Vale David Feeney. Nah, lol
Few will mourn the political death of David Feeney, the amnesiac Labor backbencher who has now fallen to Section 44. Feeney’s career in the House of Representatives produced only two moments of heroic distinction. First, during the 2016 federal election, when Labor was aggressively campaig...CONTINUE READING
Ron Walker shouldn’t get a state funeral
Ron Walker will forever be associated with two major blights on the Melbourne landscape: the Formula 1 Grand Prix and Crown Casino. Walker made a fortune out of each, and his mates at the big end of town continue to do so. Disgracefully, Victorian taxpayers, who largely foot the bill for t...CONTINUE READING
I know what it's like to be the target of a Murdoch pack-attack
“We have not organised this to change the date. We have organised this to abolish Australia Day because fuck Australia … I hope it fucking burns to the ground”, Tarneen Onus-Williams told a cheering crowd at Melbourne’s Invasion Day rally. The protesters were fired up, and so were the spea...CONTINUE READING
Too right, Malcolm, let’s sell more death
Well it’s about time Australian capitalists increased their profits from the business of killing people. For too long, countries such as the United States and Russia have dominated the global arms trade, gaining many of the fringe benefits of wars, peace-keeping operations and other euphem...CONTINUE READING
Hell NOprah!
It was the speech heard round the world. Award ceremonies are like that. But this was much more. After Oprah Winfrey’s acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globes, the Washington Post, and social media, raised the possibility of Oprah as the next US president. ABC News an...CONTINUE READING
#MeToo proves need for structural change
#MeToo is sensational, gimmicky and mainly focused on Hollywood and other elite hierarchies, but much of what it has uncovered is recognisable to women everywhere. Sexual harassment, ranging from assault at the extreme through to everyday unwanted sexual attention, is both common and norma...CONTINUE READING
New Year in detention
It’s New Year’s Day, and the Broadmeadows detention centre is in lockdown. We’re told to wait. Eventually, a guard comes to the car park to tell us that all visits are off. She won’t say why. But after a few calls at our end, word has it that a couple of visa overstayers awaiting deportati...CONTINUE READING
Capitalism? Yes, let’s have a trial
In announcing his long-avoided royal commission into banking, Malcolm Turnbull said that “it will not put capitalism on trial”. What a shame! Not that anyone would seriously expect the Turnbull government to do anything useful, but a new trial of capitalism is long overdue. I say “new tria...CONTINUE READING
The space out merchants
Onetime Canadian PM Jean Chretien got himself into hot water several years back. Believing himself off-mike at a political dinner, he remarked to the person next to him that what was standard practice in the US Congress would be jailable conduct in most other Western countries. When his re...CONTINUE READING