above: the author, Justin George
Justin George argues that Australia's involvement in the war in Afghanistan is compromising rather than enhancing its national security... Similar questions face other countries.
by Justin George
With the release of the Australian government's Counter-Terrorism White Paper and its admission that Australia is at risk of 'homegrown' terrorism, the logic behind Australia's involvement in Afghanistan has been severely weakened. Read more »
above: A union protest against the draconian industrial laws of the former Australian Howard Conservative government.
nb: what follows is a response to a call from unionist Dean Mighell for unions to disaffiliate 'en masse' from the Australian Labor Party. Also considered is the future of parties of the relative right in Australia, and the need to contest the 'common sense' of Australian politics...
above: the author, Dean Mighell
What follows is a controversial discussion concerning the future of the relationship between unions and the Australian Labor Party. Respectful discussion is welcome here from both sides of the debate - and I will be publishing my own reply here next week. If anyone would like to submit a piece of their own on these issues, pls feel welcome to approach me with proposals...
Is it just the Libs who are happy that Garrett is getting so much bad press, or are some in the ALP even happier?
Certainly Conroy would be happy for any distraction from his questionable behaviour with media owners, which comes on top of his bloody-minded, technically illiterate and very unpopular policy stances in his own portfolio, such as his Orwellian internet agenda, and stances outside his portfolio that stem from his regressive social policy agenda, which tightly mesh with, and derive from the same imaginary friend sources as, the policies of Lib leader Tony Abbott.
He’ll follow the line of Rome and the Mad Monk for things like preventing access to RU486, but when his own direct interests are at stake… well… what’s Rome’s line on egg donors and surrogate mothers?
What hope to we have for a progressive society when the leaders of both major parties and at least one of the major backroom headkickers who happens to be in control of information flow (or stemming it), are all in thrall to a regressive version of direction from imaginary sky friends? Read more »
Yesterday the ABS released a report called Crime Victimisation 2008-09, which contains the results of a survey on crimes and perceptions of crime that have been experienced by over 25,000 people the ABS surveyed between July 2008 and June 2009.
One of the more unusual parts of the report was a question on perceptions of crime, specifically the perceived crime problems that are manifest in the local neighbourhood. If we use the proportion of people that believe various types of crime are a problem in their neighbourhood, this is what the results come in as, broken down by State (click to expand).
This article, by Ben Hillier, first appeared in Socialist Alternative.
The greatest economic crisis in generations and Australia didn’t endure even a technical recession.
And the good news seems to keep rolling in: Unemployment falling from 5.8 to 5.3 per cent, growth racing ahead at the fastest pace in nearly two years, consumer and business sentiment high, retails sales continuing to rise and business investment up. Read more »
Three Australian citizens have had their names appeared on forged passports used by Israeli security agents to carry out an assassination of a HAMAS official in Dubai. Some years back, an Israeli diplomat was expelled for trying to secure forged Australian passports. One former Mossad operative claims that Mossad has a veritable factory producing forged Australian travel documents. Who knows how
If those papists in Canberra declare a national holiday because Mary McKillop is given some Roman gong… THEN I’M TURNING UP FOR WORK ANYWAY.
I’m beginning to smell a KRudd/Abbott lovefest, religious patriotic jingoism replacing everyday patriotic jingoism as the first refuge of scoundrels.
Mind you, from the policies coming out of Canberra these days, I think KRudd’s more partial to Bob Santamaria than Mary McKillop.
(p.s: I would celebrate if Father Bob was made Pope.) Read more »
[Warning, if you are eating, do not continue reading this post.]
I just had occasion to shiver all over with horror. You know, when something is so awful that you feel like your skin is crawling off your back? What could be so awful…?
The cause of my horror was the article where Tony Abbott was moaning about the lack of sex on campaign (which I came across via this post at Larvatus Prodeo). I was so embarrassed for him that I couldn’t read the article to its conclusion. And I didn’t dare follow the second link to the story of “sex-starved Tony Abbott” in The Examiner. Oh dear, there go those shivers of horror again. Read more »
Australia has hosted a wide range of weird creatures, from rabid wombats to Yahoo Serious. And now, the Australian government wants to see what other interesting critters are hiding out on that island. To that end, they are funding a series of expeditions to the outback that the Environment Minister has labeled "Bush Blitz".
With $9 million in funding, the Bush Blitz will consist of 18 expeditions over the next three years. Each expedition will consist of around a dozen scientists, who will scour the outback for previously undiscovered lifeforms. The expeditions will focus on areas that have been little explored by humans. The effort to find and preserve new species comes as part of a larger effort by the UN to make 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. Read more »
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