June, 2009

I had an article published in the main Crikey e-newsletter today, outlining some of the trends, facts and government responses to the well over 40 million refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless people around the world. It seems likely the issue of asylum seeker boat arrivals will once again be moving closer to the [...]

Last weekend saw a festival held in Brisbane to mark World Refugee Day.  Over the last 30 years, south-east Queensland has seen a big increase in the range of ethnic communities with a refugee background. A growing number are from our region in South-East Asia. One of the newest emerging communities in Brisbane is the [...]

Some of the commentary about the impacts of social media, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc can tend to be a breathless and overblown. However, it is true that it is changing the nature and scope for broader public participation in public and political debates.  But a lot depends on how much existing power structures [...]

I don’t dispute that there are some interesting twists and turns in the utegate/fake email saga.  But it always infuriates me that politicians and political commentators will devote endless hours to such things, thus excluding any real examination being given to issues, policies and legislation that directly effect peoples’ lives. There has been some small [...]

The Senate is moving into its final sitting week until mid-August. As is usually the case, the government has a large pile of legislation it is insisting absolutely must be dealt by the end of the week. As is also often the case, this includes one highly contentious piece of legislation – the Carbon Pollution [...]

It’s hard to know for sure just quite what roles it playing, how accurate it is or what impact it will have, but the literally thousands of Twitter posts pouring forth in the aftermath of the Iran election is quite extraordinary to watch. When I first signed on to Twitter over a year ago, I [...]

This comment by Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is a clear and simple example of why the views of the major parties and most environment groups are so far apart on how best to respond to the threat of climate change. Commenting on the National Climate Emergency Rallies held around Australia over the weekend, Senator [...]

The National Human Rights Consultations, launched by the federal government late last year and chaired by Father Frank Brennan, is finally coming to the end of its public consultation phase, with general public submissions closing on 15 June. There will obviously be a lot of interest in the contents of the report flowing out of [...]

Any brief glimmer of satisfaction at the Queensland government announcing the environmentally and economically sensible decision to scrap the state’s eight cents a litre petrol subsidy was immediately countered by the statement that the planned sale of Queensland Rail’s coal assets “will maximise the amount of coal that Queensland can export to the world.” If [...]