The government can accept the opportunity to resettle asylum seekers in New Zealand. It can choose to allow Priya and Nades and their children to come home to Biloela. I ask them to do that. It doesn’t need to be a Christmas miracle. At the end of a dark year, it could simply be an act of grace, a gesture of common sense and compassion.
Read more...What matters is what’s happening or not happening for the Australian community. And what we see is a falling share of Australia’s productive value for working people, a growing digital divide because of the hopeless NBN that’s going to make life more difficult for those in rural and regional Australia and those facing socio economic disadvantage; virtually no progress on homelessness; no meaningful progress when it comes to closing the gap; a failed environmental protection framework.
Read more...I waited to hear protests from the great champions on that side of free speech, the great champions on that side of the need for Australian parliamentarians to speak freely about conflict resolution and human rights in other parts of the world. But you know what? I did not hear a single squeak.
Read more...The Minister needs to explain how from now going forward, if ever traditional owner calls her office, it doesn’t end up being a case of them being told you will get a phone call back from an advisor who’s on leave, who doesn’t get contacted, who never makes that phone call.
Read more...It’s absolutely time to get on with better east-west public transport links that give people cheaper, lower-carbon transport options, and will catalyse urban revitalisation along the way.
Read more...The Minister should know that creative industries ought to be a foundation block in the broad task of building new jobs and even new export opportunities in the future. And yet the government treats the sector, the businesses and the workers in the sector with disregard and neglect.
Read more...In addition to celebration this week is an opportunity to focus on how much further we can go; how much further we should and we must go – walking together on the path of reconciliation and respect; the path to full and equal social and economic inclusion the life of this country for First Nations people.
Read more...Australia has a strong tradition of leading work to limit the danger of nuclear weapons, but traditions need to be maintained and renewed. Diplomatic efforts on that front should be more purposeful and better resourced. We should regain our position as a country that is prepared to be out of step with the status quo in the cause of peace.
Read more...We cannot keep putting our environment, our native plants and animals, into profit-yielding stress positions in the name of striking a ‘balance’. We’re in a situation of stark imbalance right now. And it’s getting worse.
Read more...This government is making a horrible mess of Defence shipbuilding – it is delays and cost buyouts as far as the eye can see. It is crumbs from the table for Australian companies that want to be involved in this work. And that puts our sovereign shipbuilding and sustainment capacity at risk. It puts the jobs of Australian shipbuilders and seafarers at risk and for WA it is nothing but broken promises.
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