Last month when another refugee on Nauru set herself on fire, Australia’s Immigration Minister Peter Dutton attacked advocates for providing “false hope” to people seeking asylum. The Minister’s comment reveals the strategy at the very core of the offshore detention camp policy – to destroy every tiny shred of hope in the heart, mind and…
Continue reading →Getting more than sick of this story repeating itself ……. Over ten years ago I wrote this post expressing despair at the repeating cycle, which goes pretty much as follows: a media organisation screens video footage taken by an animal welfare organisation showing terrible cruelty inflicted on animals as part of the live export trade…
Continue reading →If you ever need a clear, succinct outline of just how crucial migration and multiculturalism has been to Australia’s success – and just how damaging it has been when the country has succumbed to divisive leadership that sought to cause division by attacking this – read George Megalogenis’ book Australia’s Second Chance. The potential for…
Continue reading →When I nominated for the pre-selection ballot amongst party members for the Greens Senate ticket in Queensland in mid-2015, it was specifically only for the number 2 spot, as I wanted to be clear I was not seeking to challenge Larissa Waters who has done an excellent job since being elected as the first Greens…
Continue reading →I must have given hundreds of talks and speeches of various types over the last twenty years on the issue of refugees and people seeking asylum – and written plenty of pieces on the topic (not least on this blog). Last weekend I was speaking to a group of inspiring young medical students at Griffith…
Continue reading →There are many problems with how the current Senate voting system has evolved, but perhaps the worst is that it subverts the most basic aspect of a democracy – the ability to vote somebody out if people think they’re doing a bad job. If you can get elected with barely any public support, you have…
Continue reading →I have read a range of comments by people asserting that the current controversy over the Greens support for repairing the Senate voting system will by the “Greens GST moment.” As I am well-qualified to say what a “GST moment” is like, I thought I’d explain why that is not even remotely close to what…
Continue reading →Crikey is normally pretty good at cutting through political bluster to identify what is happening underneath. So it was disappointing to see them having a shot at the Greens for refusing to acquiesce to tactical moves by various other parties in the Senate to derail the legislation implementing improvements to Senate voting laws. It also…
Continue reading →This upcoming federal election will be the tenth I’ve been involved in. As all these have been with a smaller party – either the Democrats or the Greens – and in all but the first I’ve been involved in one way or another with preferences decisions, I have a fair idea of how the current…
Continue reading →Last year I did some high school teaching, which I found to be the most difficult paid work I’ve ever done. Definitely way harder than being a Senator – apart from anything else, Senators have staff to help them do what they need to do (& get paid 3 times the money of course). And…
Continue reading →Just as well my New Year resolutions of 2015 didn’t include blogging more, as I only did 9 posts all year. Having said that, 6 of those blog posts were in January, so maybe I did make that resolution without remembering it – one of the benefits of not writing resolutions down I guess. I…
Continue reading →The best thing about the resignation of Parliamentary Speaker Bronwyn Bishop is not that it ends one of the worst, most vociferously partisan Speakerships in living memory – although that is certainly a good thing. The new Speaker will no doubt still be partisan, as is the Australian tradition, although it is unlikely there is…
Continue reading →Despite not being a tech head, I will be speaking at the cryptoparty being held in Brisbane on Wednesday. Details of the event are at this link, however it is booked out so the only option this time around is to register for the waiting list. I want to make the simple albeit sad point…
Continue reading →My favourite memory of the Magna Carta involved a group of refugees who had recently arrived in Australia after spending years being kept in the detention centre on Nauru. I’d visited them while they were incarcerated in Nauru, where they were uncertain of their future – not knowing how long they would be locked up…
Continue reading →I wrote a piece here nearly ten years ago about how I personally wasn’t a big fan of daylight saving – mainly because I’m a bit more of a night owl than most people. But it’s an issue that repeatedly raises it’s head in Queensland, and I’ve certainly had countless people mention to me that…
Continue reading →Adding to my own wish/goals, this article contains a range of good resolutions from folks such as Maya Angelou, Carl Sagan & Benjamin Franklin, along with plenty of others.
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Brisbane’s independent music radio station 4ZZZ FM hits its 40th birthday this year. (The actual 40th anniversary of the first broadcast is not until 8th December, but it’s something worth building up to!) It was the first community radio and first FM radio station in Queensland. At the time FM – being in stereo, as…
Continue reading →The presence and impact of proactive haters is multi-layered, but if left unchecked can cause immense harm both to those who are the targets of the hate and to what becomes a more divided, antagonistic society. (I thought I’d keep this manageable by restricting it to Australia, although there is of course plenty worse that…
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This goal/wish might seem even more unlikely than world peace, but I feel it is worth a stab none the less – so much so that I thought I’d even risk putting something as potentially boring as economics at the start of my Ne Year’s list (which is of a still indeterminate length). Perhaps convincing…
Continue reading →The start of a new year seems to be the time for lists – looking back at things that have happened, lives that have changed (and ended), and looking forwards at what might happen next and what might be able to be done differently. It also seems to be the time for wishes – wishing…
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