My previous post took a slightly different take on the story suggesting the Prime Minister had personally intervened to block an ambassadorial appointment to Germany.  Rather than buy into a diplomatic spat around Prime Ministerial micro-management, my main aim was to make the point that we should be doing more to value and encourage multi-lingualism. [...]

At 3:07 pm on Friday 14th May 1999, Senator Brian Harradine rose to address the Senate. As with this week ten years later, it was just after a federal Budget had been delivered – Peter Costello’s third.  Unlike this week, discussion over the content of the Budget had been quickly subsumed by speculation over whether [...]

Australia is now lagging well behind other countries when it comes to flouting the Refugee Convention, sending refugees back to danger and allowing major abuses and breaches of basic rights in immigration detention. However, Australia can certainly make a credible claim to have blazed the trail in many of the practices now being more widely [...]

Last night in Sydney, former High Court Judge, Michael Kirby formally launched the book “Animal Law in Australasia,” giving a 20 minute long speech to a crowd of around 250 people at the University of Sydney. It was certainly no surprise to hear an eloquent and insightful speech from Michael Kirby,  who had to retire [...]

Within the last week, I’ve been to three different events in Brisbane relating to a possible Charter or Bill of Rights. On Monday night of this week, Geoffrey Robertson QC, gave an address at Lourdes Hill College, organised by Riverbend Books.  This one was attended by around 600 people, which was a very high turnout, [...]

There is still over a week to go before all the votes from the Queensland election are counted, so final percentages and results in a few seats may end being a bit different from how they stand at the moment.  But there are plenty of assessments that can be already made. A few comments, in [...]

One mantra of both major parties (and plenty in the mainstream media) that I’ve always hated is the claim that a hung parliament or a minority government is “the worst outcome” possible.  It’s about as bad as the mantra that “a vote for a minor party or an independent is a wasted vote”, which under [...]

The Age carries a report of a presentation by Melbourne University professor, Roger Short to an international conference in Sydney. The Professor says that “for the first time in history, human activity is outstripping the natural world’s ability to cope.” The reason, he says, is exploding and uncontrolled population growth.  Professor Short will bring to [...]

James Allan is a professor of law at the University of Queensland.  I rarely find myself agreeing with his public comments, especially when he is writing for The Australian.  He is a key booster for the overblown moral panic approach that seeks to undermine efforts to strengthen human rights protections in our laws.  I’ve found [...]

The Liberal Party’s shadow minister for education, Christopher Pyne, who has been around long enough now that he could reasonably be called a senior Liberal has written a piece for the Sydney Institute suggesting his party should be “tacking to the centre of the political spectrum.” He also states that “The Liberal Party as reformed [...]