John McCain was a warmonger
Out they rolled, one after the other, gushing obituaries for John McCain, six-term US senator for Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who died from cancer on 25 August. Former president George W. Bush described McCain as “a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the...CONTINUE READING
Turnbull, Morrison and the crisis in the Liberal Party
The right wing insurgency in the Liberal Party brought down Malcolm Turnbull. But it has failed to elevate its number one candidate, former home affairs minister Peter Dutton, to the prime minister’s office. The 45-40 party room vote to elect former treasurer Scott Morrison has, for now, q...CONTINUE READING
Peter Dutton, right wing horror show
Malcolm Turnbull may have won the vote in the party room, but he’s finished. He has lost all authority among his colleagues. It is now only a matter of time before a fresh party room meeting votes to remove him. Peter Dutton is in the box seat to become prime minister. This prospect is jus...CONTINUE READING
Government priorities, not immigrants, are to blame for city congestion
The announcement on 7 August that Australia’s population has hit 25 million was greeted in many quarters with a loud wailing and gnashing of teeth. There are, we are told, too many immigrants. The obsession with immigration has long been the calling card of hard-core racists, who never saw...CONTINUE READING
Banks ripping off everyone
Australia’s big financial institutions are a money-gouging oligopoly enriching senior management, board directors and shareholders while bleeding customers dry. A new report from the Productivity Commission, submitted to the government in June but only now released to the public, spells ou...CONTINUE READING
Turnbull government comes a cropper on Super Saturday
Malcolm Turnbull has boasted for months about his government’s success in pushing through a right wing economic agenda, shovelling money into the hands of the well-off at the expense of the working class. Big tax cuts for big business were to be the next cab off the rank. The media have be...CONTINUE READING
Trump escalates tensions with Europe
Trump’s explosive interventions during his visit to Europe in mid-July – which included insulting German chancellor Angela Merkel during the NATO summit in Brussels and humiliating British prime minister Theresa May in an interview with Murdoch’s Sun newspaper – only confirm the widespread...CONTINUE READING
The Liberal vision for Australia
Malcolm Turnbull and treasurer Scott Morrison say that their $143 billion income tax cuts will benefit us all. They are “a win for working families”, says the prime minister. They say that the cuts will put money in our pockets – at least $530 in the next financial year for those earning l...CONTINUE READING
Shorten’s backflip over business tax ominous
Bill Shorten’s announcement that a Labor government would repeal tax cuts to businesses with a turnover of between $10 million and $50 million unleashed a media and business offensive against the ALP leader. The Master Builders Association and the Council of Small Business Associations, us...CONTINUE READING