Government
South Australia’s world-leading renewable transition is attracting flood of new industry
Will a grid based around wind and solar kill manufacturing and industry? It’s what the naysayers – the Coalition and conservative agitators – want you to believe, but the experience in South Australia, which leads the world in the uptake of wind and solar, proves the opposite. The state’s transmission operator ElectraNet says wind and Continue reading »
Health professions urged to speak up on AUKUS and its threats to health and safety
At first sight there might not seem to be much connection between health and the AUKUS military alliance. But the threats posed by AUKUS to health are multiple and strong, at local, national, regional and global levels. A serious examination of those threats should form an important part of preventive healthcare. The AUKUS agreement between Continue reading »
Human rights protections underpin safeguarding national security ordinance
Grenville Cross says new legislation incorporates guarantees lacking in other common-law jurisdictions’ similar laws. Although it was inevitable the West’s anti-China forces would criticise Hong Kong’s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (the Ordinance), which was passed by the Legislative Council on March 19, its shameless myth-making exceeded expectations. Regardless of its content, they viewed it as Continue reading »
Australia entrapped in war against China for America
The Australian Government’s bipartisan planned war on China must dominate the next election. Australia’s democracy is currently dead to war, and to America. But the ballot box is the only recourse for Australians. Foreign Affairs Minister Wong recently gave a long interview with historian James Curran. She revealed some guiding principles for how Australia’s foreign Continue reading »
On Syria, sanctions, terror and war – an open letter to Australian parliamentarians
When we choose not to show empathy for the people of Syria, it leads us to ignore their country’s ancient history and the rich fabric of Syrian society today. I’m writing to you as an anti-war activist, seeking your support for Petition EN5846 – Help ameliorate the humanitarian crisis in Syria by suspending sanctions. (The petition Continue reading »
We need to talk about the state pension
My post-Budget article for the Radix thinktank considers the future of the State Pension in the light of the Chancellor's changes to National Insurance.
The headline news in the Budget was a 2p cut in the main rate of National Insurance contributions for employed and self-employed people. This was the second such cut, the first being in the Autumn statement. And the Chancellor expressed an intention to go much further. He trailed the idea of abolishing personal National Insurance completely.
These changes will have far-reaching implications for the state pension...
To read the rest of the post, click here.
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America is dumbing itself down. Banning TikTok won’t halt the slide
The US has created the conditions for the decline of its own society. TikTok being banned in the USA is not the issue. The fact is, this is a ban on any current or future successful technology owned by a potential adversary and, let’s not make any mistake about it, China, where the ownership of Continue reading »
Dead in the water: The AUKUS SSN delusion
The general theme of delusion and the particular theme of ‘dead in the water’ as they apply to the entire AUKUS arrangements are provocations worthy of taking further. These are, of course, extracted from the essays in the most recent issue of Australian Foreign Affairs (paywalled). The most prominent of these, authored by Professor Hugh Continue reading »
ASIO’s version of Australian sovereignty
Obviously no Australian, much less an MP, should ever sell out his country to any foreign power. However, in recent times, some actions taken by certain MPs arguably amount to doing just that. Mike Burgess, chief of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) appointed by the previous Scott Morrison government, gave an example of this Continue reading »
Gaza explosions expose Australian faultlines
Since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, through the following months of disproportionate and incomprehensible Israeli vengeance wreaked upon the Palestinian people, the seismic waves from Gaza have been felt near the surface of Australian democracy itself. Reputedly we live in a robust democracy but the current situation in the Middle East has exposed fissures Continue reading »