australian politics

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Happy Genocide Day Cobbers!

Written By: - Date published: 5:18 am, January 26th, 2016 - 20 comments

Today is Australia Day, the federal celebration of the invasion of the big island to the west of us. Journalist Stan Grant lays bare the Australian Dream in a stunning contribution to the recent IQ2Oz debate. Clearly, as the video shows, saying sorry isn’t enough.

Why are we working so hard?

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, January 10th, 2016 - 46 comments

A recent New Matilda article discusses why at a time of increasing productivity the need to work has increased and not decreased.

Deportee

Written By: - Date published: 12:48 pm, December 2nd, 2015 - 103 comments

Standard Exclusive:

Te Reo Putake interviews one of the first batch of deportees from Australia under the Liberal Government’s hardline approach to Kiwis who serve jail time in the lucky country.

Andrew Little in Australia

Written By: - Date published: 7:13 am, November 26th, 2015 - 62 comments

Contrary to Key’s scaremongering about “making things worse” Little’s, visit to Australia seems to have been positive and constructive.

Key doesn’t like being shown up by Little

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, November 24th, 2015 - 131 comments

Andrew Little is planning to speak up for the rights of Kiwi expats on his trip to Australia. Key clearly doesn’t like being shown up, so out come the desperate accusations.

There are no kiwi rapists on Christmas Island

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, November 12th, 2015 - 169 comments

John Key’s claim that Labour and Greens support the rapists on Christmas Island has struck a snag. There are none.  And the brave action of progressive women MPs talking publicly about the sexual abuse they have suffered has shown how morally bankrupt Key’s politics are.

Joining the dots

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, November 11th, 2015 - 90 comments

Was Key’s “outburst” in Parliament yesterday an outburst, or was it a strategy?

The Christmas Island riots

Written By: - Date published: 2:18 pm, November 10th, 2015 - 99 comments

The barbaric treatment of New Zealand citizens by the Australian Government ought to attract condemnation and urgent diplomatic representations. But nothing is happening. Surely this is a time that John Key should get some guts. But instead of this he has accused the opposition of supporting rapists. Updated with video from Question one in Parliament today.

Kelvin Davis on Christmas Island

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 9th, 2015 - 45 comments

Kelvin Davis showed this video to the Labour Party conference on the weekend.  Following news of the riot it has become a must watch.

Were people smugglers paid money to take refuges away from New Zealand?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, October 30th, 2015 - 34 comments

Amnesty International has published a report “By Hook or by Crook: Australia’s Abuse of Asylum-Seekers at Sea” which has rightfully been described as a damning indictment of Australia’s handling of the refugee crisis. But New Zealand benefitted from payments of money to people smugglers.  What did the Government know?

Kelvin Davis on the Christmas Island Detainees

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, October 25th, 2015 - 44 comments

Kelvin Davis’s recent visit to Christmas Island has revealed that New Zealand citizens are living in shocking conditions.  And meanwhile John Key’s talk of giving the Australians a “blunt message” appears to have had negligible effect.

Kelvin Davis on Christmas Island

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, October 19th, 2015 - 39 comments

Today Key is trying to dress up Aussie platitudes (on detained Kiwis) as scraps of progress. But Labour MP Kelvin Davis is taking action…

Our influence in Australia

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, October 18th, 2015 - 76 comments

Key has failed to budge Australia on the detention and deportation of Kiwis. Apart from the photo ops and the mutual admiration society, our actual influence is zero.

Are you Newstralian?

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, October 16th, 2015 - 110 comments

So John Key and the new Oz PM are having a chat today and good ol’ JK will be mentioning the issue of “New Zealanders” who are being detained for deportation after a prison sentence.  People who are being detained in police stations without exercise or dark or quiet for days on end; detained on Christmas […]

Breaking: Abbott leadership challenge

Written By: - Date published: 5:58 pm, September 14th, 2015 - 88 comments

Seems to be a leadership challenge against Abbott in Australia, a conference at 6pm our time…

Update: Abbott is gone, Turnbull won 54-44.

Key and Abbott are prepared to sacrifice the Pacific

Written By: - Date published: 8:07 am, September 12th, 2015 - 98 comments

Climate change induced sea level increases poses a huge threat to most Pacific Islands.  They are seeking support for a goal of limiting temperature increases to no more than 1.5 degrees.  Australia and New Zealand are insisting on sticking to a goal of no more than 2 degrees even though this will likely mean that many Islands will disappear.

Tony Abbott and the Syrian refugee crisis

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 am, September 10th, 2015 - 75 comments

In the UK, in Australia and in New Zealand conservative governments have initially refused to accept more refugees then in a matter of days they have changed their view.  At the same time they have announced increased support for refugees they have announced military action against ISIS.  Makes you wonder if this is based on Crosby Textor advice.

In Our Back Yard – Manus Island and Nauru

Written By: - Date published: 12:04 pm, September 9th, 2015 - 12 comments

As the photo claims, refugees are human beings. We can tell this from general expressions of resignation, desperation and misery.

But what about our own expressions of humanity?

Syrian refugees – National backs down

Written By: - Date published: 8:16 am, September 7th, 2015 - 73 comments

The backtrack is under way.  Last week National was not budging on refugee numbers.  Today they will announced an urgent passage allowing for the intake of more Syrian refugees.  The focus groups have spoken. Update: and the announcement is for 600 new refugees over 3 years and $4,9 million in increased aid.

Naomi Klein correctly calls Tony Abbott a Climate Villain

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, September 6th, 2015 - 71 comments

Naomi Klein recently visited Australia and amongst other things described climate change as a crime, criticised the Abbott Government attack on renewable energy and described the importance of grassroots action and indigenous rights.

Border Force fiasco – how would NZ respond?

Written By: - Date published: 8:02 am, August 29th, 2015 - 128 comments

Yesterday Melbourne stood up for human rights. Would we in NZ have done the same?

Climate change – New Zealand not even a fast follower

Written By: - Date published: 10:14 am, August 13th, 2015 - 48 comments

Recent analysis of different Governments’ greenhouse gas reduction pledges for the Paris Conference suggests that New Zealand’s is behind that of Windmill hating Tony Abbott’s Australia.

Australia where the bloody hell are you on gay marriage?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, June 28th, 2015 - 55 comments

Following on from New Zealand, Ireland and many other states the United States Supreme Court has recently ruled that banning same sex marriages is a breach of the 14th amendment’s right to life and liberty.  It makes you wonder when Australia is going to institute change.

Lift the refugee quota

Written By: - Date published: 7:16 am, June 23rd, 2015 - 69 comments

Refugees are people, but they get treated as a political football, as recent events in Australia and NZ have demonstrated once again. It is long past time that NZ raised its refugee quota.

Snakeheads

Written By: - Date published: 12:17 pm, June 15th, 2015 - 30 comments

It is looking likely that the Australian Government has broken its own laws and international treaties by paying off people smugglers. Did John Key know? Did he approve of what may be criminal activity?

Conservatives and Human Rights

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, June 2nd, 2015 - 16 comments

In Australia a recent attempt by Abbott and some supporters to give the Minister of Immigration the power to cancel an Australian’s citizenship status was met by a cabinet revolt.  In England there is talk of the UK withdrawing from the European Convention of Human Rights.  So much for the Conservative commitment to the rule of law.

What Tony Abbott thinks of babies

Written By: - Date published: 5:00 pm, May 5th, 2015 - 10 comments

A recent cartoon summarises Tony Abbott’s views of babies perfectly.

Who is Miranda Devine?

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, April 13th, 2015 - 46 comments

Miranda Devine is the person who recently wrote a really obsequious article on John Key in the Daily Telegraph where she described him as one of the best Conservative Prime Ministers in the world.  But a reading of her other published material suggests that caution should be applied before applying too much weight to her opinions.

Dollar Parity

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, April 7th, 2015 - 309 comments

As New Zealand’s dollar approaches parity with Australia’s a responsible Government should be pondering the implications and acting in the country’s best interests.  No such luck in Aotearoa …

Government in disarray as MP’s offending revealed

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, April 2nd, 2015 - 16 comments

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor Government’s majority is on a knife edge after recent revelations that Labor MP Billy Gorton had criminal convictions he did not declare to the Labor Party and after a former partner alleged that he had subjected her to sustained domestic violence.

The rich want to hide their wealth because of kidnap threats

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, March 22nd, 2015 - 173 comments

The Liberal National Party Coalition in Australia want to overturn a requirement for corporations with a turnover of $100 million to disclose tax information on the grounds that kidnapping will occur even though the rich’s ostentatiousness is plain to see without the information being published. And in America it has been estimated that Wall Street’s bonus pool is twice the amount paid to full time American employees living on the minimum wage.