Well, for the first time in my entire life, I'm proud of the government of the country in which I live. Kevin Rudd was sworn in as Australian Prime Minister yesterday. His first action? Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol ( Read more... )

It happened ( Read more... )

Hey, academics! Did you know that if you contribute a single chapter to a collection, you are actually a co-author of the entire book? That's what Australia's Immigration Minister thinks, anyway. Could that guy be any more of a joke? The way he handled the Dr Mohamed Haneef case was and continues to be laughably inept, and now he just looks ( Read more... )

Fancy a meeting with the Prime Minister of Australia?

Step #1: Start a radical fundamentalist cult.

John Howard will see you now ...

I'm sure a similar Muslim group would be under surveillance by ASIO, if not already illegal.

Well, the bandwagon of terrorism hysteria is certainly making great pace these days. I've maintained for a while that it is a complete over-reaction (not to mention a misdirected one) to a threat that borders on non-existent, at least in Australia and New Zealand. You're more likely to die from a goat kicking you in the head. But that doesn't ( Read more... )

John Howard,

Imagine the following scenario. An Australian serving in Afghanistan to aid the Global Spread Of DemocracyTM is captured by the Taliban. They believe he is a threat to their existence and throw him in jail, pending a trial to determine whether he is guilty of criminal conduct. They then hold him in miserable conditions without ( Read more... )

John Howard ( Read more... )

For the last couple of years, I have sat on the fence with regards to Australian politics. I despise Liberal Party policies, but Labour has rarely seemed much better - a string of dull, uninspiring leaders and a tendency to appear as a Liberal-lite sometimes. The worst offender of the lot, I feel, is Kim Beazley. I intensely dislike the man and ( Read more... )