australian politics
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Australia where the bloody hell are you on gay marriage?
Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 28th, 2015 - 55 comments
Following on from New Zealand, Ireland and many other states the United States Supreme Court has recently ruled that banning same sex marriages is a breach of the 14th amendment’s right to life and liberty. It makes you wonder when Australia is going to institute change.
Lift the refugee quota
Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, June 23rd, 2015 - 69 comments
Refugees are people, but they get treated as a political football, as recent events in Australia and NZ have demonstrated once again. It is long past time that NZ raised its refugee quota.
Snakeheads
Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 15th, 2015 - 30 comments
It is looking likely that the Australian Government has broken its own laws and international treaties by paying off people smugglers. Did John Key know? Did he approve of what may be criminal activity?
Conservatives and Human Rights
Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, June 2nd, 2015 - 16 comments
In Australia a recent attempt by Abbott and some supporters to give the Minister of Immigration the power to cancel an Australian’s citizenship status was met by a cabinet revolt. In England there is talk of the UK withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights. So much for the Conservative commitment to the rule of law.
What Tony Abbott thinks of babies
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, May 5th, 2015 - 10 comments
A recent cartoon summarises Tony Abbott’s views of babies perfectly.
Who is Miranda Devine?
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, April 13th, 2015 - 46 comments
Miranda Devine is the person who recently wrote a really obsequious article on John Key in the Daily Telegraph where she described him as one of the best Conservative Prime Ministers in the world. But a reading of her other published material suggests that caution should be applied before applying too much weight to her opinions.
Dollar Parity
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, April 7th, 2015 - 309 comments
As New Zealand’s dollar approaches parity with Australia’s a responsible Government should be pondering the implications and acting in the country’s best interests. No such luck in Aotearoa …
Government in disarray as MP’s offending revealed
Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, April 2nd, 2015 - 16 comments
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor Government’s majority is on a knife edge after recent revelations that Labor MP Billy Gorton had criminal convictions he did not declare to the Labor Party and after a former partner alleged that he had subjected her to sustained domestic violence.
The rich want to hide their wealth because of kidnap threats
Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, March 22nd, 2015 - 173 comments
The Liberal National Party Coalition in Australia want to overturn a requirement for corporations with a turnover of $100 million to disclose tax information on the grounds that kidnapping will occur even though the rich’s ostentatiousness is plain to see without the information being published. And in America it has been estimated that Wall Street’s bonus pool is twice the amount paid to full time American employees living on the minimum wage.
Aussies & US mount opposition to TPPA – but in NZ we just keep nodding
Written By: - Date published: 2:56 pm, February 14th, 2015 - 47 comments
So much to sell, so little time… When this Government is finished selling, we will have sold our right to make laws for ourselves too. Be under no doubt, if the effect of bringing in a law for the health and well being of Kiwis will cost a corporate millions of dollars, part of their lobbying after the TPP, will be threatening to sue the taxpayers of NZ and watch such a Bill slip into obscurity. And those corporates wielding that power? Most will never pay a cent of tax into the coffers of NZ taxpayers.
Captain’s Call
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 pm, February 9th, 2015 - 53 comments
Leaving Mike Sabin in charge of the Law and Order Select Committee was certainly a captain’s call by John Key. Just like Tony Abbott’s award of a knighthood to the Duke (as if he needed more fruit salad), this was a judgment call. And it does call Key’s judgment into question. It’s not about when he knew what he knew, it’s about what he did when he knew.
Is Tony’s tenure terminal?
Written By: - Date published: 2:41 pm, February 8th, 2015 - 47 comments
Over in Australia a spill motion scheduled for tomorrow may end Tony Abbott’s reign. Former PM Julia Gillard who famously lectured Abbott on his misogyny must be grinning from ear to ear. Update: Abbott has survived with the vote reported to be 61-39 against a spill. I suspect the left will be pleased …
Abbot in trouble
Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, February 3rd, 2015 - 22 comments
Seems like Australian PM Tony Abbot might be facing a leadership challenge.
The Queensland State Election
Written By: - Date published: 6:53 pm, January 31st, 2015 - 74 comments
The Queensland State election is on today. At the last election Labor was reduced to 7 out of 89 seats as punishment for its privatisation program. But the current Government has been that bad that the Premier may lose his seat and a resurgence by Labor looks likely. Update remarkably a change of government is on the cards …
Only in Queensland
Written By: - Date published: 7:22 pm, January 25th, 2015 - 13 comments
Queensland Liberal Country Party Premier Campbell Newman has claimed that the Queensland Labor Party is funded by gangs because some people have told him so. Yet he refuses to acknowledge the urgency of climate change even though pretty well every climate change scientist in the world is telling him it is real and we need to act now. Can you detect the scent of hypocrisy?
Exploiting the Charlie Hebdo attack
Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, January 15th, 2015 - 52 comments
How many governments are using the Paris / Charlie Hebdo attack as an excuse to increase surveillance or otherwise remove civil protections? The UK and Australia for starters…
Australian activist arrested for wearing “I’m with Stupid” t-shirt
Written By: - Date published: 4:46 pm, January 8th, 2015 - 56 comments
While the west of the world mourns the murders of the journalists associated with Charlie Hebdo and protests attacks on freedom of speech in Australia the police have arrested a man for wearing a t-shirt that says “I’m with Stupid”.
The Failed Estate: Body of the Host
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, January 2nd, 2015 - 11 comments
The failed estate is a blogsite run by veteran Australian Journalist Jim Parker. He writes occasional but perceptive posts primarily on media issues. This current post, reprinted with permission, provides a damning critique of main stream media coverage of the Sydney Siege.
Lone nutters and suicide by cop
Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, December 16th, 2014 - 89 comments
As anticipated, the Sydney cafe siege was caused by a lone nutter with a dubious history. He committed suicide by cop apparently after killing a hostage. Meanwhile we have had opportunistic jerkoffs like National MP Mark Mitchell displaying their paranoid fantasies (probably as urine dribbles down their leg) to justify recent poorly written and rushed legislation.
The Sydney siege finishes
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, December 16th, 2014 - 84 comments
The Sydney siege has now finished. Three people including the gunman are dead. And it is clear that the siege was caused by a lone person rather than a terrorist group.
Siege in Sydney
Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, December 15th, 2014 - 246 comments
Up to 20 civilian hostages are being held in a Sydney chocolate shop in a developing hostage situation.
Update: The siege is over, reports suggest two dead and three injured.
Organising to win
Written By: - Date published: 7:31 pm, December 9th, 2014 - 13 comments
Labor’s win in the recent Victorian state election was historic – the first time a one-term government had been turned out for more than 60 years. It was also a fantastic example of how organisation can win elections. Labor leader Daniel Andrews’ focus was on having 5500 active volunteers behind him.
Polity: Bonza
Written By: - Date published: 11:56 am, November 17th, 2014 - 39 comments
Poor old Tony Abbott. Thrust into the limelight of hosting the world’s biggest economic meeting, and his true colours come out for everyone to see. Not a happy weekend for Tony Abbott and, by extension, for Australia. Perhaps “bumpkin” would be a better title
Why does the right control the English speaking world?
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, November 16th, 2014 - 116 comments
Jason Wilson in the Guardian has asked a very relevant question. Why is the right currently dominant in the English speaking Western World and what does the left have to do to change this?
Surveillance in Australia
Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, September 28th, 2014 - 51 comments
Latest developments in Australia are relevant in the context of the recent focus on surveillance in NZ. What are the odds that the Nats will pass similar laws here during their current term?
President Abbott goes viral
Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, June 6th, 2014 - 7 comments
Meet Australia’s President of the United States, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the instigator of a wink-related scandal. He sometimes puts his foot in his mouth and other times chooses to say nothing at all. 665,777 page views.
Compulsory voting and an explicit “none of the above”
Written By: - Date published: 10:31 am, May 25th, 2014 - 171 comments
I was listening to Wallace Chapman interviewing Professor David Farrell, from University College, Dublin this morning on Radio New Zealand on compulsory voting which he was strongly in favour of. At one point the discussion veered on to the issue of “none of the above”. I think that this is the key to compulsory voting. Add “none of the above” and “I don’t know”
NRT: A disease the world over
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, May 9th, 2014 - 30 comments
New Zealand isn’t the only place currently seeing a cash-for-access scandal. In Australia, the federal Treasurer has a similar arrangement to the National Party, selling access to a donors by membership of a “club”. And in the UK, the co-treasurer of the Conservative Party has said publicly that £250,000 gets you a private dinner with the Prime Minister.
A bunch of 14 year olds show up Tony Abbott
Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, March 23rd, 2014 - 17 comments
Recently Australian PM Tony Abbott decided to speak to a group of 14 year olds who were visiting Parliament. Unluckily for him this particular group of 14 year olds were very sophisticated and asked him a series of questions which neatly skewered four of his main policy positions.
Tony Abbott is an idiot
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, March 16th, 2014 - 90 comments
Tony Abbott’s Liberal Government has acted to undermine New Zealand’s push for a United Nations declaration that it is in the interest of humanity that nuclear weapons never be used again under any circumstances. Having the option of killing millions of human beings and devastating major urban centres either by way of a first strike or a retaliatory strike is obviously something he thinks should be preserved.
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