September 30, 2009 – 1:05 am
The Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans, has caused plenty of heartburn to governments of both persuasions during his tenure as Clerk. He has made a habit of publicly and plainly pointing out the dangers of unfettered executive power being provided to any government, no matter what their colour. Perhaps the record length of his [...]
September 25, 2009 – 10:12 am
There is no surer way to get an argument than to start a debate about Dennis Ferguson and people who sexually abuse children. The two recent items that Crikey has published on the topic quickly moved to the top of the most discussed list.
Before I mention a bit more about that, I wanted to draw [...]
August 21, 2009 – 10:28 am
I’ve written recently about the Australian government recent efforts to enlist further support from countries to our north in stifling the activities of people smugglers.
Reports continue to appear of dreadful conditions and treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in those same countries, such as Malaysia and Thailand.
Another recent example, reported in the Bangkok-based newspaper, The [...]
August 19, 2009 – 11:09 am
A public and political outcry in November last year, regarding a Doctor being denied Australian permanent residency because his son had Down Syndrome, led to the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, announcing a Parliamentary inquiry into the health requirements in the Migration Act.
Nearly six months later, on May 15 this year, the terms of reference for [...]
August 1, 2009 – 10:00 pm
There is more evidence that, however unjust and dysfunctional the administration of Australia’s immigration laws was in our recent past, it is being outstripped by what has been happening in the USA.
There are more and more examples coming to light in the USA that have echoes of the Cornelia Rau and Vivienne Alvarez debacles of [...]
On Tuesday night, July 28, around 300 people filled the Brisbane Room in Brisbane’s City Hall to hear speakers from the front line of climate change – residents of the Torres Strait and Pacific Island nations Tuvalu, Micronesia and Kiribati. It’s very rare for me to attend a forum with seven speakers all addressing the [...]
No doubt President Obama will disappoint plenty of people in plenty of areas before his time as President finishes, but one area where he seems keen to make improvements is in the way the USA approaches human rights issues internationally.
Last Friday he “announced his intention to sign the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons [...]
Saying sorry doesn’t magically fix injustices, past or present – a point which is often made in respect of the Parliamentary apology to the Stolen Generations. It is true that apologising for past wrongs won’t in itself address present problems, but this fact doesn’t validate the view that formal apologies serve no purpose or have [...]
The irrational obsession with pulling out all stops to prevent asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia is placing our country at risk of being party to human rights abuses on refugees much worse than those of the Howard era.
This week , the federal government is taking the unusual step of having the Prime Minister [...]
Last Thursday night, I was able to get along to Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane to hear Malalai Joya speak at a launch of her new book – Raising My Voice. Ms Joya is often described as the bravest woman in Afghanistan. Being a women’s rights activist under the Taliban would certainly take some guts. [...]
