Bartlett's Blog

In my very First Speech to the Senate back in 1997, I praised the Native Title negotiations then taking place between the Quandamooka people, the Traditional Owners of Stradbroke Island, and what was then the Redland Shire Council.  I mentioned it as a positive example of what Native Title could deliver for our entire community, as those negotiations seemed to be progressing well at the time.  I never ...

Today marks the day the Greens officially gain sole balance of power in the Senate. It also marks the thirtieth anniversary of the day the Democrats first gained the Senate balance of power back in 1981. Many people focus on the difficulties and disappointments of the Democrats declining years, and it reasonable to consider how the Greens might best avoid this fate. But it is equally important to remember ...

Nick Sherry drew a lot of media coverage (and opprobrium from bookshop owners/representatives) this week for his suggestion that in five years time, the traditional book store as we know it will barely exist outside of major cities.  By total coincidence (or as an example of my uncanny ability to tap into current stories even before they've happened), I interviewed Hamish Alcorn, the proprietor of Brisbane bookstore Archives ...

The moves to recognise Australia's First Peoples in our nation's Constitution are starting to gather pace.  The federal government has pledged to hold a referendum on this by the time of the next election - that is, within 2 years - which is not a lot of time to build community awareness and understanding of the issues. The Panel established to engage and seek community views has set up ...

The groups of people who have suffered most from Australia's long-standing absurdly politicised, disproportionate and irrational debate around asylum seekers are the asylum seekers themselves. But another group who have been subjected to disproportionate and unjustified punishment who get very little attention are the hundreds of impoverished Indonesian fishermen who are subjected to mandatory jail sentences for participating in transporting asylum seekers to Australia. Of course, if we just ...

My regular talk with Peter Black this week covered the NSW election result, some of the criticisms of the Greens from Julia Gillard and regarding Israel policy, plus the LNP, Libya and the Logies.  You can listen to it by going to this link. The playlist for this week's show is here, and my suggestion for a Brisbane band to check out is electronic duo Edge of Colour, who ...

I was fortunate enough this week to be able to do a live interview with Natalie Pa'apa'a, the singer of Blue King Brown on my weekly show on 4ZzZ FM.  I find Blue King Brown to be one of the more vibrant and interesting amongst what is admittedly a very large, diverse and multifaceted range of Australian outfits. They also aren't shy in singing about social and political ...

I am happy to be corrected, but I can't think of an equivalent circumstance in Australian politics at state or federal level where a major party has had their Opposition 'Leader' and alternative Premier/Prime Minister being outside the Parliament. Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman's announcement that he is seeking to run for state Parliament as the alternative Premier at the next Queensland election is an interesting - some would ...

This article in the New York Times about more people shifting away from 'long form' blogs to sites like Facebook and Twitter details pretty well why I've been doing less and less stuff on this blog, and more stuff just on Facebook or Twitter. I remember when I first started this blog (now waaaay too long ago to think too much about) I was determined to just try it ...

I wrote last week about some of the cowardly cheap shots at Muslim Australians being indulged in by some federal MPs from the 'Liberal' Party, spruiking some half-truths and lies in an effort to grow and garnish the minority bigot vote. Such lazy Muslim bashing is sadly far from uncommon, even amongst some people in leadership positions. But that has been well and truly ...

In the last year or so, those who regularly argue that migration levels somehow harm Australians and the Australian economy achieved much more political traction than usual, leading to all political parties sending various signals suggesting that migration should possibly be scaled back.  This has been one factor  (amongst four or five others) linked to a dramatic drop in the number of ...

In yet another example of why paying attention to political commentary can be a nausea inducing activity, some senior federal Liberal MPs are yet again engaging in blatant, deliberate and extreme hate-mongering towards Muslim Australians. Former frontbencher and serial Muslim-basher Cory Bernardi equated Islam and the practice of halal meat as "an ideology that is mired in sixth century brutality." I haven't noticed Senator ...

Here I am trying to convince myself that I should pay closer attention to political debate in Australia and I discover the big story of the day is that Tony Abbott said "shit happens" (again). It's gone berserk on Twitter - but as experienced Press Gallery journo Karen Middleton put it:"Summary of the day. Julia wept. Tony shook. Hello 2011. You are as weird as 2010. #shithappens" I suppose one ...

Readers of the Online Opinion website and/or followers of some of the political blogs in Australia would probably have noticed some commentary about the withdrawal of advertising from those sites by a couple of corporations. This blog is part of that group of blogs which are collated under the label of The Domain, which is linked administratively to Online Opinion. That means this blog has been caught up in ...

I have finally got around to closing the Facebook page I set up when I was running as a candidate for Brisbane at last year’s federal election (promptness isn’t always my forte).  Writing a note notifying people of that gave me cause to look again at the result (nationally as well as in my electorate of Brisbane) and at what has happened since. As I’ve noted before the result ...

We've heard jargon like the 'Twitter election' or the 'Facebook' election before (usually grossly exaggerated in my view). Now we have the Facebook resignation, as Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett has formally announced his resignation via his Facebook page, an hour or so prior to holding a media conference on the topic. Having done a blog post when David Bartlett (no relation) became Premier, I thought I should do one ...

It's hard to think of anything else at the moment other than the floods that have been hitting so many parts of Queensland over recent weeks, especially the literally unbelievable torrent that swept through Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley. The role which social media now plays in helping disseminate information has been very apparent. For days, the #Qldfloods topic on Twitter has been updating entries faster than they can ...

My talk with Peter Black on 4ZzZ-FM this week covered a range of topics which regularly appear at the start of a new year, including the release of 30 year old Cabinet papers, new laws coming into effect, end of year lists and campaigning for the next US Congressional elections. We also spoke of the enormous and tragic floods hitting much of Queensland. (You can donate to the ...

The current Wikileaks/'cablegate' affair raises quite a range of issues, not all of which are clear cut.  But I have to say that one thing which should be beyond dispute is that, whatever one's views might be about what Wikileaks is doing or about Julian Assange as an individual, it is not good enough for our government to sit back and say nothing while senior US political figures ...

Overland magazine has been going since 1954, and is one of the few remaining independent literary and cultural journals left in Australia.  I have a piece published in their most recent edition (issue #201) on the topic of population and the so-called 'Big Australia' debate.  Actually, it is sort of two pieces - both myself and Assoc Prof Mark Diesendorf were asked to provide a progressive perspective on ...