The recent launch of Declassified Australia coincides with the first piece by journalist Peter Cronau and me for the great news organisation Declassified UK on the often sordid and secretive relationship between Australia and the UK. Some highlights (but read the whole thing): Australia’s independence from Britain has been contested ground since the nation’s birth in…
Launching Declassified Australia
I’m excited to announce this (launched late last week and already generating a lot of interest both locally and globally so stay tuned for more soon): The Australian media too often report the nation as a compliant ally of the US, the UK and the Western alliance but few ask questions about why and what…
End the drug war and improve the climate
NGOs Health Poverty Action and LEAP UK are working with students at Queen Mary University in London to highlight the absurdity of the drug war and why it should end. I was interviewed last week, the project is called SEEDS for Change, and I talk about the links between the war on drugs and climate…
Preparing for disasters shouldn’t be about making $
Disaster preparedness kits are a big thing now that climate change is causing increasing environmental chaos. Some companies like Judy are aiming to capitalize on this development, thanks to celebrity endorsements, but don’t even mention climate change on its website or any details about its supply chain ie. is it ethical, not made by slave labour…
No uranium mining in Greenland
Back in 2014, I reported for the Guardian on an Australian company determined to open a uranium mine in Greenland. Years later, the issue is still live, the mine hasn’t happened but the corporation is determined to make it a reality. Green Left is covering the story (and virtually nobody else is): Sydney-based independent journalist,…
What disaster capitalism tells us about Bougainville
I’ve investigated the dark realities in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea in my Disaster Capitalism book and film. A new report, published in the Pacific Journalism Review by Wendy Bacon and Nicole Gooch, examines this fact (and I was interviewed about my work on Bougainville, independent journalism and disaster capitalism): This article focuses on the making…
Going undercover as a cop
My book review in The Saturday Paper: In 2020, the murder of George Floyd by policeman Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis sparked a long overdue global reckoning with police violence and accountability. More than a year later, this debate is increasingly relevant. A recent study by the University of Washington, published in The Lancet, found that…
The how and why of cultural boycotts of Israel
Irish writer Sally Rooney, one of the most popular writers of her generation, just announced that she won’t allow an Israeli publisher to translate her latest book on political grounds related to Israeli state and corporate complicity with the occupation of Palestine. Here’s my comments to the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age about it…
Cancel culture is (often) about silencing critical voices on Palestine
Back in 2006, I published my first book, My Israel Question, which was met with huge opposition from the organised Jewish community but warm approval from the general public. It became a best-seller. Here’s a profile about my book and me in the Sydney Morning Herald in 2006. My then publisher Louise Adler wrote this…
Afghan artists, journalists and musicians on the never-ending war
The recent launch of the Twenty Years project, on decades of war in Afghanistan, included two major events with Afghan artists, journalists and musicians playing, speaking and considering the recent past and likely future with the Taliban back in charge. Night 1 on 7 October included: MC Afghan-Australian human rights lawyer Diana Sayed, London-based Afghan…