British multinational Serco is constantly in the news, the company that runs all of Australia’s detention centres with little or no accountability; just the way they like it. And now this: The mastermind behind the sacking of more than 50,000 public servants during the Greiner and Fahey Liberal governments has been quietly advising Barry O’Farrell’s…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
TehelkaTV interview on Israel/Palestine and changing Jewish views
During my recent appearance at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India I was interviewed by TehelkaTV, one of the country’s leading current affairs magazines (my recent article with them about the Egyptian uprising is here). We talked about the Middle East, why the Tunisian revolution would spread and the rise of dissenting Jewish voices:
What the West fears is true independence in the Arab world
The following article by Kate Ausburn appears in Green Left Weekly: Popular uprisings in the Arab world have challenged a political landscape dominated by undemocratic regimes and fronted by dictators, a panel of academics and journalists said at a Sydney University forum on February 15. Speakers discussed the regional and international ramifications of the uprisings…
Canberra has no desire to seriously pressure Israel over apartheid
God forbid the Australian government took a lead on an international issue rather than simply following the US: A Sydney council’s decision to boycott Israel has been raised in the upper echelons of Australian diplomacy. The Greens-controlled Marrickville Council voted in December to join a global boycott of all Israeli products and services in protest…
Who wants nuclear power and massive amounts of waste?
Which private companies are salivating over the prospect of establishing an industry in Australia to turn a profit? And are indigenous Australians meant to simply disappear and accept this gross destruction of their land? For the first time Greens MP Adam Bandt will vote against a government bill in Federal Parliament today and seek to…
Liberation for everybody (except Palestinians)
What a wonderfully mature way to support the Palestinians under occupation. Sigh: The Greens candidate tipped to take the once-safe Labor seat of Marrickville from the Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt, in the state election has been targeted in a mural over her council’s decision to boycott Israel. Marrickville Council’s support for the global Boycott, Divestment…
Villawood: asbestos still present despite government claims
My following investigation appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Sydney’s Villawood detention centre contains asbestos years after the federal government claims it was managed, according to a whistle-blower working at the site. A guard hired by MSS Security, the firm contracted by British multinational Serco to manage security at Villawood, told Crikey about the lack…
A non-controversial proposal; Arabs have right to vote for whomever they want
Here’s to small blessings. A rather good editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that calls for a re-thinking of years of imperial attitudes in the Arab world and an opening to Islamists who get elected. Bravo: The patronising orientalism that the Arabs or even Muslims in general are somehow culturally conditioned to political slavery is…
Villawood guards blow whistle on abuses at detention centre
My following investigation appears in today’s edition of Crikey: Three security guards working at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre have exposed occupational health and safety breaches at their workplace, in exclusive interviews with Crikey. The three employees of MSS Security, one of the companies contracted by British multinational Serco in its management of asylum seekers, have…