In the early hours of Wednesday morning, January 17 2019, the body of 21-year-old Palestinian student Aiia Maasarwe was found next to a Bundoora shopping centre in Melbourne. Police described her murder as “horrendous as you could get,” and refused to release further details out of respect for Ms Maasarwe, her family and friends. Later that day, Senator…
The level of absurdity in US politics has now reached such vertigo inducing levels as to render all manner of things permissible. Contact with the unwashed implies collaboration; discussion with the enemy implies assent. To go to a dinner party with a perceived hostile force in the context of business of diplomacy has become a…
Working class politics of today is held captive by what could be called “middle-class protocol”. There seems to be little far reaching political radicalism that would benefit the producing classes that has not first been vetted and screened through “approved” channels of middle-class perception and acceptability … that is; “keep it respectable, keep it tidy…
Protected by a self-serving media, ProMo has pushed the line that Australia will meet its emissions reduction targets “in a canter”, something his own government’s figures show is a lie. When carpeted by the Fijian PM about our inaction on climate change, Morrison lamely paid respect to Mr Bainimarama’s international leadership and passion on climate…
Yes, you may have missed it but just before Scottie flew off to tell Fiji that they don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to their own citizenship laws or climate change, he wrote a piece about how Australians weren’t angry and that it was just a few “angry noisy voices” (sic. Where’s…
Theresa May’s prime ministership remains one of torment, drawn out, and weakened daily. But does it really matter? If it is true to claim that people deserve the government they elect, then there is something madly representative of the debacle of May’s leadership, one where problems are sought for any possible solutions. Steering through…
The rest of the world knows how stupid and venal our politicians are and, unlike most of us, they aren’t afraid to tell them. In obvious reference to the gormless Peter Dutton’s gaffe when he was overheard giggling about time meaning nothing when you have “water lapping at your door”, the Fijian Prime Minister told…
There are so many of us that think January 26th is a dreadful choice for a national celebration of nationhood, one wonders why a change of date struggles to gain more traction. Why do we punish ourselves so? Choosing to celebrate the birth of our nation on a day that commemorates the arrival of the…
Over the Christmas break, at a time when the last thing anybody wants to be thinking about is Peter Dutton, he came out with a nasty personal spray against the former prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. One of the things he said about the former PM was that he (Turnbull) doesn’t have a political bone in…
Why do Coalition PMs keep conferring titles on themselves that they patently do not live up to? Abbott was the Prime Minister for Women, Indigenous People, and Roads. We thought Turnbull was going to be man who would refuse to lead a party that wasn’t as committed to action on climate change as he was…