Australia, like so many other Western countries, increasingly believes it should outsource government services to private companies under the guise of “efficiency”. It’s nothing of the sort and merely removes a key level of accountability. In my forthcoming book on disaster capitalism I examine the ways in which multinationals are making a fortune from asylum…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
Disaster capitalism strikes at the heart of African mining
A key focus of my forthcoming book and film about disaster capitalism is the way Western resource companies exploit poor nations and often commit human rights abuses in the process (I’m looking at Papua New Guinea and Haiti). Here’s an interesting Human Rights Watch report about Eritrea: International mining firms rushing to invest in Eritrea’s…
No, Kevin Rudd, boycotts against Israeli institutions aren’t anti-Semitic
Late last year Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newsletter ran a campaign against the head of Sydney University’s Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies, Jake Lynch, for bravely rejecting institutional links with occupation-supporting Israeli universities. Today former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd appears in the same paper with quotes implying that boycotts are anti-Semitic and concerned people should…
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks details US torture post 9/11
Moving testimony on the 11th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay, a gulag that remains open to this day. Justice is yet to be done:
ABCTV News24’s The Drum on sexism, Syria and divestment
I appeared tonight on ABCTV News24’s The Drum (video here), alongside Rowan Dean and Jacqueline Maley, talking about a range of political issues. I argued that it was legitimate for pension funds to divest from organisations or companies that go against people’s morality such as big tobacco, the thuggish Murdoch empire or fossil fuels (quoting…
Just one more reason why academic BDS against Israeli universities vital
After the recent faux controversy in Australia over a principled academic refusing to assist an Israeli academic because his centre abided by BDS principles, this story (via Ben White in Electronic Intifada) shows how intimately linked are Israeli universities, the occupation and the settler establishment: Dozens of academics from Israel and abroad, worried about the…
Campaigning for the boycott of Sri Lankan cricket team
I’m honoured to be asked to be a public face of this campaign (via Tamil Guardian): Renowned Australian author Thomas Keneally has spoken out against Australia playing cricket with Sri Lanka and called for a break of sporting ties, as calls to boycott Sri Lankan cricket continue to grow. Writing to Keneally, the Tamil Refugee…
How the Australian Zionist lobby corrupts political process (and politicians and reporters join in)
It’s nearly Christmas and that must mean yet another year of the Australia-Israel-UK Leadership Forum. The Australian media has virtually ignored the whole thing because they’re a) lazy b) not curious and c) clueless how to write about the shamelessness of witnessing so many politicians pall around with pro-occupation Israeli figures. These are the same…
Why boycotting Israeli academia is necessary and principled
My following piece appears today in ABC’s… The Drum: An academic boycott of Israeli universities isn’t an attack on freedom of speech. The evidence tells us these institutions are key battlegrounds for breaches of international law towards the Palestinians, argues Antony Loewenstein. New Zealand’s $20 billion national pension fund… announced this month… that it was divesting from three…