by FRED PAWLE – DESPITE the bleakness of our current outlook, it’s crucial to remember that the best way to defeat tyrants is to not take them too seriously. For all his literary brilliance, George Orwell wasn’t great at irony. His use…
by NAZIYA ALVI RAHMAN – THE Albanese Government’s adoption of key recommendations from the Varghese Review, including the defunding of a prominent Australian think tank known for its critical stance towards Beijing, has sparked controversy. The Varghese Review is named after Peter…
by ROGER CROOK – THE last time I saw Labor luminary Dr Jim Cairns was in the 1980s on a very cold Saturday morning in a market at St Andrews, up in the hills outside Melbourne. He sat behind an old card…
by FRED PAWLE – THE Albanese Government has given up pretending that parliament bears any influence on its policies. Crucial decisions are being made even before MPs have had a chance to debate them. Anthony Albanese’s contempt for parliament goes beyond treating…
by MONICA O’SHEA – ISRAELI PM Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the Albanese Government as “anti-Israeli” – and partly responsible for this week’s fire bombing of a Melbourne synagogue. Two people were injured at the Adass Israel Synagogue on December 6 after two…
by FRED PAWLE – POLITICIANS and legacy-media proprietors have good reasons to support restrictions on social media, which have nothing to do with children’s safety. Orwell’s dictum that “some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them” was spectacularly superseded not…
by PAUL COLLITS – WHY the hell is Peter Dutton supporting this obvious Trojan Horse legislation? – The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. Just when you thought it was safe(ish) to trust the Liberals again, we get this…
by FRED PAWLE – TODAY’S decision to restrict access to social media is a collusion between illegitimate politicians and media companies that can’t accept their hegemony is over. If you think the government is restricting access to social media to protect children,…
by FRED PAWLE – THE Australian mainstream media marked the death of the government’s Censorship Bill today by censoring debate about it. As hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens celebrated the announcement on Friday evening that the government’s Bill will fail to…
by ROGER CROOK – BEN Chifley was no ordinary Prime Minister; he had come through the Labor ranks the hard way. A train driver by profession and driven (no pun intended), like his predecessor John Curtin, he had experienced a world war,…
