Kevin Rudd, agent of change?

My following feature appears in US magazine The Nation and discusses the rise of Kevin Rudd to Prime Minister of Australia: The political annihilation of Prime Minister John Howard in the November 24 election marks a milestone in Australian history. “From this day forth,” writes political columnist Glenn Milne, “no government can rely on the…

Welcome, Kevin (sort of)

The John Howard era of Australian politics is over. Kevin Rudd is the new Australian Prime Minister (though after last night’s acceptance speech, it’s hard to get too inspired by our “dentist” leader.) After nearly 12 years in office, Howard’s reign has been characterised by a desire to drive a wedge through Australian society, between…

Changing of the guard

Guy Rundle, Arena Issue 91: Australian intellectual life changed when Murdoch — Rupe or Lachlan (remember Lachlan?) — sacked Paul Kelly as editor of the eponymous national broadsheet, and moved him sideways to be editor-at-large. Under Kelly’s editorship, the one-time left-liberal publication had moved to a position on the Centre-Right — hardly strident, but committed…

Time for a change of government

The Australian federal election is tomorrow. I’ve deliberately not commented greatly about it – aside from this piece about the possibility of a Labor government supporting a US-strike on Iran and the occasional article about the major parties’ slavish attention to Israel – so a few words are in order. The nearly 12 years of…

Analysis of a blind man

Rupert Murdoch says he “knows a bit about” Iraq and Afghanistan, thinks Australian troops should remain in Iraq and believes that Western victories in the ravaged countries are at hand. Would that prediction be accurate as his belief in 2003 that one of the benefits of the Iraq war would be US$20 barrels of oil?…

Ali Allawi: The attempt to refashion Iraq was doomed

My following article appears in today’s edition of Crikey: The Iraq war has barely registered in this election campaign (except Murdoch cheerleader Andrew Bolt declaring last week that the battle has been “won”). Clearly Bolt must have missed the millions of displaced refugees both inside and outside the ravaged country during his visit to the…

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