Analysis

A visitor from Mars would have scratched their head raw about what big business is allowed to get away with in this country — especially by so-called Labor governments.

Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim introduced a private members bill on May 26. If passed, it will legalise euthanasia in the state.

“Some may be disappointed in some parts of this bill”, deputy prime minister and workplace relations minister Julia Gillard told parliament on June 17.

Aboriginal residents living in remote communities in the Northern Territory have condemned the government’s “consultation” about the NT intervention as farcical.

End US blockade of Cuba Having been a recent visitor to both Miami and Cuba may I congratulate the American press on its commitment to free speech and the lively debate both pro and against lifting the embargo on Cuba. The plea [from Bob

Citing the dubious need for Queensland to keep its AAA credit rating, on June 2 Premier Anna Bligh announced the state would sell off $15 billion of public assets.

The Business Council of Australia (BCA) — representing Australia’s largest 100 corporations — has called for a higher consumption tax and for the company tax to be halved. It did so in a submission to the federal government’s review of taxation (the Henry review) made public on June 14

“Tasers are not the ’non-lethal’ weapons the QPS [Queensland Police Service] leadership claims”, former state MP and former police officer Peter Pyke told the media in April. He predicted a Queenslander would die in 2009 from a Taser.

The NSW budget was handed down on June 16. NSW state treasurer Eric Roozendaal tried to spin it as a “beacon of hope” for the state.

The Rudd government will send a 40-member delegation, led by deputy prime minister Julia Gillard, to an “Australia Israel Leadership Forum” in Jerusalem on June 25-26. The government’s decision is yet further confirmation of its desire to outdo the former Howard government in blind support for Israel.

Despite widespread opposition, forest giant Gunns Ltd is still pressing ahead with its proposed pulp mill in the pristine Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania. But the campaign against it shows no signs of going away.

We would have loved for them to be bigger, but the June 13 national climate rallies were an unmistakable step forward for the climate action movement. More than 11,000 rallied nationally, making them the largest climate actions yet in the era of PM Kevin Rudd.