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 →
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.
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 →
Facing Facts – You cannot be a Green and/or an environmentalist, and at the same time support capitalism
If you accept the basic premises of the definitions of capitalism and environmentalism, ergo you cannot be both an environmentalist and support capitalism. If you are a Green you cannot support capitalism in its current form and, I would argue, at all.
Why neither Richard Di Natale nor Left Renewal speak for me
Neither Richard Di Natale nor “Left Renewal†Speak for me.... Or many people in the Greens. The media has been full these last several weeks with stories about division in the Greens following the establishment of a faction called “Left Renewal†which claims to be about defending/renewing the left soul of the party. Scribes from... Continue Reading →
The Failure of Representative Politics
Repudiating Representative Politics Replacing career politicians with citizen politicians If you start with the assumption that the worst possible person to whom one should give power is someone who is narcissistic, ambitious, arrogant and self-interested, and one would almost automatically disqualify from political office every single person who puts their hand up to be... Continue Reading →
The Self-Delusion at the Heart of the NSW Greens
Recently Bob Brown gave an interview in which he called for 'renewal' in the NSW Greens. In that interview he stated that, inter alia, the Greens were being "held back by the old guard", that the Greens voters "deserved better" and that Lee Rhiannon should stand down. He indicated that voters had told him that... Continue Reading →
The Failure of the Greens
The 'failure' of the Greens – more myth than maths In the 2016 post election wash up a number of people, both inside and outside the Greens, have tried to analyse why the Greens “did so poorly†especially in NSW and in the Senate. Among them have been Osman Faruqi, in this story in the... Continue Reading →
The Danger of the mantra of ‘Grass Roots’ Democracy
These are sayings that are designed to reveal little and hide a lot. The same could be argued for an oft-repeated Greens mantra. Whenever critical political debate around Greens policies, or comparisons to other parties occurs, one often hears people saying, in effect, “well you may not like it but (unlike other political parties) it's ok because we have grass roots democracyâ€
The Generosity of Strangers in Strange Lands
It's clear that Australians whose daily out outpouring of bile against Muslims, refugees and strangers, in general, have never experienced the generosity, warmth and welcome of strangers in strange lands. Had they done so it is hard to believe that they would behave towards people with different values, skin colours and religions as they have... Continue Reading →
Episode 5 – The Greens – Committee Central
Warning: This post was previously password protected. It has now been made public since it now has limited, if any, relevance to the internal workings of the NSW Greens. A significant number of the issues raised here have now been wholly or partially addressed or are in the process of being addressed As I originally... Continue Reading →
Politicians: arrogant, entitled, leaners and how to fix them.
Australia doesn't have a problem with politics, it has a problem with politicians. Most people say they hate politics and are disillusioned with politics. Scratch a little deeper and you will find in fact that it's the politicians themselves with whom the public are disillusioned. We have a politician problem not a politics problem. Consider... Continue Reading →
Episode 2 – Into the Bearpit
Warning: This post was previously password protected. It has now been made public since it now has limited, if any, relevance to the internal workings of the NSW Greens. A significant number of the issues raised here have now been wholly or partially addressed or are in the process of being addressed As I originally... Continue Reading →
Episode 1 – The Oxymoronic offer
Warning: This post was previously password protected. It has now been made public since it now has limited, if any, relevance to the internal workings of the NSW Greens. A significant number of the issues raised here have now, allegedly, been wholly or partially addressed or are in the process of being addressed As I... Continue Reading →