The ongoing chaos at Christmas Island – with refugees, guards and citizens all being led astray by the Australian government and Serco – is a blight on our conscience. We treat asylum seekers like animals, lock them up indefinitely, and wonder why their resist? As they should. Last night Immigration Minister Chris Bowen appeared on…
Showing all posts tagged Australia
News Goo on Palestine and Wikileaks and our media’s cluelessness
Why does the mainstream media report as it does? Corporate pressure? Reporter laziness? Set narrative? A few months ago a few of us here in Sydney discussed the idea of a Democracy Now! show in Australia, a progressive and critical look at the world, views so often ignored by the MSM. Sydney University’s Jake Lynch…
Australian media finally starts to examine Serco
Well, it’s only taken a few years to seriously wonder how a British multinational, paid hundreds of millions annually, is so incompetently mismanaging immigration detention centres around Australia and Canberra is now paying them to build more facilities in remote locations. The glories of privatisation. Can we now have a discussion about placing these semi-prisons…
Media finally waking to Serco’s daily failures
Australia’s Christmas Island detention centre is in turmoil and controller of the place Serco is woefully incapable of running it. Might we finally see some questions about the privatisation of asylum seekers? Interesting information from yesterday’s Crikey: I’m currently on Christmas Island. I have just been speaking with a photojournalist who has been staking out…
The “we must do something in Libya” brigade too keen to launch war
They’re everywhere at the moment. Hawks and so-called doves eager to show that butcher Gaddafi a lesson. How dare you massacre your own people (er, with Western-supplied weapons, but let’s not focus on such details)? Tonight’s ABC TV Q & A program featured five guests who all backed war against Libya. They all spoke in…
Politicians allow Murdoch so much power because they can lunch with him
The people have spoken (and they say similarly in Australia, too): Almost 60% of British people believe that Rupert Murdoch has too much influence on the country’s politics, according to a new poll.
What some young Jews do in their spare time; defend occupying Israel
Following my story last week in Crikey about Sydney’s Marrickville council endorsing BDS against Israeli apartheid, the following letter appeared in Friday’s Crikey: Simon Sawday, Australasian Union of Jewish Students, Vice Chairperson, writes: Re. “NSW election: Greens Marrickville candidate labelled ”˜Hamas harlot’”. As the Vice Chairperson of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS), I…
Australia’s Labor party has no principles over Middle East
Following my story in yesterday’s Crikey about Sydney’s Marrickville council embracing BDS against Israel and the role of Federal Labor Minister Anthony Albanese, this appears in today’s Crikey: What is Anthony Albanese’s position on the Palestinian issue? Albo in opposition went on a PLO-funded “study tour” of the West Bank and Gaza with Ali Kazak,…
Breaking Australia’s silence over Wikileaks
Video from this week’s massive Sydney Wikileaks event with John Pilger, Andrew Wilkie MP and Julian Burnside: Breaking Australia’s silence: WikiLeaks and freedom from John Pilger on Vimeo.