November 23, 2009 – 6:35 pm
In Patriotism Reclaimed, Tim Soutphommasane described the ways in which patriotism can come to be expressed in things like the taste of VB, the beach, cricket etc as ‘sentimental mush’. I took that as the starting point for an argument about his book, suggesting that it showed a curiously abstract and disembodied idea of what [...]
November 22, 2009 – 5:03 pm
As of Sunday afternoon, it seems a deal between Penny Wong and Ian Macfarlane, or at least the Government’s best-and-final offer, is within sight, with the Government spelling out a timetable to put the deal to Cabinet and Caucus on Monday before formally offering it to the Coalition after that.
The Government’s willingness to cut a [...]
November 20, 2009 – 11:52 am
Another reminder of how genuine refugees are treated in our region
In amongst all the media and political frenzy regarding the Tamil asylum seekers http://www.blacktownsun.com.au/news/world/world/general/indonesia-backs-down-on-merak-boat-people/1681997.aspx refusing to get off some boats in Indonesia, a much greater and more problematic stand-off has been occurring in Thailand.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/11/2009111845646765272.html
160 Hmong people, originally from Laos, have been kept in a detention [...]
November 19, 2009 – 1:52 pm
Simon Birmingham is a South Australian Liberal senator and for mine is one of the smartest brains in the Coalition or, for that matter, the Senate, and the sooner the party leadership makes uses of his talents on the frontbench the better.
Last night he rose to speak on the package of CPRS bills and gave [...]
November 19, 2009 – 12:30 pm
One of the most telling aspects of the terrible injustices involved in the death in police custody of Palm Islandman Mulrunji Doomagee is that, five years on, there has been no public investigation and report into the roles of various police played in investigating the events leading up to, during and following the death.
It now seems [...]
November 18, 2009 – 1:32 pm
At least she kept her teeth in …
November 17, 2009 – 4:49 pm
Malcolm Turnbull, it seems, just can’t help himself. After Question Time yesterday – immediately after - he called a press conference to accuse the Prime Minister of misleading Parliament over whether the Oceanic Viking deal was “preferential treatment”.
You’d think, after THAT business earlier in the year, that Turnbull, or one of his staff, would have [...]
November 17, 2009 – 8:22 am
No issue symbolised the moral bankruptcy of the Bush Administration’s post 9/11 offensive more graphically than Guantanamo Bay. And when Barak Obama promised last year to repair the damage done to American prestige because of the Bush Administration’s mistreatment of the detainees at Gitmo, his lofty rhetoric fell on fertile ground. But last Friday’s package [...]
November 16, 2009 – 11:30 pm
Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote here about an interesting project which sought to use the internet to engage with people of all beliefs from around the world in developing a Charter for Compassion. The process took over a year and included some key ethical and spiritual leaders at some of the pivotal stages. [...]
November 16, 2009 – 2:41 pm
If memory serves (and Google, on this occasion, does not), Paul Keating once said that it was hard to get sentimental about Australia’s relationship with Britain when you had to queue with the Eskimos at Heathrow while EU citizens sailed straight past you.
Gordon Brown’s recent speech on immigration raises many issues, but so far as Australians are [...]