Nov 25, 2012
There's an interesting story in today's Age newspaper about primates being bred in Australia for medical and other scientific research.
Figures in the story show the number of primates being used for research in Australia is continuing to grow, even though protocols for the use of animals in research require alternatives to be used wherever possible. It is quite difficult to get the full picture about all the animals ...
Aug 30, 2012
A recent controversy over a blatantly racist page on Facebook - and Facebook's delay in taking the page down - raised the issue of how best to address cases of blatant racial vilification. Similar issues were raised with the trial of Andrew Bolt for columns he wrote which were found to breach the Racial Discrimination Act.
I recently spoke about these issues with law lecturer Peter J Black, who ...
Apr 15, 2012
Large amounts have already been written about the surpise decision by Bob Brown to retire from the Senate and as Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Greens.
I did a fair bit of media commentary on Bob Brown's announcement, so to get some idea of my views on the immediate context, you can read this piece from the Brisbane Times, listen to this interview with Kelly Higgins-Devine on 612 ABC ...
Apr 12, 2012
A few weeks ago I interviewed author Anita Heiss about her new book Am I Black Enough For You? The book is partly a personal memoir and partly explores the issue of Aboriginal identity. You can listen to the interview at this link.
Anita Heiss was one of a number of people who took columnist Andrew Bolt to court for making a range of false claims which in effect ...
Mar 28, 2012
I was so focused working on the Queensland state election campaign, (relieved by the occasional brief break of feeling despondent about the Queensland state election campaign), that I didn't get around to blogging about it. Now that that election is over - although counting is still being completed - it's straight into the local government election campaign, with an extra serving of unexpected by-election happening in the seat ...
Mar 7, 2012
It's hard to know what to say on this issue that hasn't already been said, but the blithely blatant injustice is still hard to stomach - I can only imagine the fury many Aboriginal must feel about this.
Almost five years ago I wrote here about the report of the Senate Committee Inquiry I helped establish in 2006 into wages and other entitlements stolen from Aboriginal people. I also ...
Feb 23, 2012
Every political party - indeed most community organisations - find themselves having to deal with internal turmoil and personal conflict from time to time. In that sense, the main difference for political parties is that those differences tend to be more likely to be played out in the public eye. But I can't escape the feeling that the current turmoil within the federal Labor Party is much deeper ...
Feb 12, 2012
There is often a large amount of variation amongst the 89 different electorate contests across the state, with local issues and local candidates having a much greater impact on the outcome in each seat than occurs at federal elections. This is even more the case in seats outside the south-east corner – which can often tend to sneak under the media radar given the tendency to focus predominantly ...
Feb 10, 2012
As is usual with elections, there has been a lot of coverage on the personalities and the contest and not so much on the policies and issues. Still, the unusual strategy the Liberal-Nationals have adopted of having their leader and proposed Premier campaigning from outside of Parliament has invited an even greater focus on Campbell Newman himself and also on the seat of Ashgrove which he is contesting.
Regardless ...
Feb 8, 2012
Having had a couple of months break from this blog thing, I thought I'd have a go at trying to use a bit like I did when I first started it out back in 2004 - giving some occasional updates of things I've been doing.
A few months ago I became Convenor of the Queensland Greens, which has meant I have become a lot more immersed in the internal, ...
Dec 15, 2011
Earlier this week, I spoke with Kellie Caught, head of climate change campaigning with WWF in Australia, about the outcomes of the conference in Durban, as well as what comes next following the package of Clean Energy and carbon pricing legislation that was passed by the Australian Parliament last month. You can listen to that interview at this link.
The legislative package passed with the support of ...
Nov 17, 2011
Barack Obama's visit to Canberra this week has generated a lot of attention. But I was much happier being in Canberra last week for the Senate’s historic vote to pass the package of legislation that will finally start moving Australia towards a clean energy future. I partly wanted to be there as a way to bear witness to the efforts of so many members and MPs of the Australian ...
Oct 17, 2011
One of the best things about doing a weekly show on local radio station 4ZzZ-FM is getting the chance to find out so much about the huge number of local performers producing such a wide variety of fabulous sounds these days - and sometimes I get to talk with some of them on air as well. I had such a chance with my show this week, talking with ...
Oct 13, 2011
With the carbon pricing legislation passing the House of Representatives, the complaints have got ever louder about Julia Gillard's 'lie' on that matter just before the last election. Coming from the party whose former leader coined the phrase "non-core promise", this might seem a bit rich. But as I was reminded tonight when I found a brief clip on YouTube, for a really world-class example of a monstrous ...
Oct 4, 2011
This piece in the SMH details some of the reasons why the breadth of blogging has reduced in recent times. I basically agree with the reasons it outlines, not least because it goes to some of the same reasons I've expressed on this site previously. Ironically, I read the SMH piece because it was linked to in the first post on a new blog by Annabel Crabb, which ...
Aug 27, 2011
The Australian newspaper has been running one of their not-very-subtle campaigns for 'reform' of industrial relations laws, blaming the current laws (which partially rolled back Workchoices) for declining productivity. Today's they've made it the main front page story, with a headline saying - Lucky to lazy country: review industrial relations laws to stop decline, says Glenn Stevens - drawing from commentary to a Parliamentary Committee yesterday by the ...
Aug 8, 2011
I'm MC at a free public forum in Brisbane tomorrow (Tuesday) evening on the topic of Can Queensland Afford the Mining Boom?
The forum is organised by The Australia Institute, whose Executive Director, Dr Richard Denniss will be speaking. It will explore the economic and social downsides of the mining boom. (I imagine some of the environmental downsides will get a mention too). I did a brief interview ...
Aug 1, 2011
Voiceless is an Australian organisation dedicated to alleviating the suffering of animals, and each year they hold a lecture series focused on animal law. This year's lecture features Peter Stevenson, the chief policy advisor for Compassion In World Farming in Europe. Among other things, he will drawing attention to the potential health impacts from the overuse of antibiotics on animals in factory farming situations.
The lectures are happening around ...
Jul 28, 2011
There is a well known definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The current humanitarian disaster unfolding in Australia's immigration detention centres is a classic - and disgraceful example.
If there was one unequivocal, indisputable fact that arose from government policy and management of detention centres during the Howard era, it was that it was an incredibly expensive way ...
Jul 26, 2011
There have been many comments made about how badly Question Time in the Australian Parliament looks in comparison to the Question Time in the UK House of Commons recently shown on local television. This piece by Katherine Murphy in The Age is a good example. Its opening paragraphs state that "there is no more grinding and time-wasting ritual in federal politics" than the "pathetic", "banal and pointless spectacle" ...