australian politics

Categories under australian politics

  • No categories

Will the Christian Conservatives rise again?

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, May 20th, 2019 - 78 comments

Simon Bridges has conceded that his claim that talk about Alfred Ngaro setting up a conservative party was “rumour and speculation” was not actually true.  And Ngaro has gone on the offensive describing abortion as an unholy holocaust.

Aussie oi?

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 am, May 19th, 2019 - 122 comments

Overnight in Australia there was meant to be a change to a Labor Government.  But something happened …

Is Tony Abbott finished?

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, May 5th, 2019 - 9 comments

Tony Abbott is facing electoral defeat from Zali Steggall, an independent candidate who has put combating climate change at the centre of her campaign.

Tough, swift leadership needed to police social media

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 am, April 10th, 2019 - 73 comments

The government has been rightly lauded for swiftly acting to ban assault weapons after the Christchurch massacre, but is its failure to decisively call social media giants to order just as weak and unacceptable as the failure to act on Aramoana massacre back in 1990?

Did Hanson’s One Nation Party seek funding from the NRA and the Koch Brothers?

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, March 27th, 2019 - 23 comments

Pauline Hanson’s One Australia party is trying to defend claims that it should funding to oppose gun restrictions from the NRA and the Koch Brothers by stating that its chief of staff was drunk.

‘Heroes’

Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, March 17th, 2019 - 91 comments

A few musings on heroism.

Ardern backs students striking for climate change

Written By: - Date published: 7:43 am, March 15th, 2019 - 70 comments

Jacinda Ardern has publicly supported the School students strike about climate change and urged them not to underestimate the power of their voices.

Cardinal Pell

Written By: - Date published: 2:55 pm, March 13th, 2019 - 6 comments

Cardinal Pell has been given six years in jail for his crimes against children. But the Catholic Church has a range of other allegations to resolve.

Magicked-Up Weapons

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 pm, March 11th, 2019 - 116 comments

I’m glad Anne-Marie Brady will get the chance to present her “Magic Weapons” paper to the select committee examining the last election. At long last it might get given some proper critical examination, of its content as well as it provenance. In my opinion it reads like a long list of the blindingly obvious, mixed with a large dose of conspiracy theory. It certainly doesn’t show much sign of the sort of critical thinking one might expect from an academic.

What China crisis?

Written By: - Date published: 12:58 pm, February 18th, 2019 - 52 comments

Claims that New Zealand is at a crisis point in terms of its relationship with China appear to be somewhat overegged.

That federation campaign

Written By: - Date published: 7:50 am, January 24th, 2019 - 110 comments

There’s an ad campaign that says “New Zealand is doing Australia better than Australia is”, and recommends federation of New Zealand with Australia and Jacinda being the first Prime Minister. Maybe it’s time.

Go Democracy Go!

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, December 26th, 2018 - 68 comments

It’s going to be a strong year for democratic politics.

Random 2019 predictions …

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, December 22nd, 2018 - 114 comments

What will happen in 2019?

A Right Shambles

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, December 13th, 2018 - 34 comments

With the UK Tories self imploding, the US President contemplating jail time, Angela Merkel moving on and the conservative parties on both sides of the Tasman looking increasingly irrelevant, what should the left do to fill the gap?

Safe from prying 5Eyes

Written By: - Date published: 10:22 pm, December 8th, 2018 - 62 comments

I like my Huawei phone. Apparently the US National Security Agency can’t break its encryption. That’s presumably the “security” issue why Spark is being blocked from using Huawei, and why Meng Wanzhou is held hostage in Canada at the behest of US neocons.

Nutjobs and the UN Global Migration Pact

Written By: - Date published: 8:35 am, December 7th, 2018 - 137 comments

National and ACT have alleged that a United Nations Pact supported by New Zealand in 2016 will take away sovereign rights even though the pact itself says that it is not legally binding.

The dinosaurs are clinging on

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, November 28th, 2018 - 32 comments

The Trump administration has produced an official report outlining the perils of climate change which the POTUS has rejected. And in Australia the dinosaur Liberal Party has suffered a huge loss in Victorian State elections, the loss of their Parliamentary majority and ScoMo has criticised school students taking direct action against the Government’s totally inadequate policies.

Political interference

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 pm, November 20th, 2018 - 82 comments

China certainly has interfered  in New Zealand politics, most notably by the offer of a free trade deal which delivered huge benefits to our economy.  Party and government officials all stressed to us that they were grateful for New Zealand’s support for their accession to the World Trade Organisation,  the rule-based trade body. The US and Australia in contrast want to build a military base on Manus Island north of Papua.

What happens if housing prices really go down?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, November 17th, 2018 - 164 comments

So what if Labour decides to go ahead with its capital gains tax?  What happens to the equity of the remaining middle class?  What happens to the equity of those who were brought in under KiwiBuild?

ScoMo’s flying bus tour

Written By: - Date published: 8:28 am, November 8th, 2018 - 20 comments

In an effort to revive sagging support levels Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is on a bus tour of Australia involving him flying and being picked up by the bus, drinking lots of beer, wearing different hats and saying fair dinkum a lot.

Australia’s refugee problem

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, October 24th, 2018 - 89 comments

The Liberal Party has potentially lost one of its safest seats to an independent who campaigned on doing something about climate change and the Nauru refugees.

Petrol, Zero Carbon, and 15,000 Submissions

Written By: - Date published: 7:21 am, October 9th, 2018 - 139 comments

Get ready, according to the AA, for petrol at $3 a liter for Christmas.

Failed Estate – the ABC of Trust

Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, September 30th, 2018 - 7 comments

In Australia this week the Liberal Government has become embroiled in a scandal relating to political pressure being brought to sack the head of the ABC and one of its most senior reporters.  Failed estate has the details.

Is Politik a propaganda mouthpiece for the UK Embassy?

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 pm, September 8th, 2018 - 29 comments

In Politik’s 7 September issue we are told that Western diplomats in Wellington are surprised that Winston Peters has not accused Russia of the Skripal poisoning or joined some other countries in taking reprisals. Editor Richard Harman quotes a source to tell us that the British in particular were “pissed” at Peters’ response. Well dearie me. I’m with Winston, a wise old owl.

Libspill set to Toy Story

Written By: - Date published: 3:22 pm, September 3rd, 2018 - 3 comments

A genius has set the recent Liberal Party putsch to scenes from Toy Story.

Enough Bullshit!

Written By: - Date published: 3:11 pm, September 3rd, 2018 - 129 comments

White South African farm murders.

Australia bans Manning but lets in Au pair for rich Liberal donors

Written By: - Date published: 5:14 pm, August 30th, 2018 - 45 comments

Following recent news it appears that in Australia Au Pairs of the rich and connected are welcomed and helped.  Seriously ill refugees are ignored.  And click bait racists are fine but peace activists are shown the door.

Litigation and equal pay – a history of the 1950’s equal pay campaign

Written By: - Date published: 7:26 am, August 28th, 2018 - 3 comments

Forward In 2016 I wrote the below dissertation as part of my History Honours degree at Victoria University.  This dissertation explores the 1950s equal pay campaign, and specifically looks at the Jean Parker Case. Jean Parker was a PSA member employed at IRD, who like Kristine Bartlett 60 years later, won a landmark equal pay legal […]

Australia, New Zealand, and Climate Change Politics

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 25th, 2018 - 37 comments

What are the implications for New Zealand’s climate change policies of Australia’s change of Prime Minister?

Spull!

Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, August 24th, 2018 - 25 comments

Malcolm Turnbull is gone, the Liberal Party is engaged in a leadership battle, and a Texan popcorn maker has appeared as a potential new Prime Minister.

Turnbull out, Morrison In?

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, August 23rd, 2018 - 100 comments

Turnbull out, Morrison or Dutton in? The Australian Liberal Party self flagellation continues in Canberra. Updates as they roll in, cobbers.

UPDATE: Malcolm Turnbull calls press conference at 1PM AEST (3PM in NZ)

UPDATE: Turnbull to quit tomorrow, if ballot called.

UPDATE: Julie Bishop prepares bid.

UPDATE: Scott Morrison wins, Dutton defeated 45-40.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.