En Passant

Three recent events reveal the racism and historical ignorance that infects our society, writes Independent Australia Canberra correspondent John Passant.

Andrew Bolt expresses and inflames the reactionary propaganda and race hatred of a section of Australian society — a section who are exploited by politicians such as Pauline Hanson, particularly during times of economic stress, I write in Independent Australia. Click here to read the whole article. 

  Facing defeat at the next election and with a record of failure, Dutton and the Coalition are conjuring up African gangs in a desperate attempt to enlist fear-based support, writes John Passant in Independent Australia

  Barnaby Joyce’s High Court expulsion from Parliament is just a byproduct of the Constitution’s racist Section 44, says John Passant in Independent Australia

The racist ad is part of Labor’s well worked out and deliberate Trump strategy. The Liberal Party has disguised racism in its turn to ‘Australian’ values; the Labor Party has disguised racism in its lies about Australian jobs.

Bill Leak may have been the poster boy for “free speech” anti-Section 18C nutters, but his death has not heralded the end of racism and bigotry, I write in Independent Australia.

Labor thinks it is on a winner with its Australia First propaganda. Expect to see much more Aussie jobs rhetoric and dog whistling from the ALP. Of course, like Trump, most of this will be verbiage without action.  Where was Labor for example when the car industry was shutting down?

Labor, rather than dog whistling about foreign workers, could make some real changes to industrial relations law in Australia. The first one would be to enshrine the right to strike at any time in legislation. The second would be to allow unions access to all workers to explain pay and conditions, and for building industry and other dangerous workplaces, to enforce safety standards

In Independent Australia I discuss freedom of speech amid calls from right-wing politicians and the Murdoch media for the Turnbull Government to repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. I float a few other ideas as well, including the possibility that the new ‘anti-Semitism’ for the ruling class is Islamophobia.

While Malcolm Turnbull was telling the UN how wonderful our offshore gulags are, 49% of Australians wanted to ban Muslim immigration. In Independent Australia I look at Australia’s structural racism.

The Gosford incident, the Nauru files, Don Dale and increasing racial violence are indicative of wider systemic racism, writes John Passant in Independent Australia.