“If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste.”
―
A Rightful Place, from colonisation to reconciliation
In the lead up to Survival Day this year, three key reports have been released, the interim Report to the Australian Government by the Indigenous Co-Design team on the Voice; the Human Rights Watch World Report for 2021; and the 2021 State of Reconciliation in Australia Report released last week by Reconciliation Australia. Continue reading
Invasion Day: we didn’t get the day or date right
Writing to the Sydney Morning Herald Letters Editor, John Carmody discusses how we haven’t chosen the right day to celebrate the colonisation of Australia. So much for not changing our history. Continue reading
‘Australians all let us forget that we are not all free’
Until recently, Australia Day for most was just a long weekend to do nothing. I yearn for such a return. Who wants immigration ministers feeling they can decide what we should wear, and what we should be doing? That official bossiness is a precursor to a national security state and social exclusion.Continue reading
Bushfire Rorts: Coalition targets bushfire recovery funds for Coalition seats
Federal and state funds for bushfire recovery have been heavily skewed in favour of state Coalition seats with NSW State Labor picking up just 1% of $177 million handed out. The devastated Blue Mountains electorate, with a Labor MP, received nothing.
Greg Sheridan: Principles, privilege and punditry
The Australian newspaper’s foreign affairs editor Greg Sheridan epitomises the capacity columnists have to promote ideological agendas – even ones that are seemingly at odds with their professed values and beliefs. They are hardly conservative.
Australia’s ‘exceptional’ human rights record
Leaders who consider their country exceptional are less likely to acknowledge any shortcomings. In light of recent criticism of Australia’s human rights record, will our leaders feel so ashamed of being labelled exceptional that they will look to implement standards of common decency considered central to a fair-go culture?Continue reading
Some want voter suppression in Australia
While many of us in Australia are impressed with the state of our nation, especially when we compare it with our rich and powerful ally, the USA, we should not get too smug, with plenty of warning signs of some really bad American ideas about to be imported. Continue reading
Wiped from history books: Menzies’ plan for the Jindivik pilotless bomber to finance Woomera
Far from being duped, Prime Minister Bob Menzies and his Cabinet went to extraordinary lengths to support the development in Australia of British atomic bombs and thermonuclear components for the H bomb. Continue reading
What do we really celebrate on Australia Day?
Spare a thought for Australian representatives abroad who face awkward questions about what we celebrate on our National Day. It just goes to highlight the confusion and hypocrisy about pretending it was a noble venture by heroic and benign colonisers. Continue reading
Patriotic ins and outs at the Australian unity jamboree
It wouldn’t be late January if Australians were not being drawn into pointless “national conversations” about Australia Day, its occurrence on the anniversary of British settlement and the beginning of Aboriginal displacement, and what it means to be Australian. Continue reading
Fundamental purpose of superannuation is to provide adequate retirement incomes, not finance bequests
The priority for retirement incomes policy is to ensure that retirement savings are used efficiently to generate an adequate income. Until this occurs, there should be no change in the legislated increases in the compulsory superannuation guarantee contribution rate. Continue reading
Morrison’s private school funding model ignores the Bank of Mum and Dad
Private schools will receive $130 billion from the Federal Government over the next eight years. It constitutes massive over-funding by taxpayers because the Government’s funding model ignores a major source of family income used to assess the financial need of private schools. Continue reading
Victors of colonial terrorism, disguised as civilised democracy, get to write the story
Just as Israel’s Independence Day and the Palestinian Nakba Day, in remembrance of deportation and deadly dispossession, have a bloody symbiosis, Australia Day/Invasion Day is celebrated or mourned according to the victors or the vanquished. Continue reading
Survival Day 2021: What January 26 means to me
Many Australians believe that January 26 fails in its purpose. While it aims to unite, it actually divides us. Instead, the customary Indigenous theme ‘Always was, always will be Aboriginal land’ has the potential to unify.
Trump’s presidency embodied the raw politics of US white supremacy
Throughout America’s history, the bigotry that fueled Donald Trump’s rise to power has never been far from the surface. Trump’s departure is an opportunity for a new beginning, not only in the deeply-wounded United States, but in multiethnic societies everywhere. Continue reading
The Queen’s implausible denial on the Whitlam sacking (repost July 21, 2020)
It beggars belief that the Queen did not know that John Kerr was planning to sack Gough Whitlam. She may not have known the detail of the coup in progress, but she knew the substance. But like Lord Nelson she pretends she did not see anything. Nonsense.She is trying to mislead us.That is not surprising for our Head of State who lives in London.Continue reading
An ‘ugly plot’ by the ‘Democrats’ in Hong Kong
The arrest of 53 persons on January 6-7 this year in Hong Kong on suspicion of subversion has, once again, raised a frenzy of condemnation by western leaders and the media.
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Fake news abounds in the misguided war on the digital media platforms
Opposition is growing both locally and globally to media laws introduced by the Coalition Government requiring tech giants Google and Facebook to pay for displaying original news content. Why should our domestic monopolists get preference?Continue reading
Sleepwalking into a fascist alliance
Those critically engaged in understanding and debating the future of Australian defence and national security strategies should pass two votes of thanks: the first is to former President Donald Trump; the second to the recent political-strategic proclamations of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.Continue reading
Pompeo and Blinken are wrong: China is not committing genocide in Xinjiang
On his last day as US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo declared China’s human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region constituted “genocide” against ethnic Uighur Muslims. This outrageous declaration was the last of many that Pompeo has issued in a deliberate attempt to destroy relations with China on his way out of office. Continue reading
Japan’s kow-towing to US is leading to ecological destruction on a majestic reef.
Japan, in consultation with the US, is trying to build a huge military facility for the US Marine Corps by reclaiming a large part of the wondrous, biodiverse Oura Bay. It is akin to Australia offering part of the Great Barrier Reef to the Pentagon to establish a military facility.
Let the JobKeeper rorts roll
Where do we start when considering the $100 billion JobKeeper scheme? Should we focus on the opaque nature of the scheme in which less than 3% of JobKeeper payments have been disclosed in public company accounts and there is no way of finding out who got what and how much? Continue reading
Danielle Dreilinger, The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live. A pathbreaking book that unearths and presents part of the “hidden” history of economics, in this case as practiced largely by women, and often black women at that. Think of it as the science and craft of Beckerian household production but with a managerial emphasis. If you like books on paths not taken, this one is for you.
David M. Carballo, Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain. I never tire of books on this topic, but that should tell you something about the topic, right? This one is written by an archaeologist, and you can think of it as unearthing the different layers of Aztec culture more effectively than most competitor books.
Avi Loeb, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. The Oumuamua book, by the former chair of the Harvard astronomy department. I am not able to judge the scientific claims about comets, light refraction, travel spin, and the like, but too much of the book felt like “argument from elimination” to me. “Well it can’t be this, and can’t be that, and thus it is likely to be…” That works well for phenomena we understand! But it can lead you into dangerous traps when you apply it to mysteries. I get nervous when I read sentences like “Shmuel and I went down a logical path.” The book is well-written and plenty clear, and can be usefully supplemented with this podcast with the author. In any case, I find alien origin unlikely, but still see a one percent chance as more than sufficient to justify this entire line of inquiry.
Bryn Rosenfeld, The Autocratic Middle Class: How State Dependency Reduces the Demand for Democracy. When is it the middle class that contributes to the resilience of autocracy, rather than its breakdown? A very interesting book, highly relevant to China among other places.
IR-2021-11 (Jan. 13, 2021), National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Impact of COVID-19 and IRS Funding Needs:
National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins today released her 2020 Annual Report to Congress, focusing on the unprecedented challenges taxpayers faced in filing their tax returns and receiving refunds and stimulus payments during a year consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also finds that a roughly 20% inflation-adjusted reduction in the IRS's budget since fiscal year (FY) 2010 has left the agency with antiquated technology and inadequate staffing levels to meet taxpayers' needs.
As part of the report, Collins released the fourth edition of the National Taxpayer Advocate's "Purple Book," a compilation of 66 legislative recommendations designed to strengthen taxpayer rights and improve tax administration.
