moving forward.
As expected, in their submission to the parliamentary inquiry into political extremism, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation had almost nothing to say about left-wing violence and plenty to say about right-wing violence.
Continue reading “ASIO pours cold water on Dutton’s false equivalency”
This is the first part in what I plan to be a two part series on free association on the Internet. No guarantees on that second part though.
Last week, Donald Trump incited a riot at the US Capitol building with the intent of overturning the result of the election he undoubtedly lost. In response, the major social media networks and platform holders banned Mr Trump and perhaps millions of his supporters on the grounds that it had become clear that Trump et al. would defend the indefensible and possibly incite more violence.
Continue reading “Banning Trump putschists from Twitter is not “censorship””
Mr Tudge breached the ministerial standards and Mr Porter has had, at the very least, long-term misogynistic behaviour incompatible with the role of Attorney-General revealed for the world to see. In light of the allegations which are undisputed with regards to Tudge, and apparently well corroborated with regard to those against Porter, presented in last night’s episode of Four Corners, both should resign immediately.
Continue reading “Tudge and Porter must resign; Porter must be struck off if he sues Four Corners”
The Liberal-National coalition is the only major Australian party that seems to openly invite homophobes into their ranks. They do not nearly enough to openly condemn homophobia among their members and supporters and even have homophobes in public office.
Continue reading “Reflections on the campaign so far: Liberals and homophobia”
Kirralie Smith is an outrage merchant who peddles conspiracy theories about people who are either from non-white or non-straight backgrounds for attention.
Continue reading “Interstate transphobe who can’t read intervenes in ACT election”
On Sunday, Bridget McKenzie finally resigned from the ministry – setting off a leadership battle in the National Party in the process – but not for stealing $100 million dollars of Sports Australia’s money to run a re-election slush fund. It was a technicality, her membership of a clay target shooting club to whom she gave a grant constituted an conflict of interest in breach of the ministerial code.
Continue reading “You can break the law. Just don’t break my rules.”
Last night, Daniel Wild, the Director of Research at conservative think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, published an article on Sky News in which he argues that Senator McKenzie is the victim of a “political hit-job” carried out by the ANAO at the request of shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus.
Mr Wild is wrong and his article shows an incredible lack of research and a lack understanding of how the ANAO, the public service and Australian democracy work. This post will explain why he is wrong by annotating the entire article.
Continue reading “IPA researcher Wild doesn’t understand the ANAO. Or democracy. Or much of anything, really.”
When a public servant appropriates $100 million in government money for dishonest purposes contrary to law, we call it theft; a criminal offence which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison. When the public servant’s boss – the Minister – does it, however, it seems we’re not supposed to care.
Continue reading “Lock Her Up!”
Whenever an incident of wage theft is publicised, we always hear the business lobby screech that the union movement’s proposed criminalisation of wage theft will “discourage entrepreneurship” or some other nonse argument. Of course, this ignores that businesses are required to exercise due diligence when doing basically any other transaction – so why not wages?
Mina Zaki, Liberal candidate for the federal seat of Canberra, may or may not be an Afghani dual citizen. We don’t know for sure because Zaki left a key piece of documentation off of her disclosure with the AEC. Here’s why she should, despite her objections, tell us more.
Continue reading “Why we can’t take Mina Zaki at her word on her dual citizenship”