The first Australian Green in the House of Representatives, Adam Bandt, gave his first speech in Parliament yesterday. It’s a moving affair with many highlights but this struck me: A sustainable future means rethinking our infrastructure priorities, industry policy and the regulation of energy supply. Maybe its something in the water in the electorate of…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
Disaster capitalism envelops us all
My following article appears in the Sydney Morning Herald today: Last year’s cessation of hostilities between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers, after up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were murdered in the last months of the conflict, has heralded a Beijing-led invasion of the island. The authoritarian Rajapaksa regime was assisted by Chinese…
Help APHEDA pick a worthy winner
One of Australia’s finest NGOs, APHEDA – Union Aid Abroad, last night hosted its annual fund-raising dinner and launched the following advertisement to 400 intrigued people. Give now, give generously:
Which companies would benefit from a nuclear waste dump?
The idea of establishing nuclear waste dumps should be dismissed immediately and yet both major sides of Australian politics rather like the idea. Start opposing: The Australian Greens have called on the minority Labor Government to use the current political environment to forge a new consensus approach to the management of radioactive nuclear waste in…
ABC Radio Overnights on Middle East realities
As the sham Middle East “peace process” continues, I was invited last week for a long interview and listener questions on ABC Overnights. We covered settlements, the BDS movement, the one-state solution, Barack Obama’s blind spots and the Holocaust:
Opposition to Serco isn’t solely by refugees
An ongoing theme at this site is the privatisation of detention centres in Australia. Eminent Australians are increasingly vocal against the practice but it’s so much easier for neo-liberal governments to pay a foreign company to do their dirty work, isn’t it? Privatisation of detention centres and particularly the health services associated with the current…
Let our Diggers kill at will beause we say they’re noble
So Australian troops in Afghanistan kill civilians and are now facing charges. It’s called accountability, something sorely lacking in Western societies at war for decades. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, a top quality Murdoch quality that regularly writes about refugees stealing our jobs, women and sand, thinks it’s bloody outrageous in an editorial today: In the early…
Your friendly financial institution assists killers
Did you know that one of Australia’s major banks, ANZ, is funding companies that make cluster bombs?
The Sri Lankan Mark Regev steps right up
Welcoming (some) Tamils to Australia and Colombo’s Israel-style Canberra ambassador (aka the least credible man this side of Mark Regev’s identical brother):
Moving Forward? Australia’s relationship with Israel
Kill Your Darlings is a wonderful new Australian literary journal. I have a lead essay in the latest edition. Here’s an extract: I first discovered the importance of the Israel/Palestine conflict in my early teens, in Melbourne. I remember sitting around the Sabbath table with my parents and cousins, discussing the events of the week…