Intro: Extract of Still Not Happy, John: Defending our Democracy (Penguin 2007) Democracy v. the Beast Her appeal was simply that she represented something authentic in a culture of artefact. She was transparent in an era during which the political class have become expert at concealment. She was a still point in a culture […]
Yours not to reason why: Not Happy John Iraq Chapter #Chilcot
Democracy has proved itself a friend of peace. No fully self-governing country has provoked a war within a century’s memory . . . Democracy, being founded on the rights of the individual Citizens, concerns itself first and foremost with the domestic well-being of its people . . . In the grim struggle between guns and […]
The @NoFibs #ausvotes editorial: @margokingston1
Gonski decided it for me. Such a hard-won consensus to end the state-private war and embed a funding system based on need instead. Giving every child the best chance we can to succeed is an economic investment, proof of Australia’s commitment to egalitarianism and insurance against the ‘two nations’ phenomenon threatening revolution in the United […]
An outsider’s tax idea, by @margokingston1
The Turnbull government is reportedly considering Treasury options for a GST rise. https://t.co/KRs2BhQalt pic.twitter.com/RMgM9cjpkA — The Australian (@australian) October 31, 2015 I write this as a progressive who, like so many other Australians, fought hard on social media to rid us of of a man who, we believed, did not represent Australian values. I write […]
Please @turnbullmalcolm don’t soil new era with #Ashbygate liar @MalBrough_MP: @margokingston1 comments
What? Mal Brough is our Special Minister of State? Excuse me? Like so many Australians, I was filled with an unbearable lightness of being on the removal of Tony Abbott and with hope that a new era of honest, policy-based politics had begun. Yes, there was a little niggle when I saw Brough alongside Turnbull […]
#choppergate ‘investigation’ Fact Check by @margokingston1
The AFP and the Department of Finance are playing pass-the-parcel on investigating the legality of Bronwyn Bishop’s helicopter trip to Geelong for a Liberal Party fundraiser. It’s a complicated game of obfuscation that counts on confusing voters. So here are the facts. 1. Applicability of the Minchin Protocol to the AFP When Labor and several members […]
Labor’s Mark Dreyfus QC takes stand on #freespeech: Abbott and Brandis honour Voltaire only in the breach
[clear] The Coalition will never waver in its defence of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. — Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) March 13, 2013 Oh the terrible irony for George Brandis QC in fronting the latest Abbott Government attacks on free speech through its terror legislation. Brandis was one of several moderates in the […]