En Passant

I listened to the discussion on Wednesday from the Press Gallery of the 3 major media outlets in Australia all lamenting the decline of press freedom in Australia. They are right to be worried. There is clearly, to me at least, a decline in our freedoms. This decline has been consistent with the rise of […]

In writing about the Folau saga recently, I showed compassion to those rank and file Christians who felt under threat.  As time goes on however it is becoming clearer (to me anyway) that some of those ordinary Christians have fallen or are falling for a campaign of hate disguised as religious freedom. As I pointed […]

Do not donate: Update: I have just sent this or something similar on 2 July to those supporters who donated money to me to keep my left wing writing going. If you did and have not seen my message below, PM me. ‘Dear XYZ, a week after I posted this [call for donations through gofundme], […]

Adani tells you everything you need to know about politics in Australia. The decisions by the Queensland and Federal Governments to give Adani various approvals to effectively mine a massive amount of coal is irrational.  It makes no sense economically. It makes no sense environmentally. But to those involved it makes perfect political sense. Jobs, […]

Hong Kong socialist Lam Chi Leung in Socialist Worker UK says the current protests sweeping the country show the politicisation of ordinary people The government in Hong Kong has suspended a planned bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. The climbdown follows huge demonstrations. On the morning of 12 June, forty thousand Hong Kong citizens […]

The Australian and other Murdoch outlets have been running a faux University freedom campaign for years now. As they lose more and more ‘sensible centre’ journalists – how much longer can Peter van Onselen stay there more or less on his own? – they seem to have become more strident in their condemnation of cultural […]

I have been a long-time supporter of the Construction, Forestry, Mining, Maritime and Energy Union or its various earlier incarnations. I remember joining with BLF members in 1985 and 1986 to fight the Hawke government’s de-registration of the union. In the short term they lost. However, their commitment to class struggle remained and so did […]

I lodged my FoI request with the AFP to find details of any advice they had about the legality and constitutionality of the recent raids on the press. This is their acknowledgement of my FoI request. stripslashes(”) . clean_pre(‘Dear Mr Passant YOUR FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST I refer to your application dated 10 June 2019, […]

Australia does not have a right to free speech. However the High Court has ruled that there is implied in the Constitution a right to political communication. Like all things constitutional, written or implied, this is subject to the Court’s interpretation.  I think it fair to say it is a fairly narrow right, and one […]

The Israel Folau case worries me. Rugby Australia sacked Folau for his proselytising post that said: WARNING Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolaters HELL AWAITS YOU Repent! Only Jesus Saves. Despite Folau’s claim this is a quote from the Bible, the actual passage from Corinthians 6:9-10 makes no mention of hell. It says […]