The recent intimidatory police raids on the ABC and a journalist’s home for publicising matters of community concern are a wake-up call that press freedoms can no longer be taken for granted, writes Bevan Ramsden.
Analysis
This fight for women’s rights and against gendered violence is union business, says the Socialist Alliance.
Last November, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Australia will take its engagement with the region “to a new level” through a “new package of security, economic, diplomatic and people-to-people initiatives” in the region.
A month later, the Morrison government established a new Office of the Pacific within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to support “deepening engagement” with the region.
The Afghanistan war may be largely forgotten, were it not for the Australian Federal Police raid on the ABC’s Sydney offices on June 5 to collect evidence for the trial of army lawyer and whistleblower David McBride.
Afghanistan is the longest war Australia has ever been involved in. Yet it has largely been conducted in secret, with few media reports and even fewer politicians wanting to talk about it.
While Australia was in the throes of a federal election campaign, the United Nations released a report warning that nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history.
The Environment Defenders Office Queensland (EDO QLD) announced on June 12 that in a huge win for its client the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), the federal government has conceded the case brought against it over Adani’s North Galilee Water Scheme — the plan to pump up to 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River to Adani’s Carmichael mine site.
Chris Scott went to the embassy outside of Ararat to find out more about the Djab Warrung people's struggle to protect their scared heritage. This is his account.
The Australian Socialist Alliance released the following statement on June 9, in response to the brutal crackdown on Sudanese pro-democracy protests.
The latest report from Melbourne-based independent think-tank Breakthrough — National Centre for Climate Restoration, Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach, provides graphic descriptions of what lies ahead if we do not immediately take action.
"Australia may be the world's most secretive democracy," the New York Times reported on June 5.
The US newspaper was commenting on the raids by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) on a NewsCorp journalist and then the head office of the ABC. They were looking for evidence of information provided by whistleblowers that was used in articles exposing possible crimes by the Australian military and other authorities.
From July 1, Prime Minister Scott Morrison will receive a 2% pay rise on top of his already inflated parliamentary salary. Morrison currently earns $538,460 a year and in a few weeks time will earn an additional $10,000 a year. The current base salary for federal MPs and Senators is $207,100.
Many asylum seekers had hoped a Labor government, having supported the medical evacuation law (Medivac) and agreed to accept New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 people a year, would mean an end to six years of torture. The election result has killed that hope, writes Zebedee Parkes.
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