John Tomlinson

The government tells those aged between 17 and 25 they've got to be either learning or earning or their social security will be withheld. Young unemployed don't need to be compelled; they need to be provided with opportunities to

The Queensland Government is threatening to build a dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing. This dam will endanger the Queensland Lung Fish, flood the nesting sites of the endangered Mary River Turtle and endanger the Eastern Cod. All these

John’s gone, he’s gone
and I’m forlorn.
The unemployed must cope
without his scorn.
Workers smile
and bosses frown,
why did the voters
let them down.
Eleven long years
of blood, sweat and tears
have given way
to workers’ cheers.
Bennelong voters
so it seems
exceeded all
my wildest dreams. @auth poem = John Tomlinson

I’m old enough to remember when a rendition was the singing of a song
and old enough to remember when we knew right from wrong
when clusters referred to gems not bombs
when the Bushes were places that birds hid in
when collateral damage meant you’d lost assets
when civilian casualities caused concern
when daisy cutters were used to mow meadows
when climate change meant it might rain
when we paid countries for their oil rather than invading
and I’m young enough to remember that those were better days.

Want to buy a second hand war? Want to buy the war in Iraq? We went there for oil, made Iraqi blood boil now we're asking what for and wondering how we ever get back. The profits have gone and hope is forlorn it's preloved, it's used and we

Mary River - childhood home

Autonomy not integrationfreedom not transmigrationindependence not exterminationliving forests not devastationdecency not exploitationfair dealing not expropriationpeaceful lives not annihilationindigenous voice not usurpation.

Economic fundamentalism has created a sordid situation for poor people, here and overseas. There are ways in which each one of us can play a part in undermining the damaging impacts of such policies. The cure lies in recognising

This is the land of the fair goAh, were it soWe promise refugees a fair gobut only if they go some where elseNow you can't say fairer than thatFrom Green Left Weekly, January 23, 2002. Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

You peer insensate from the parapetlike some myopic gargoyleone eye blinded by the futurethe other averted from the pastAnd from your twisted spout- regretDeep and sincere, no doubtbut, not sorrow: yetGabbling grotesque glyphdistorting the story of

Scenes of Victorian Police in full riot gear clubbing S11 demonstrators sitting down on the roadway blend with sound bites of a leading e-technology spokesperson claiming that S11 protesters were the real enemies of the poor in

The federal minister for employment and industrial relations, Peter Reith, says we can't afford to pay young people the same wages as an adult for identical work. Their youth justifies lower wages, even though we, as a nation,