What better way to show affection for an occupied nation? Hire thugs to protect a space that only exists due to the Australian government’s desperate desire to join the Bush administration into the country in 2003: The Defence Department plans to fully privatise security at Australia’s Baghdad embassy by the end of the year, after…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
Sri Lanka must be condemned, without ifs or buts
An important editorial in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that undermines its argument by continuing the Western corporate press obsession with the supposed dictatorship of Hugo Chavez. Human rights abuses obviously occur in Venezuela but the nation isn’t a police state and attempts to paint it otherwise, or compare it to the brutal regime in Colombo,…
Controlling the Murdoch empire is both necessary and just
Here’s something you will virtually never see in Australia. A mainstream newspaper (in this case, the London Observer) taking on the Murdoch empire, front and centre, calling it out for its smears and lack of rigorous ethics (to put it mildly): Rupert Murdoch‘s News International (NI) is drawing up plans to sponsor an academy school…
When a media mogul has more power than government
Oh my. Democracy is so threatened that some have become fearful of a former Australian media man who trades smears for a living: Senior parliamentarians declined to give evidence in court against a News of the World journalist for fear of upsetting News International, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats said today. Simon Hughes,…
Taking on Murdoch bullying front and centre
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, as recounted by Australian Financial Review journalist Laura Tingle: [Murdoch’s Australian newspaper] sees itself as a determinant of democracy in Australia. It believes it has replaced the people and it’s time to bell the cat. It’s stepped out of the role of the fourth estate to think it’s the determinant…
The Greens must push Labor to question Israel
Don’t worry Zionists, neither major political party has any intention of questioning anything Israel ever does because Israel is a state that clearly needs only blind backing: The Labor Party has insisted its official agreement with The Greens is unlikely to have an impact on its support for Israel.
Reporters need to be reminded that they should not follow every leaked morsel
What a revelation (via The Failed Estate): Just because someone in Canberra said something doesn’t make it news. Are press gallery hacks listening?
Keeping children in prison to manage our fears
So-called civilised nations, such as Britain, imprison children in immigration detention and the psychological scars are massive. Australia is no different.
Decency to the stranger hasn’t gone out of fashion
On the one hand, many of us are compassionate: A third of the world’s population has given money to charity in the past month, the largest study ever carried out into global social conscience reveals today. The “World Giving Index” used Gallup surveys of 195,000 people in 153 nations and asked people whether they had…
Yes, racism is in Australia
The first step to fixing racism in Australia is acknowledging it exists. A fine piece by Emily Howie in today’s Melbourne Age.