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The US forces in our country

On 17 of November Barack Obama touched down in Darwin for a visit that sent Darwin into a tailspin. The visit had been announced weeks earlier, giving Darwin time to spruce up for the visit. This included painting all the public benches on The Esplanade, where Obama was going to pay tribute to the US sailors who were killed when the Japanese bombed the USS Peary in 1942. It also included moving all the ‘Longgrassers’ (itinerant people, mainly Aboriginal, who congregate on the green grass, under shady trees during the day) out of town. ... read more

Written by Rohan Wightman on 22-12-2011, 3 user comments

Mr Rudd: Protect Assange!

This is an open letter to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Attorney-General Nicola Roxon. It calls on the Australian government to take steps to ensure Julian Assange's human rights are protected. It will be delivered on 19 December 2011, but we encourage members of the public to sign the letter below by adding their full name in the comments section, together with any comment they may wish to make. Please feel free to spread the word about the letter to others who may be interested.

Bernard Keane and Elizabeth O'Shea

The Hon Kevin Rudd
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House ACT 2600

Dear Minister

We write to express our concern about the plight of Julian Assange.

To date, no charges have been laid against Mr Ass

Written by Editorial team on 18-12-2011, 885 user comments

Punch and Judy and the theatre of politics

Punch & Judy

Punch & Judy: the double disillusion election of 2010
Mungo MacCallum
Black Inc.

Mungo must have been punching out Punch and Judy during the election – trawling the mediascape for fodder and spitting it back out between midnight and 4am, when only he and Tony Abbott were awake. Like all of us, he was surprised at the result but like most of us, upon reflection, wasn’t that surprised and Punch and Judy reflects this. In his analysis of the election, the result seems almost inevitable by the book’s end. Both candidates were useless and more alike than different policy wise, so there hardly seemed any point in voting unless you voted Greens or Independent as they were the only ones saying anything contrary to the unified voices of the Coalition and Labor. ... read more

Written by Rohan Wightman on 5-05-2011, 6 user comments

The revenger’s comedy

Kevin_Rudd

In early January, on a random scrap of paper on my desk, I wrote: ‘I just want it said, if there is any need to say it, that it seems blindingly obvious to me that Kevin Rudd is already wondering if he can do to Julia Gillard what she did to him; shaft her and become Prime Minister.’ Over New Year, Rudd had a kind of mini unofficial campaign launch at the Woodford Folk Festival, where he revisited the ‘I’m here to help’ slogan and played to an audience still hoping that someone will take action on climate change, stop treating refugees so criminally and start to act and think like a person with a soul not owned by flesh-eating aliens from the planet Zok. ... read more

Written by Stephen Wright on 21-03-2011, 8 user comments

Australia, anything to say to Mubarak?

Rudd & MubarakOn 11 December 2010, Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd met with the Egyptian dictator Mubarak. At a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Rudd said:

[C]ould I begin by again affirming the strength of this important bilateral relationship. A 60th anniversary celebration is important because it causes us to reflect on what we have done together and what we resolve to do together in the future.

DFAT gives more details on the relationship between Australia and Egypt:

Australia has friendly and positive relations with Egypt, underpinned by strong people-to-people links. Trade, particularly in agriculture and resources, has long been an important aspect of the bilateral relationship. Australia works constructively with Egypt on international security issues including counter-terrorism, disarmament and the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

... read more

Written by Jeff Sparrow on 29-01-2011, 10 user comments

Left behind: the faded labour narrative

Melbourne eight hour day march 1900

In August 1855, members of the Sydney Stonemakers’ Society working on the building site of the Holy Trinity church laid down their tools and called for the introduction of an eight-hour working day. The workers celebrated their victory at a dinner on 1 October, now known as Labour Day and recognised by a public holiday. The Stonemason’s victory pre-empted the call for an eight-hour day at the International Labour Congress in Paris in 1888, the outcome of which was May Day. The establishment of the eight hour day in 1855 was followed in other Australian states which now celebrate Labour Day at various times of the year. This weekend, the Labour Day public holiday is upon (some of) us and the people of NSW are out and about trying to make the best of their time off, if they have it, as the rain sweeps through Sydney, dampening barbecues and confining us to the great indoors. I doubt many are reflecting on the history of the labour movement. ... read more

Written by Boris Kelly on 4-10-2010, 16 user comments

The education devolution

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, education was the means to which anyone could transform their lives. In the near future if you want your child to attend university they will need to attend a private school or one of the few selective high schools in the country. If your child is likely to go into a trade, they will go to a public high school.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire and Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks, texts written twenty years apart, came to similar conclusions. Education is the key to social, economic and personal change, which can transform into political change. Hollywood, too, has mined this notion to great and dramatic effect. Think of The Freedom Writers, The Step It Up franchise and To Sir With Love (though not Hollywood) – all of which present education as a transformative tool. ... read more

Written by Rohan Wightman on 21-09-2010, 3 user comments

Into the underbelly of the beast

'Betrayal'Non-fiction review
Betrayal: The Underbelly of Australian Labor
Simon Benson
PanteraPress

Paul Keating famously said, ‘where goes NSW, so goes federal Labor’. I read Betrayal: The Underbelly of Australian Labor before the federal election, and watching the drama unfold I have to say it was a prescient read.

Simon Benson, Chief political reporter for the Daily Telegraph focuses on the fall of Morris Iemma as NSW Premier and his ill-fated attempt to privatise the NSW electricity supply. His forensic examination of the Iemma government, including the machinations of the faceless apparatchiks that really run Labor, as well as the factions and unions, throws a revealing light on federal Labor. ... read more

Written by Rohan Wightman on 16-09-2010, 3 user comments

To bed without supper

If our recent political debacle lends itself to analysis beyond Australia’s political choices being pretty dire, it may as well be two pet theories of mine. The first is pretty simple and goes like this: it isn’t enough to diss the other guy. You have to have policies, principles, and, above all, a plan for the future if you want to be elected.

The second is, Australia’s parliamentary system and our two primary parties are so utterly combative that it prevents us getting anything done.

I started hypothesising this around January and I’m a little depressed that it was proven this quickly.

I figure these two theories are argued for by the fact that Australia pretty much couldn’t be bothered to elect either party. And I do believe that’s what it was. People weren’t really torn between who to vote for. Everyone I talked to was either sticking with a party they'd always stuck to because they’d always stuck to them, or didn’t know who to vote for. Or were so mad they were handing in informal votes, which I personally gave real consideration to. Then there was the Greens vote, which I think is a protest vote as much as a ‘greenslide’, no matter how much I wish otherwise. But back to my theories. ... read more

Written by Georgia Claire on 30-08-2010, 1 user comment

Don’t mention the war[s]

Gillard & Abbott

Although it is reasonable to expect any election campaign to focus predominantly on domestic issues, it is nevertheless somewhat disappointing that matters of foreign policy have been put on the backburner in this unfulfilling 2010 Labor/Liberal contest. Aside, that is, from the essentially meaningless Tony Abbott mantra ‘turning back the boats,’ and both sides affirming an Australian military presence in Afghanistan. Surely there must be more going on in the wor

Written by Dan Bigna on 20-08-2010, 19 user comments

Finally, I’m interested!

What I can say is, after all my whining, all my shunning and head-in-hands dismay, something’s caught my eye, snared my attention, caused me to contemplate – even with some degree of intrigue – the Federal Election. It’s not just the winning and losing – although that holds its own nail-biting attributions – it’s what’s going on: the personalities, the asides, the thought of what’s at stake! But regardless of the particulars – the this and the that – something has clicked into gear for me. Finally, I’m onboard. Finally, I’m taking note.

This awakening took place around the time I took a trip into a state forest where, with no electricity (which meant no light to read by), my only form of stimulation was my transistor radio. What choice did I have? I immersed myself in Radio National and got to hear Kevin talk to Phillip and Barry Jones and Rodney Cavalier reminisce about Ben Chifley and Gough. A day or two later there was the win in the High Court for GetUp!, which meant seven days reprieve for an estimated 100,000 to get on the electoral roll, and the announcement of the question and answer session for swinging voters, which gave us all an opportunity to say Rooty Hill. ... read more

Written by SJ Finn on 17-08-2010, 3 user comments

Labor running scared?

So I received this in my PO Box this morning. No envelope. Apparently members can use their union membership to campaign for the ALP – but not for the actual issues mentioned (it’s good that the unions would use their workplaces to campaign for issues but why just for the ALP?).

ALP 'letter'

The text can also be found on Cath Bowtell’s site as a personal endorsement from ‘campaign volunteer Edwina’. It was authorised by State Secretary and Campaign Director, Nicholas Reece. ... read more

Written by Benjamin Laird on 13-08-2010, 20 user comments

Attack of the knuckle draggers

In an article in the latest edition of The Monthly, former Iemma staffer Mark Aarons says this of Labor Right backroom artists Mark Arbib and Karl Bitar:

Enter Arbib and Bitar and their focus groups. Their technique involves targeting the least politically committed voters in key marginal seats. Swing voters of this kind care most of all about themselves and are not loyal to any particular party or leader. The Arbib-Bitar theory is that these people determine who wins government, and that their views should therefore predominate in policy-setting. In a bizarre reversal of conventional political wisdom, leadership is redefined as following such people by pandering to them.

Arbib and Bitar are the inheritors of Graham Richardson’s ‘whatever it takes’ approach to the maintenance of power and were, of course, part of the shadow-team that rolled Rudd and installed Gillard. If Aarons is correct, the move against Rudd was in large part a response to the fidgety vacillations of 250000 self-interested, knuckle dragging (generic, non-racial sense), swinging voters as measured by Labor’s ‘internal polling’. The other macro factors at play in their decision to move on Rudd were the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme and the Mining Super Profits Tax, both of which were vehemently and vociferously opposed by the mining industry in expensive, well-organised public relations campaigns. Clearly, Gillard has been promoted on condition that she delay action on climate change to some indeterminate time in the future and soften the mining tax. But we know all that. ... read more

Written by Boris Kelly on 10-08-2010, 12 user comments

Colour me beige, it’s an election

Voting Australia 40sIt’s time to decide Australia. It’s time to stand up and grasp the rope of democracy – woven from the fabric of thousands of Anzac souls – and swing between apathy and outrage, determination and despair, boldness and boredom. It’s possible to swing between Julia and Tony as well, although the association of ‘Tony Abbott’ and ‘swinging’ is enough to put one off one’s Iced Vovos – and let’s face it, if you are reading anything associated with Overland, it’s unlikely you would consider voting for the Tonester. Then again, this is a strange and often disturbing age we live in and there are only so many times you can say you are voting for Jed Bartlett and still get a laugh. Eventually we are all going to find ourselves in a cardboard booth at the local primary school, with the only person to turn to for advice being the woman who is handing out the pencils, the one in the turquoise muumuu who makes sticky buns for the tuckshop. And even then, I’m pretty sure she’s not allowed to share her opinion. We will all be left on our own to decide between beige and beige, between two candidates with little to distinguish them from one another besides their genders. (Or just vote for the Socialist Party for the heck of it.) We will have to put numbers in boxes. Or will we? ... read more

Written by Claire Zorn on 9-08-2010, 15 user comments

Reinstating the Racial Discrimination Act and other election promises

With an election called it soon won’t be long before the list of election promises start filling screens and printed pages around the country. Promises from the last election will be brought up and assessed as to whether they’ve been broken, kept or whether they’re in progress. The adjective ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ may be resurrected. A volley of statements will be bandied about and decisions will be made on which statements to believe more than others.

With all that in mind, I can’t help but think of one promise from the last election that the Rudd Government made: the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act in the Northern Territory. The Act was suspended when Howard and Brough rolled out the Northern Territory Emergency Response in 2007.

On 21 June this year, after months of stalling, and even more of planning and writing, the federal Senate passed legislation which they say reinstates the Racial Discrimination Act. The emphasis is on ‘they say’, for as Jayne Weepers, Senior Policy Officer with the CLC, pointed out in an email sent to Jenny Macklin’s office and published on the Stop the Intervention website: ... read more

Written by Scott Foyster on 20-07-2010, 1 user comment