Viv Miley

Kapital: Sparks of Revolution game

Viv Miley reviews Kapital: Sparks of Revolution, a city building, resource management, simulation video game with a class antagonism basis.

Nurses and Midwives strike outside NSW Parliament on February 15, 2022.

The New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association went on strike on February 15, defying the Industrial Relations Commission’s order to cancel its action, write Pip Hinman and Viv Miley.

Nurses and midwives across Western Sydney are protesting the lack of staff which leads to extreme strain and unsafe work conditions. Viv Miley reports.

A showdown is looming in Australia between corporate media giants, with the federal government keen to appear as if it is taking a stand for media diversity. Jacob Andrewartha and Viv Miley explain.

The federal government wants us all signed up to a new COVID-19 contact tracing app. But Viv Miley says there are legitimate concerns about how our data and privacy would be affected.

Worried about online privacy? You should be. Not only are social media corporations spying on you, the government now want to muscle in further on Big Brother’s territory, writes Viv Miley.

Politicians are generally pretty bad at understanding information technology (IT) and the internet, especially when it comes to legislation. But Australia’s parliament is leading the world in terms of bad laws that effect technology, writes Viv Miley.

Following the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon, the initial response by Victoria Police included warning women to exercise “personal responsibility” and “situational awareness” at night, among other unhelpful suggestions. Unsurprisingly, this victim blaming sparked a backlash on social media.

On the 20th anniversary of Sorry Day, May 26, a day to remember the forced removal of First Nations' children from their families that became known as the Stolen Generations, a delegation of First Nations' grandmothers marched on Parliament House chanting "Bring our children home".

Rather than being a landmark for progress and reconciliation the delegation of Grandmothers said that 20 years on, the situation has only worsened.

 

The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Senate Committee released a report on May 19 into the implications of climate change for Australia's national security, which warned that climate change poses a "current and existential national security risk" to Australia.

The report defined an existential threat as “one that threatens the premature extinction of Earth-originating intelligent life or the permanent and drastic destruction of its potential for desirable future development”.

While federal Treasurer Scott Morrison was spruiking low and middle income families as the “winners” in the federal budget, unnoticed among the biggest “losers” was the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

The federal government reached an agreement with the Labor opposition to pass amendments to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBP) on May 8, effectively ensuring less water will flow to the environment in the southern basin.

The deal sidelined negotiations with cross-bench Senators and scuttled a move by the Greens to request a disallowance motion for the vote because of environmental concerns.