports on the law and then consider whether this new law crosses a line. No Jab? No Social Life Euro Weekly News reports the…
In 2015, the Climate Change Authority recommended emissions reduction targets for the government to take to the Paris climate conference: a 2025 target of 30 per cent below 2000 levels further reductions by 2030 of 40 to 60 per cent below 2000 levels In response, Labor proposed an emissions reduction target of 45% below 2005…