Category General

Our reliance on cobalt is ruining lives

My book review in The Saturday Paper on the new book by Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives: We’re all complicit. Anybody who uses a laptop, mobile phone, electric vehicle (EV) or tablet has purchased a product that contains cobalt, a rare-earth element. It’s largely unknown to the…

The human cost of the “green” revolution

My latest investigation in Declassified Australia is about one of Australia’s richest men, Andrew Forrest, and his attempt to develop green hydrogen in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest wants to make himself a champion of ‘green energy’ by building an US$80 billion mega-dam to develop ‘green’ hydrogen in one of…

Finding ways to access vast Afghan resources

My latest investigation for Declassified Australia (where we’ve just launched a crowd-funding campaign with Patreon so supporters can back our independent journalism with $): PDF here: TWIGGY’S AFGHAN MINERAL COUP – Declassified Australia Andrew Forrest, Australia’s second richest person, is on a self-declared global mission to fight climate change. But there’s another side to this story that’s…

Australia’s role as a sub-imperial power

My review in The Saturday Paper, of the new book by Clinton Fernandes, Subimperial Power Australia in the International Arena: In early October, Australia’s deputy prime minister and minister for Defence, Richard Marles, was in Hawaii to meet the American and Japanese defence chiefs near Pearl Harbor. “The global, rules-based order is being pressured in…

The rise of Declassified Australia

Declassified Australia was launched nearly one year ago by journalist Peter Cronau and me. We’ve published more than 20 stories since on a range of issues including spying, social media manipulation, Afghan refugees and Australia’s foreign policy. We have big plans for ramping up the reach and scale of the outlet so stay tuned. This…

Art, war and another Afghanistan

I recently spoke at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre about Afghanistan. Here’s the event blurb and video below: Writers, musicians, sportspeople, artists, refugees and activists celebrate the resilience, art and creativity of Afghanistan. ​​Haunting images from Kabul Airport filled Western television screens following the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, drawing into sharp relief the devastation caused by…

What the media should be doing

This letter was just published in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette newspaper in Pennsylvania: Oscar Wilde said, “In the old days men had the rack. Today they have the Press.” We are bombarded with what the media says is news, but, in most cases, does not identify a real source, or attribute the facts to a specific…

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