I was thinking the other day about what Australia really needs from its Government, to replace the current broken down corrupt and incompetent LNP Government, so I wrote Albo’s victory speech for him: “Ladies and Gentlemen, friends, fellow Australians. Thank you all for that welcome. Tonight, after nine long years of conservative Government, is a... Continue Reading →
Politician’s Partners – Fair Game
Politicians Spouses are Fair Game Politicians and political figures love to play the game “Attack me by all means but leave my family alone.” For children, certainly those under the age of about twenty to twenty-five, at ages when one cannot necessarily be expected to have developed one's own opinions, that's a reasonable position to... Continue Reading →
The Death of the Fourth Estate
The Death of the Fourth Estate How the entire mainstream media is an apologist for corruption and greed To paraphrase Shakespeare, I come to bury the Fourth Estate, not to praise it. As an instrument of accountability in our society the mainstream media is now largely irrelevant. The notion that the media is the fourth... Continue Reading →
Saying what others are thinking – Wishing ill on others
Like many others I was brought up with the adage that it was wrong to wish ill on others. It’s part of basic Christian precepts of turning the other cheek and could be seen as among a range of other adages such as loving thine enemy and, politically, “keeping your friends close and your enemies... Continue Reading →
Your freedoms and rights are a myth
(You have no rights, only privileges conferred by society) The problem with the demands for “rights” and “freedoms” by the anti-vax, anti-lockdown, mask-free movement is that those demands are based on a mythology perpetrated by groups such as the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA). That mythology is itself based on US ideological concepts of individual... Continue Reading →
Demonising Virtue, Value and Ethics
Or how the right “invented” and weaponised the terms "political correctness”, “virtue signalling”, “woke” and “cancel culture” As our politics has drifted relentlessly to the right, in recent years, and as the features of neo-liberal economies have increasingly driven inequality and environmental degradation, a part of this drift has been the labelling of virtue as... Continue Reading →
Democratic Follies
The Failure of Representative Democracy Australia’s political parties and its mainstream media exist in a little bubble of self-satisfaction and complacency about our representative democracy - as exemplified recently by Scott Morrison’s reflection that ‘at least in Australia people demonstrating don’t get shot at’. If this is the best measure he can summon of the... Continue Reading →
The Most Corrupt Government in Australian History – a summary
The current government is the most dishonest, dangerous, incompetent, corrupt, hypocritical and unaccountable government in Australian political history. By this, I mean the Liberal National party in it’s three terms of office stretching back over eight years. It has undermined every notion of good government and ministerial accountability.
Judgement Day will Come
I see the fires’s dull dangerous glowIt flickers like the anger in my soulA burning rage at the failed leadersThe tentacles of grief grasp our heartsFor the destruction of our olive landLike the wreathes of smoke curling upEach fire the death of a thousand animalsMurdered on the killing fields of climateA bloody plain of lies,... Continue Reading →
Murder by any other name – When will we start calling climate science denying politicians what they are: murderers!!
The Bahamas. This is not an accident (Photo Our News Travis Carroll) Are Scott Morrison, Donald Trump, Bolsonaro, Boris Johnson and a myriad other leaders, former leaders (Abbott), and ministers (Proudfoot, Taylor etc) murderers? In my book, yes. When you take actions that you know are going to kill people then that makes you, arguably,... Continue Reading →
Why I hate Australia (and why it’s not even a place)!
Most people think of Australia as a place. But I don't. You know. "Where are you from?" Australia. But Australia is not a place, it's simply an idea. A concept. A set values. We may think of Australia as tangible. Surely it is? It's where we are from. But it's not - it's a figment... Continue Reading →
Rape, bullying, harassment, unfair dismissal – you reap what you sow.
The story (How the Greens failed me over rape) in the Saturday Paper this month (December 23, 2017), sad as it is, comes as no surprise to many in the Greens. The Greens like all institutions is, sadly, just as capable of the delusion that it can do no wrong and that the party is,... Continue Reading →
Environmental Anecdotes (Episode 5). The Franklin: One Chair Down
The chair lay smashed in tiny pieces on the floor. I'm not certain how many times I had smashed it against the filing cabinet. It was the cabinet in which we kept the Pedder files (on Lake Pedder).
Fortunately this was before the age of the church's descent in to child abuse infamy since, if you referred, today, to the location in which you kept your Pedder files many would look at you askance. Then no-one blinked.
My memory is that I wielded the chair twice, with considerable force, but others, no doubt motivated by their concern for my welfare, say it was more - all no doubt to demonstrate my undoubted virility. Five or six times, they say. Oh, yes you were really angry. Well justified! And it was a well made chair!
Environmental Anecdotes (Episode 4) The Franklin: A Federal Government Wedding Team from the SMH
THIS IS NOT A HISTORICAL RECORD. AS PER TRUMPIAN LOGIC, NO APOLOGIES MADE FOR ERRORS, EXAGGERATION, OMISSIONS, BAD TASTE OR MISREPRESENTATIONS. The call came to Bob Brown's office at the Davey St head office of the Wilderness Society (TWS). Or at least what purported to be the head office, since no part of the organisation's... Continue Reading →
Environmental Anecdotes (Episode 3) The Franklin Campaign: The Leaker – they came in the Dead of Night.
THIS IS NOT A HISTORICAL RECORD. AS PER TRUMPIAN LOGIC, NO APOLOGIES MADE FOR ERRORS, EXAGGERATION, OMISSIONS, BAD TASTE OR MISREPRESENTATIONS. The call came from Canberra. I'd spent a year there as National Liaison Officer (NLO) for the Wilderness Society (TWS). A grand title but little else. I had been lobbying politicians and the media... Continue Reading →