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The Public First Program Podcasts

PodcastDirectory / Society and Culture / Blogs
PodcastDirectory / Regions / OC / Australia

Editorials from the Public First Program aired on Gippsland FM 104.7, Thursdays at 11:00am (AEST). An alternative viewpoint on local, national and international events. Often polemic, always controversial. Highly researched and presented by Shane Elson an award winning radio commentator and producer. Available free of charge. Only ask is that, if used, quoted or otherwise referred to, that proper acknowledgement be given.

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Blogs

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Morwell
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Victoria
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Australia
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OC
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April 2009 #1 - Foot Spas R US

On my way to work on Wednesdays, I sometimes take the long way round. On the longer route I pass a 'spa'. Its housed in a renovated factory type place. You know the kind, all angles, glass and cement. Very trendy and upmarket. The kind of place you don't take the kids, if you know what I mean. When I walked passed it the other day there was a sign out the front. It read “Easter Bunny Specials” and included the listing “Spiced Chocolate Foot Spa. 15 Mins. $35”. It got me thinking. ...

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March 2009 #1 - TV or Bust

Have you ever had one of those months where its suddenly the end and you are hard pressed to recall what you did over the last 30 or so days? If so, welcome to the brave new world of disasters, terrors, wars, gluts, downturns, failures, frauds and fiscal miscreants. How are we meant to keep up? According to the producers and programmers employed by our TV networks, we aren't. They tell us we (that is the unwashed viewing public) don't want tough, thoughtful, insightful programs after a ha ...

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January 2009 #1 - Gaza, Gas and War

Have you ever heard of British Gas? Or perhaps the BG Group? Or what about the Consolidated Contractors Company? OK, then what about Tony Blair, Mahmoud Abbas, Ehud Olmert? I guess these last three are recognisable. But what do all these names share in common? Two things Gaza and gas. In 2000 a $4 billion US dollar gas field was discovered just off shore from the Gaza strip. The field is under waters that, by international recognition, makes it the property of the Palestinians. Kind of li ...

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December 2008 #4 - Gaza Again

As I sat down to finish off the last of the Christmas fare I switched on the evening news. It was not a pretty sight. The lead item was the latest genocidal attack by Israel against the civilians of the occupied Gaza strip. The first pictures were of the bombing of the university in Gaza city followed by a montage of shots of ambulances disgorging wounded civilians and other pictures of injured children being carried into hospitals by their distraught parents. Then the cruncher. The repo ...

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December 2008 #3 - Gouge Your Eyes Out

So now George Bush knows what its like to be a friend of Dick Cheney! Well, at least the guy didn't have a shotty. Might have made for better tele though! Nonetheless, Muntadhar al-Zeidi will continue to languish in an American controlled Iraqi jail until he confesses … whatever. We haven't seen shoes used in such reverential surroundings since Nikita Khrushchev took off his off and banged them on a desk in the UN. What is interesting is that his reason for doing so was when a delegate ...

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December 2008 #2 - Human Rights or Our Shame?

Sixty three years ago the global community drew its collective breath and sighed in relief at the end of World War II. Millions had died and many more millions were displaced, suffering under conditions that the so called “civilised” world found repulsive. In a collective head spin the leaders of the “free world” came together to assemble what we now know as the United Nations. Ironically, an Australian politician, Herbert (Doc) Evatt, was the foundation President of the UN. Some ...

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Dec 2008 #1 - Dentists, Dole and Private Schools

There are two places I really don't like. The first is dentist's waiting rooms and the second are dole offices. Being in both give me a sense of dread. In the dentist's waiting room I begin to sweat a little and my knees begin to ache. I imagine the huge I mean really, really big needle that will be plunged into my gums and the way in which my jaw will ache for a day or two afterwards. I imagine the recurrence of the dreaded 'dry socket' which is even worse than the toothache. In the ...

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Nov 2008 #4 - Not Winning. Losing

Its amazing how time flies when youre having fun. And havent we been having some fun lately. Work, mortgage, work, car repayments, work, groceries, work and on and on it goes. Meanwhile, out in the real world, elections have been had, grand finals lost, economies collapsing and all that stuff. If it wasnt for the distractions of work, mortgage, work, car repayments, work, groceries, work and so on, one could get very depressed. Take the oldies. A bunch of them recently got together ...

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September 2008 #3 - Goldman's Chickens

Its funny, isnt it, that as the capitalist system tries to reinvent itself, the so called market leaders, who caused the problem in the first place, have now been put in charge of designing the fix. Although not unlike putting the foxes in charge of the chicken coop, the main difference is, this time, the farmers are shooting, cleaning and serving up the chooks for the foxes. One of the main characters in this story is a rather large and influential firm called Goldman Sachs. They are ...

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September 2008 #2 - Finance for Dummies

Heres how economic life works. You want to buy something and I own or make what you want to buy. You dont have enough cash at hand to pay for it. In order to obtain enough ready cash to purchase my product or good, you go to a bank and get a loan. This is called being practical. The bank gets you to sign a contract. Now, in the real world a contract is a document that sets out agreed terms that both parties negotiate. When you go to the bank, the real world stops at the door and you e ...

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Sept 2008 #1 - In a Split Second

Making split second decisions is something we do all day. Do we choose the ham and cheese sandwich or the salad and lamb? Do wear the blue shirt or the green one? Do we have our coffee in a mug or a cup? Obviously not all decisions carry the same weight or consequences.I had to make a split second decision last Sunday morning. It was, on reflection, perhaps not my best. I got knocked off my bike by a forby. You know, a Toorak tractor. I certainly didnt expect that outcome from my decision ...

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August 2008 #3 - Its all Relative I Suppose

The six thousand dollar a week man lives in a house like ours. Well, it has walls, floors and ceilings. He earns his six thousand dollars a week by occupying a chair in an office in a central city high-rise building. The six thousand dollar a week man has to make important decisions. He is paid, not by the number of decisions he makes, but by remaining committed to theteam and by ensuring that all his decisions are positive towards the team outcomes. We have an office. Well its really ...

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August 2008 #2 - Georgia On My Mind

You may have heard about the little stoush being fought out in the Republic of Georgia at present. Georgia is a little country that grew out of the former Soviet Union. Bordered by the Black Sea to the west, Turkey and Armenia to the South, Azerbaijan to the east and Russia to the north, this little country could well be the flash point for a new cold war.The bloody rule of the communist leaders of the former Soviet Union, during most of last century, saw thousands killed and many more disp ...

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August 2008 #1 - The Royal Gosper

Everyone loves freebies. You know, a free hat or t-shirt to remember an event by. Even Royalty like to be in on them. The Olympic Family are royalty. Well at least thats what they like to think of themselves as, not mere mortals who must adhere to the strictures of even mundane things like the truth or moral obligation. No, this group, who control the multibillion-dollar circus we lovingly call The Olympics, are not like us. They inhabit a universe to which many aspire but must remai ...

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July 2008 #3 - Obama-Danger to the Middle East

Any of us who have attempted to speakoff the cuff in a public setting know just how dangerous it can be. We can muddle our words, prattle on incoherently and mis-speak important facts. So when it comes to politicians delivering speeches we can rest assured that the words we hear were carefully planned and scripted. Not onlydo the words have to make some kind of sense, they have to fit the established narrative they are creating based on the historic record that precedes them. Of course ...

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July 2008 #2 - The Real Danger Within

We live in troubled times. Perhaps the words of George Orwell in 1984 were prophetic in some small way. Who knows, maybe he did have an alien implant that gave him foresight? But perhaps that is my paranoia speaking. Whatever the situation, it seems that as time passes I cant help but think that things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser. Before I go on, I think its important to acknowledge that for many communities within our society life is rough, tough and often brutal. There are ...

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June 2008 #2 - Lurking Lippy Danger - Reprise

As we read, hear and see more about how the Imperial adventure in the Middle East is going bottom up, a little known terrorist threat is looming on our back door. A bioterrorist threat more dangerous, destructive and devastating than anything seen before. This little discussed threat is, Im sure, being monitored at the highest levels of our intelligence community and is receiving the just attention it deserves. It was only by luck (good or bad is yet to be determined) that I stumbled acro ...

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June 2008 #1 - Left Right or Wrong

All hail, the Left is dead! Well at least according to the reality in which Ken Phillips of the Institute of Public Affairs exists. Ken is one of the Directors of this organisation and I guess he is far more qualified than me to make such a bold claim. In an article in the Business section of The Age a week or so ago, Ken wrote that, About six years ago some left thinkers in Labor made the shift to acceptance of market capitalism. I wont argue against the words he writes but I will t ...

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May 2008 #4 - Art, Power and Parenting

Most parents begin exercising power over their children by using the fear factor. Dont touch. Youll get burnt or Dont play with that. It / you will break. While these types of directives often have very practical and necessary applications, they do remain a fairly central theme as we try and guide our children / teenagers / young adults through the complex maze we call life. However, for many parents there comes a time when all we can do is hope that weve given them enough of a ...

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March 2008 #2 - Carers, Get a Life

Did you see 4 Corners on the ABC last Monday night? It was about the plight of the grief stricken carers and the burden they carry looking after their disabled loved ones. What a bunch of whingers? I mean, lets do a reality check here. But first some facts, drawn from the most recent federal budget. According the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, there are 483,550 people in Australia who are cared for by someone in their immediate family or who qu ...

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May 2008 # 1 - Bare Chested and Beautiful: Cabbies and Viral Unionism

Blokes with bare chests beat the big end of town! Perhaps that should have been the headline that celebrated the cabbies victory last week. It seems that not only are Melbournes cabbies the proudest and loudest in the country, they are also on the road to becoming the BLF of the 21st century. But it seems that for some of the nice, quiet people, fighting for your rights as a worker is still something akin to terrorism. This is what is implied by Melissa Fyfe in her article in last Sunday ...

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April 2008 #4 - Tom, GE and Bush

About this time five years ago NBC current affairs anchor, Tom Brokaw, always one to ask the "tough" questions, got an exclusive - one on one - interview with George Bush. It was revealing in a number of ways. Firstly, NBC is owned by General Electric. Of course, GE not only try and ensure that you can make your cuppa in the morning or cook the toast just right, they also try and ensure that your multimillion dollar armaments are delivered to their targets. To warm them up a bit I suppose ...

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April 2008 #3 - William Robert and the ANZAC Legacy

William Robert Elson, Serial Number 6733, natural born British Subject, was 21 years and eight months old when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 4th August 1916. He was sent off to the other side of the world as a private in the 22nd Regiment, 12th Battalion. He was my grandfather. I grew up in a small town on the northwest coast of Tasmania, not far from where my grandad was born. He noted on his enlistment form that he next of kin was his father, William Elson of Spren ...

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April 2008 #2 - Porn, Footy and 9-11

What do pornography, 9-11 and Sydney Swans footballer, Barry Hall, have in common? On the surface not much but I reckon its worth a look. Last weekend Barry Hall punched and concussed an opposition player in an off ball incident that was, fortunately for the TV networks, captured on film. The incident was repeatedly played on news broadcasts over the next few nights. After Id seen it a few times I started to notice the reactions of the crowd who witnessed the punch that would make ...

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April 2008 #1 - The Family

Aint the Olympics great? All the glitz! All the glamour! The prestige and the glory! Wow! Im over the moon about the Olympics and really, really wish I could be part of the family. Dont you? Then again the mafia is often referred to as The Family. These two multinational organisations have many similarities. Lots of hopefuls are groomed for their future places. The never-could-bes are forgotten or rubbed out of the corporate memory. Lots of men in suits have incomes from indeterminat ...

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March 2008 #4 - Human Rights Day 2007. Dateline Kuala Lumpur

It seems to me that wherever you go there are forces at work that seek to prevent the expression of basic human rights. On December 10th, 1948, the United Nations adopted the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". The member states, then and now, were expected to accept the basic tenets of the document that was supposed to enshrine, in so called 'democracies', some basic criteria against which they could be measured in their legal frameworks to protect and advance basic human rights. O ...

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March 2008 #3 - Chris Berg - On yer Bike

I reckon that it must be pretty easy to get a job at the Institute for Public Affairs. But first, the grandiose title of the organisation needs some clarification. Firstly, the so-called Institute is not at all concerned with affairs of the public. In fact, and secondly, it has no real interest in the public, affairs or not! What leads me to sledge the IPA again, is that each time I read their little diatribes in The Age, I am, once more, appalled that the claims the writers make are gi ...

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March 2008 #2 - Political Animals

Animals. Inhuman. Terrorists. Unmerciful killers of innocent men, women and children. These are just of few of the epithets that are used to describe Palestinians. Not some Palestinians but all of them. The people who use these words are not using them randomly or as mere rhetorical turns of phrase. These words and many others like them, are deeply ingrained into certain classes of the Jewish ruling class and their supporters. The events of the last few weeks show that our current ...

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March 2008 #1 - Kids Business

As Edmond Groves swans around the US trying to flog off bits of his failing empire, mums and dads are getting worried. Now, as it happens, these mums and dads are also tax payers and, so it transpires, they have contributed mightily to the fortunes of Edmond, his missus and a few others in the inner ABC circle. I found it rather interesting that in the huff and puff of last weeks medias examination of the fall and fall of ABC little attention was paid to the real issue. That of the priv ...

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February 2008 # 4 - The Great Council of the 1000

The Third World is alive and well in Australia and a gathering of the great council of 1000 of the chattering, polite classes, gathered in the big house over a weekend, will not change a thing. Almost unimaginable amounts of money are spent each year in trying to hide this Third World from the polite classes or in attempts to distance the reality of this fact from those of us who choose to live here. One of the most visible attempts to create a sense of distance between the polite cl ...

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Februrary 2008 #3 - Dud Laugh

You could say Im a little obsessed by the goings on in the Big House in Canberra over the last week or so. Its been so much fun and the irony, belly laughs and general sense of humour coming out of the place seems to indicate that we did, indeed, get dudded. The great cultural warriors who championed the demise of political correctness and the rise of Hansonism; those who threw truth overboard as they pursued their purification of the Australian way of life; those who believed that ...

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February 2008 #2 - Saying Sorry is Hard to Do

They say saying sorry is the hardest thing to do. So, are you sorry? Really, truly sorry? That seems to be a key question in the big house in Canberra this week. The other key question seems to be, why should I feel sorry? Perhaps Ill start with the latter first. Being born in the late 50s meant that by the time I grew into some form of understanding my community was still firmly of the view that the First Australians were inferior in many ways. I cant recall anyone actually coming out ...

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February 2008 #1 - Anything is Possible

Here we are, the new year and all is well. Well, well for some and not so well for others. 2008 has got off to a flying start. I certainly cant complain. I guess I can but my woes pale into insignificance when compared to others. Nonetheless, I cant help feeling that this year will offer little change for those, who like me, attempt to eek out an income to support a lifestyle to which we would like to become accustomed. Politically it would seem nothing has changed. Sure we have a new c ...

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December 2007 #1 - A Return to Day Zero

One wonders what will become of those who come after us. After so much hullabaloo, cheering, flag waving and chest beating, will we become a more just and equitable society? Will we be able to turn around the prevailing orthodoxies and reclaim the fair go as our own? Will we, in the face of adversity and hardship, be able take back our futures and be able to leave a grand legacy for those that come after us? I was reminded recently of the way our former Prime Minister, John Howard, disg ...

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November 2007 #2 - K07-The Aftermath

Here we are at the other side of the federal election. No doubt many supporters from both sides woke up on Sunday morning with hangovers and emotions they were not accustomed to. The man of steel did his usual early morning walk but was shown up to be only chrome plated and the greatest treasurer we have supposedly known, eventually walked (and I dont blame him actually). Me Too K07 got up as did a swathe of other Labor party hacks. The Democrats finally got what they deserve, altho ...

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November 2007 #1 - Cup Day and Dictators

The news has been telling me that a horse won the Melbourne Cup this week. I guess that as sure a horse will win that race a politician or two will win the Big Race to the House on the Hill later this month. The major difference is, that we only have to waste a few days on the Cup and the horse will eventually be put out to pasture. Thinking about horse racing and politics has led me to the following conclusions. The first is that both cost millions to get up and running. The second is th ...

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October 2007 #3 - A Day at the Races

Glad you could join me from Randwick for todays Election Guineas. Its a strong field and all bets are now in. The gates are closed and they settle. And theyre off and racing in the 2007 Election Guineas. And what a strong field it is. Howards Luck got away quickly and Rudds Hope was caught on the hop. Turnbulls Quagmire looks like it got away from the jockey a little while Gillards Dream is a strong starter. Business Council is looking good and Church Lobby is keeping up. Back in ...

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October 2007 #2 - Gunns and the Roosters

When I was a kid and it was legal to keep chooks in a backyard pen, we had, for a time, a rather rowdy rooster. When he wasnt fluffing himself up to prove his dominance, or crowing at random, he was chasing the chooks. Of course, once he was deemed fat enough, he made his journey to our Sunday lunch table. I would suggest though, that this was not in the manner to which he had become accustomed. It would seems the roosters are crowing in Tasmania, in Canberra and no doubt, in a few other ...

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October 2007 #1 - We Are All Witnesses

She lay just beside us, a young pretty woman lying on her back. She lay there as if sunbathing in the heat, and the blood running from her back was still wet. The murderers had just left. She just lay there, feet together, arms outspread, as if she had seen her saviour. Her face was peaceful, eyes closed, a beautiful woman whose head was granted a strange halo. For a clothes line hung above her and there were childrens trousers and some socks pegged to the line. Other clothes lay scatter ...

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September 2007 #2 - Blackwater USA - Private War

We all fight a daily battle within ourselves as we negotiate a complex moral and ethical world in which conflicting values, practices and beliefs might otherwise send us stir crazy. Do we attempt to buy Australian only to find that our budget doesnt stretch that far? Do we allow our teenage children to go to that party even though we trust them? Do we vote for a party that will look after our individual interests or do we vote for one that advocates collective responsibility? Each of t ...

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September 2007 #1 - Agent of the State

How much security can you buy for $250 million these days? Thugs acting as agents of the state and not much else it would seem. The incredibly audacious stunt by the ABCs Chaser comedy team showed just how ridiculous the whole war on terror scaremongering is. A dozen people dressed up as security guards, driving or running beside black limos containing, among others, someone dressed up as Osama bin Laden, kind of really tells us who the joke is on. With passes that read, APEC 2007 Cha ...

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August 2007 #5 - Cousins of Gunns

When the wealthy begin to slog it out, you can rest assured that there is more to it than meets the eye. The latest stoush between the rich of Sydneys harbour suburbs is being framed as something we should be interested in. And, on one level, we should. Gunns have just about got their way in Tasmania and the Sydneysiders are arguing over the merits of the largest pulp mill in the southern hemisphere going ahead or not. What intrigues me is that John Howard hasnt jumped in to support Mal ...

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August 2007 #3 - Which god?

In the latest bit of me tooism to come from Kevin call me 07 Rudd we find that not only is he prepared to support one god, he seems to be taking out a divine insurance policy with the whole lot of them. Last week Kev and John went toe to toe for the Christians. They both claimed god was a neutral observer when it came to politics and that although they each felt they were doing gods work here on earth, the other bloke most certainly wasnt. Looking at the detail of their speeches ...

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August 2007 #2 - Run to Paradise

You might have heard or seen the news reports about the way in which Olympic athletes will be gagged when it comes to talking about Chinas human rights and other abuses while theyre in Beijing next year. However the head of the Australian Olympic Committee, John Coates, denied that this was the case. He told the eager media that the athletes were free to discuss anything they wanted. He told them, I imagine youll all be very keen to obtain the views of our athletes and if they want to ...

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August 2007 #1 - SIM Cards and Generosity

I wonder how long it will be before you or I or someone we know is given the Haneef treatment? Judging by the hyperbole emanating from Canberra and the willingness for politicians and police to ignore fundamental rights, it should not be too long. Within many cultures the idea of collective ownership, or at the least a willingness to share goods, means that little thought is given to the potential ramifications of a good deed. In many cultures the focus of ownership is not necessarily on ...

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July 2007 #4 - Repackaging Cigarettes and Politicians

Back in the 1980s I used to do a lot of work for the corporate PR industry. Product launches, big public spectacle events, conferences; that type of thing. Included in that line up of companies that I worked for, was a multinational tobacco company. One of the biggest promotions they did was when they introduced a new brand and wanted to ensure that it was positioned front and centre in the mind of smokers. They spent millions of dollars, invested would be the world they used, to promot ...

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July 2007 #3 - Body of Evidence

The human body, the carrier of the soul, heart and mind is, to my way of thinking, the most important site of conflict on earth. It is the site upon which a judge, jury and executioner all perform their roles. Roles that if carried out according to humane, just and moral principles, allow us to live without fear and to enjoy freedom, hope and liberty. Im writing this thinking of two bodies, those of David Hicks (David Hicks who?) and Mohamed Haneef. These two men embody the political bat ...

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July 2007 #2 - Oceans of Money

In a world awash with money, fame and fortune, it isnt surprising that politicians have been recruited to ensure that the oceans of cash are kept flowing ever upwards. A few weeks ago the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, became a star. The vehicle that propelled him into the world of stardom was a multi million dollar advertising campaign designed with one thing in mind; to convince a certain set within the ruling classes that his government was on their side. Just a couple of weeks ago ...

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July 2007 #1 - Cold Racism

The Howard government recently sent in the troops to stamp out sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities. Mal Brough, an ex military man, was almost slavering at the opportunity to send in some of his old mates to sort out the moral panic his government had created. After ignoring a pile of reports and inquiries into the woeful state of many remote Indigenous communities, it seems the sleeping beast that is our government awoke and began devouring the latest victim group. Isnt it funny how, ...

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June 2007 #3 - All Along the Watchtower

Having a rather sad life I have to admit one of my favourite TV programs is the US prison series OZ. The setting of this series is a fictional prison called OZ short for The Oswald State Penitentiary. Within this facility is a special section called Emerald City. Ill return to OZ in a minute or two. A recent ABC 4 Corners program was about the way Telstra treats its workers. I have known quite a few PMG, Telecom and now Telstra workers in my time and the one thing that stands o ...

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June 2007 #4 - Unspoken Words Among Friends

This is an edited extract from the first draft of John Howards address to the Sydney Institute regarding the inequities within the Australian community. Gerard, thank you for the warm welcome. Friends, and I can say that with confidence knowing that we share the same concerns about the grave situation facing many within our community, I might want to begin by outlining the appalling conditions under which many of our Indigenous brethren live. I could, with your indulgence begin by outlin ...

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May 2007 #1 - Madam Economy

I met The Economy the other day. She was sitting at a bar in a little pub I sometimes frequent when interstate. She looked rather weary and her eyes had that almost one too many look about them. I pulled up a chair and asked her how things were. Ive been a bad girl. She said, looking me squarely in the eyes. I feel so used. So dirty. I asked what had brought about such a negative self appraisal. Oh. Its only the drink talking. She said. Im just not feeling myself today. Too ma ...

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May 2007 #2 - When Generals Talk

Before Peter Garrett lost his way and joined the alternative capitalist party, he sang a song with the line when the generals talk, you better listen to them. At the time he was singing about both the military and economic generals and it is the economic generals who, to this day, continue to rule the world. A little earlier this week the private, for profit Macquarie Bank announced its record profit of almost one and half billion dollars, a fantastic sum by any account but only slightl ...

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May 2007 #3 - Johnny GM Seed

I dont think Ive ever written a Dear John letter before but here goes. John Roskam, Institute of Public Affairs Level 2, 410 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Dear John, I read with interest your most recent opinion piece in The Age newspaper. You tackled the thorny issue of genetically modified crops and how we should not fear them nor care about their impact other than the fact that they will make farmers richer and the rest of us healthier. In fact, you say, GM cropping will ...

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May 2007 #4 - The Reigning Rein

In the ever lasting battle for the minds of men and women, one of the key strategies employed by the ruling classes, should their interests be challenged, is to create a smokescreen to obscure the real issues that should be occupying the minds of those they are trying to win over. For last couple of weeks Therese Rein, the wife of wanna be PM, Kevin Im from Queensland Rudd, has been leading news bulletins over a supposed breach of workplace rules by underpaying some of the workers in on ...

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June 2007 #1 - Aquaman Meets Pell

I guess it depends which side of the debate you stand on but I for one believe the comments by George Pell were repugnant and would be rejected by fair minded Australians. If John Howard said that I guess, again, that a furore would have broken out but John remains silent. George Pell and Perth Catholic Bishop Barry Hickeys latest foray into politics are not really surprising and it must have been a slow news day in order for them to get such wide coverage. They, like Tony Abbott and ...

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April 2007 #3 - ANZAC - For Whom?

For the last ten years Ive been trying to work out why I have lost interest in the ANZAC day memorials. I attended my first when I was 15 and played in the Municipal band. We played at a Dawn Service and my dad, a WWII vet, took me down to the war memorial. It would be almost 20 years later that I spoke to him about his war time adventures and found out what his experience had been. It wasnt until many years later that I started to discover the truth about the ANZAC legend and the war ...

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April 2007 #2 - Jones, Race and Class Interests

In December 2005 a bunch of un-named and as yet unidentified people, orchestrated the closest thing we in Australia have come to in a full on race riot. The cowards that organised the riots in Cronulla had the full backing of our ruling classes. They found not only support but endorsement that we now find stretches all the way through the media to the top levels of government and Her Majesty's Opposition. Last week Sydney radio personality, who could otherwise be called a "colourful Sydne ...

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April 2007 #1 - Bombay Nights

Some years ago the company I was working for was awarded a contract to do some work in the Indian city of Bombay, now known as Mumbai. It was a great opportunity and became a life changing experience for me. As the projects technical manager I had to go over early and while there I was chaperoned by our Indian client. We visited various subcontractors and talked technical stuff. We travelled about the city in taxi cabs that seemed to test the limits of physics and the ability for body and ...

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March 2007 #5 - The Politics of Convenience and Liability

I was listening to the radio the other day when news came on about David Hicks appearance at the kangaroo court in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I thought the best journalists in the country would be discussing the unjust court setting he was appearing in. Perhaps I set my expectations too high. Instead of descriptions of the conditions under which he was being tried being described it was like listening to the spring fashion show. Ninety five percent of the bulletins were about what he was weari ...

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March 2007 #4 - Tears, Perks and People

A few weeks ago one of my favourite whipping posts, Amanda Vanstone, was sacked from the Howard government ministry. As Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs she continued the Ruddock legacy of dehumanising the victims of persecution who sought refuge on our shores. She also ruled over a department that was not hesitant in press ganging people (seriously ill people) off shore. She was not prepared to sack her bureaucratic masters who oversaw the incarceration of the mentally i ...

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March 2007 #3 - Techncially Speaking

A young man, lets call him Andrew, is sitting on the footpath, cigarette hanging from his mouth staring at nothing. Hes just been breached for a technical oversight. His journey to despair began four weeks ago when a mate of his dads asked if would like to do some work cleaning up his front yard and knocking down a fence. At 25, still living at home and with a rocky employment record, Andrew jumped at the chance to earn a few dollars. He took the job and over the next two weeks not o ...

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March 2007 #2 - Hicks, Burke and Howard

I wonder if David Hicks ever met Brian Burke? It seems, if you believe the hullabaloo, that Mr. Burke is about as toxic as the Taliban! Well, toxic for one liberal minister anyway.The hurrah over Mr. Burke began when we found out Kevin Rudd met with him not once, not twice but three times. John Howard came out swinging as did his lapdogs, Poodle Peter and rat-dog Tony the terrier Abbott.Tony Abbot was so moved over the meeting Rudd had with Burke and the WA Labor establishment that he sai ...

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March 2007 #1 - The Free Market on a Lazy Sunday

The echoes of Adam Smith reverberate today. In 1776 he coined the classic phrase that has become the guiding mantra for neoconservative economists. In his book, The Wealth of Nations he wrote, It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest... [Every individual] intends only his own security, only his own gain. And he is in this led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part o ...

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February 2007 #4 - You Lose Power

Just as Tony Blair owns up to the failure that is the war on terror in Iraq, one of our own has spilled the beans on the true intentions of the so called coalition of the willing. Speaking on the ABCs The World Today program last Thursday, Robert McClelland, the Labor shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, said unless the al-Maliki government took charge of their country, you lose power.At last, a politician who has told the truth. After nearly four years of lies about the war on Iraq ...

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February 2007 #3 - Rearranging the Deckchairs

Things must be getting rough on the bridge. Johnnys come out swinging and young Kevis mustering his mates. What was that old song? Ah, thats right, the times they are a changin. But how much they will actually change is yet to be determined and, like that other well known little ditty, who will be rearranging the deck chairs on good ol SS Australia?There seems to be a lot of store being put into Kev and Julias new stage play. Starring a stellar cast (so we are told), the pantomime ...

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February 2007 #2 - Educated Ignorance

Last week the Age newspaper carried an opinion piece by John Roskam, the Executive Director of the right wing, Institute for Public Affairs. In the latest tome from the IPA, we are told that a free education is an accident of history and an idea whose time has passed. Roskam goes on to tell us that free and compulsory education, and more importantly, those who hold to this ideal, are out of date. I think this little bit of hogwash needs some correction. Roskams education was, if his ...

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February 2007 #1 - Young Liberals go to Town

It must be the end of Summer. The tennis is over, the cricket well did it ever really begin. The beaches are almost deserted at noon on Wednesdays and the streets are full of tired looking mums looking for parking spaces near schools. Ahh! That is Australia in late January.So while we boguns, trogs and dropkicks get back into the world of work and weekends without football, what is it the ruling class wannabes have been up to over summer? Could I suggest plotting more of the same?Tucked a ...

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December 2006 #4 - In a Funk - A 2006 Reflection

I'm sitting here wondering why I'm in such a funk (as I think the Americans would call it). I'm not sure if we Aussies have a similar term but perhaps the closest would be "having an off week". Here we are speeding headlong into the New Year and supposedly in the middle of the "festive season" and I'm feeling like a drink or three!I guess when I look back on 2006 it is certainly far from what we could call a year to be proud of. We started out with liars telling us lies about wheat and we e ...

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December 2006 #3 - Our Legacy

We are at a crossroad this Christmas. As a society and as individuals we are entering a period of time in which technology, politics, law, morality and wealth all collide, collapse and engulf each other. The battle lines have been drawn and it is going to be a tough fight. We have to ask ourselves, When Ive left this battle, what legacy will I leave for those who follow?Since the beginning of history, in our quest for understanding, the human species has tried to manipulate its environme ...

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December 2006 #2 - Away in a Manger

As the Christmas season shifts into top gear and our minds turn to who will bring what for lunch, where lunch will be and who will be there, lets turn our minds, just for a few minutes, to the birthplace of the reason for the season.The Bible story tells us that Jesus was born in a manger in the town of Bethlehem, just down the road from Jerusalem. The same story tells us that prior to his birth his mum and dad had to flee their home country as refugees.As we follow the story we find tha ...

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December 2006 #1 - The Devil and the Peso

On my recent visit to the Middle East I was struck once more by the clear delineation between the rich and poor. On the streets of Amman the wealthy drove their BMWs and Mercedes past the Iraqi widows who sold individual cigarettes to those who could not afford the buy a full packet. I will never forget the obviously Downs Syndrome man who sat begging while we passed by on a quest to find lunch. Some images burn themselves into your soul and make your realise just how lucky you are.At a rec ...

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November 2006 #5 - Charades

Some days I wonder just how long the charade we call democracy' will last. I guess that if it is a charade it will last only as long as we are prepared to play the game. The game, as I understand it, revolves around the voters' going to the polls once in a while and democratically electing' a bunch of people to represent' them while making the laws of the land.This charade, like the game we sometimes play with friends, is meant to be polite, have a set of understandable boundaries and c ...

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November 2006 #4 - Sands

The pictures and more detail on this event are available at www.shane.araustralia.org/pictures.htmThe world is a weird and wonderful place. Separated by race, religion, politics, sexuality and moral codes, the human race is as mixed as the colour of the sands on a beach. Each grain is a unique and individual expression of the forces that shaped it. Yet, together the billions of grains provide a barrier to the encroachment of the sea onto the land.People are like the grains of sand. Each one ...

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November 2006 #3 - Hillbilly Dreams

Many years ago I was a great fan of a US TV program called "The Beverly Hillbillies". The program was based around the premise that a "hillbilly" named Jed Clampett was, "out one day shootin' at some food, when up from the ground came a bubblin' crude. Oil that is. Black gold. Texas Tea". As the title song says, "Well the first thing you know, ol' Jed's a millionaire so he packed up the truck and said we're moving out of here." As the song and the story line goes, Jed and his family move ...

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November 2006 #2 - Rumsfelds Henny Penny Excuse

As our thoughts turn to the resultsof the US congressional mid-terms, we should spare a thought for one of the unfortunate causalities of this political skirmish. It seems the first person to be sidelined as "collateral damage" is Donald Rumsfeld who resigned to leave his protege, George W. Bush to hold the can.Rummy is spoken of as a 'good ole boy'. A "patriot" according to George W Bush. A defender of all things American. Well most things American. Well a few things American. Actually, no ...

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October 2006 #5 - The Mufti and the Dog Whistle

So much is going on one really struggles to work out where to start. First there's the climate. Today its warm, tomorrow it might be cold. Yesterday was sunny, tomorrow it might rain. Last week the PM, said climate change was a fallacy and lie made up by feminist, gay, unemployed, tree hugging, lefty pinko, Marxists. This week he announces a bunch of projects that are supposed to cut green house gasses. Six years ago there were boat loads of neo-fascist, terrorist sympathisers in boats tr ...

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October 2006 #4 - Colonialism, Palm Oil and the Solomons

In the latest colonial adventure by our Government, it would seem they have forgotten that old adage about those who fail to learn from history being bound to make the same mistakes. When it comes to Australia's increasing interventions in the Pacific Nations and in particular, the Solomon Islands, we need to ask, "just whose interests are being protected?" The history of the Solomon Islands is, like so many of our Pacific neighbours, little understood and largely ignored in our school hi ...

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October 2006 #3 - On A Mission From God

Many years ago, when I was much younger (and some say better looking) I had what is termed a "conversion" experience. Being from a Christian family, my primary religious understandings were shaped by that environment. So 'becoming a Christian' was not something I thought was foreign. Being young and full of beans I threw myself into this new experience. My eyes had been opened, I thought. My spiritual being was assured of a place in the eternity of paradise. I became involved in the loca ...

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October 2006 #2 - Howard's Quadrant Memory Hole

On the 3rd October, John Howard delivered a speech at the 50th anniversary of Quadrant magazine. In the company of such balanced and objective luminaries as Paddy McGuinness who masquerades as a commentator, Howard launched into a tirade that built on the themes developed earlier in the week by his Minister for Education. He declared that Australian history was in danger of being highjacked by a left leaning, communist sympathising intelligentsia. This black armband brigade who are ...

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October 2006 #1 - Greenwashing, Astroturfing and Gippsland's A-Team

Sally Neighbours Four Corners story on papermaker Amcors A-Team as they are called, was nothing new for those of us who live in Gippslands Latrobe Valley. It was good to see my seven cents a day being put to good use. However what I did find interesting about her report was the absence of any comment by union officials and the refusal of Amcor to discuss the matter. After all, if we believe their own propaganda, they won and its usual for the victors to gloat over the spoils. Anothe ...

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September 2006 #3 - Aussie Values The Howard Nelson Way

So, John Howard and Brendan Nelson think they can mandate Values for Australian Schooling? Theyre in the process of spending about $30 million in an attempt to get our schools to teach what they refer to as Australian Values to our kids. Some smarty-pants with a doctorate no doubt received a huge grant to define what our Australian Values are. The government says they are the following and they also tell us how they should be interpreted. Value 1. Care and Compassion: Care for self ...

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September 2006 #2 - Nothing Changes

The world has changed since that fateful day in September five years ago. Here is how it has changed since then for some who live in the world. A middle aged woman looks out of her office window as a shadow passes by. She looks up just in time to see a huge airliner crash into the building only a few blocks from where she works. The building her son works in. She had said goodbye to her son that morning as he got off the train they caught to work each day. She picks up the phone and call ...

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September 2006 #1 - Howard's Brutal Language

Some time ago I was at a school function when an autistic boy came up to me asked who I was. Thinking he was asking my name I replied, "I'm Shane". "Who are you" he persisted. Thinking he had not heard me properly I repeated my name. His aid bent near the young man and said, "This is Tim's dad." "Tim's dad!" he exclaimed. With that, he turned and went his way. A little later I saw him with my son. When he caught sight of me he said, "That man. Tim's dad." I realised that in the mind of th ...

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August 2006 #5 - Patriots and Enemies - The Gunns War on Everything

Are you a patriot? I'd like to think I'm an Australian patriot, someone who believes that all Australians are entitled to a fair go, and the ability to respect and be respected by others. I also happen to believe that I was born in the most beautiful island in the world, Tasmania. So I guess that makes me a Tasmanian patriot. A patriot might be described as "one who loves and defends his or her country". This is usually understood as having militarist meaning. That is, being ready to die ...

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August 2006 #4 - Blonde Bombshells

This is serious. Really serious. People are going to die. It doesn't get more serious than this. I've been closely following the latest terrorist threats against the United States and I'm with George W. Bush all the way. Sorry to have jumped the good ship "lefty, pinko, communist, terrorist sympathiser, bleeding heart, liberal" but I'm afraid the evidence is in. We now know who we have to be afraid of. Gone is the innocent outlook of youth. When I was seven or eight my parents bought me a ...

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August 2006 #3 - Flugge and Joud - High Comedy or Just Farce?

'Lighten up a bit, will ya!" is a comment often flung my way. Some people have told me I'm way too dark and that I only ever focus on the negative. To a point, I agree but when I want some light entertainment I watch the news or read the mainstream papers. The level of satire, hilarity and send up I find there is far too good for me to compete with. What was it Kenny Rogers sang? 'You gotta know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em". Good advice. Two recent events may highlight how ...

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August 2006 #2 - Jesus Values or the Lessons of History

While the media focuses on the price of petrol and interest rates, it hasn't spent too much time investigating the comings and goings of the National Forum on Australia's Christian Heritage sponsored by a number of our secularly elected politicians. This little discussed Forum has noted that its "desired outcomes" are "the free availability on the web of data on Australia's Christian heritage the promotion of this data within the curricula of Australian schools" and "having a positive inf ...

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August 2006 #1 - The Slough of Despond

Do you still listen to or watch the news or have you given up in despair? Do you often have a real sense of foreboding and unease? Do you find yourself staring off into space wondering what our world is becoming? If you do, you're not alone. Whether it's the story of another kid having their face ripped off by a neighbour's attack dog or perhaps another story of a religious group's employees sexually abusing those under their care or maybe its the news of the deaths of another100 anonymou ...

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July 2006 #4 - Resolution 425

Two of the curious things missing from commentary on the ongoing Israeli destruction of Lebanon and their reoccupation of the Palestinian territories, are any reference to UN resolution 425 and its mandates and the lies told about the so-called "kidnapping" of Israeli soldiers. Back on the 19th March 1978 the international community and the UN Security Council were concerned about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, an occupation eerily similar to today's "troop deployments" and "incursions ...

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July 2006 #3 - Am I an anti-Semite?

In my time Ive been called lots of things. Some not repeatable here. But the two epithets that really get up my nose are anti-Semitic and anti-Howard. These two descriptors are thrown around with little regard for what the terms actually imply. Ill start with the first. The term anti-Semitic is associated with anyone who speaks out against the atrocities the Israeli government carries out against the Palestinians and the nations that surround Israel. The absurdity of the phrase ha ...

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July 2006 #2 - The Gospel of Contentment or Real Value Politics

What a heady week in halls of power it is. As the various factions among the ruling class try and out do each other with claim and counter claim, the poor and dispossessed seem little acknowledged or cared for. Last week, in Sydney, if you read the blurbs, it might have been thought that the poor and dispossessed were centre stage. A closer examination shows that, well, maybe not. I'm talking about the 2006 Hillsong Convention, once more bringing together some of the rich and ruling class ...

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July 2006 #1 - Democracy 101

People often say to me, "Shane, you're always banging on about how bad our democracy is. Why do you believe that and what is your solution or alternative?" Fair cop. Good questions and ones that take up lots of thinking time. I'll try my best to explain where I'm coming from. Let's start with the basics. What does the term "representative, parliamentary democracy" mean within the everyday talk we engage in? While there are probably good technical definitions, the reality is that once ever ...

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June 2006 #5 - Social Welfare for the Unemployed

This time of year, like the summer break, is one in which I can become disheartened. It's quite easy to forget how, relatively, fortunate I am. But now that I'm officially unemployed until the middle of July I thought it timely to look at the way we relate to those who get the most compared to those who get the least. Just last week, in the dying hours of the final parliamentary sitting before the pollies all flew off to their Pacific Island holiday retreats, they voted themselves another ...

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June 2006 #4 - God, Lies and War

You've probably guessed by now that I'm neither an historian or linguist. I'm certainly interested in a range of ideas, people and activities. And, of course I have an opinion on most things. However, there is a real crisis occurring at the moment in the Western world that both you and I have the good, or otherwise, fortune of being a part of. While I would never claim that Australia, the US or the UK are "Christian" countries, I have to concede that many of our moral and ethical Anglo cu ...

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June 2006 #3 - Tell Me No Lies

I've been reading recently John Pilger's latest book "Tell me no Lies" in which he presents edited versions of some of the finest reporting on major events of significance since the second world war. Unfortunately it is a catalogue of some the most atrocious scandals and cover-ups that have been facilitated by the governments of the so called "developed" world. From German atrocities at Dachau to Year Zero to Sabra and Chatila to Iraq, Pilger's book pulls together stories which highlight ...

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June 2006 #2 - Euro vs US$. Rogue States and Failed Nations

Times are tough for "dictators", "rogue states" and "failing nations". Indeed in the last few years weve seen one or two lose their jobs and be relegated to the status of "jail bird". It seems like it is not a good thing to be the head of a country that happens to sit on top of huge oil or gas reserves. Saddam was the first to go. We find Iran is threatening everyone with "nuclear" weapons and that Venezuela is being led by "communists" and that Bolivia is being ruled by "Soviet sympathis ...

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June 2006 #1 - Oil and Gas. Yachts and Row Boats

The big boys have yachts. The small boys have row boats. Those of us who try and keep abreast of world affairs are quite often shocked not by the subtleties of what the rulers of the world do and the back room political machinations they engage in but by the sheer audacity of the acts they sometimes commit. In the last couple of weeks, the rulers who oversee this region of the world have once more shocked us in their undisguised misuse and abuse of their power. Like most people, I was sh ...

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May 2006 #3 - Let's Pretend

Do you like playing pretend? I do. Lets pretend that since the Second World War the capitalist enterprise has been accelerating as various governments, of all shades, work to provide the social and legal conditions to allow the growth of personal wealth and attempt to mitigate the most egregious effects of the capitalist system. Lets pretend that both the conservative and the liberal sides of politics understand the advantages of economic growth both to the overall common wealt ...

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May 2006 #1 - What Cost? Beaconsfield Gold.

What does it mean when three go in and only two come out? I've been out of Australia for a week or so and therefore missed the middle bit of the saga of the two guys trapped underground in my home state. The rescuers had recovered the body of the dead miner before I left and the media was gearing up for the search for more bodies. While away I got news that the remaining two were alive but not reachable. I assume it was about then that the media throng swamped the town of Beaconsfield an ...

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April 2006 #4 - The Truth of War and our Tin Man

Australias holiest of days, Anzac Day, has come and gone once more. Our Prime Minister once more expressed his glee that our youth are swallowing hook, line and sinker the myth of war. The valorisation of the military and the glory of war were splashed all over our papers, TVs and radios. War was, once more, presented as a sanitised, glorifying and somehow noble pursuit. The question that I want to pose today is, what does Anzac Day have to do with Chernobyl, Mordechai Vanunu and Mosal? ...

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April 2006 #3 - Stealing ANZAC for the Solomons

It's that time of year again when Australia comes as close to getting religion as collectively possible. With Jesus dead, buried and resurrected, the collective Ozzie mind turns from chocolate eggs to ANZACs. Our current leadership sees itself as a military one. The problem for Howard and most of the current crop of leaders and 'wanna be' leaders, is that the wars they want to fight are either unnecessary or unjust. As we wait and see what is transpiring in the Solomon Islands, we find mo ...

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April 2006 #2 - Commissioner Cole Meets Sgt. Schultz

The following conversation between three men allegedly took place around a table somewhere in Canberra last weekend. Sources, reliable sources, recorded and transcribed it for us. However, it should be remembered that the men did not meet and they did not discuss anything around a table that was not there in a place that does not exist and they did not agree to forget something that did not happen. In order protect their identities their names have been disguised. Mark: Did you hear ? J ...

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April 2006 #1 - Sheep, Work and the New IR Laws

When I was a young bloke I could literally walk to the end of my street and be in a paddock. Quite often those paddocks would have livestock in them and my favourite livestock was sheep. On a 'bad' day it was fun climb through the wire fence and chase them. They ran away of course and jumped and bleated and basically got into a spot of bother. On a 'good' day, when I was feeling a little more humane (as young lads can be rather nasty at times) I would climb slowly through the fence and t ...

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March 2006 #5 Dateline 2020: The Australian Uranium Board Inquiry

Dateline: March 30th 2020Slug: AUB Inquiry Hots UpIn another development at the Australian Uranium Board Inquiry today, a second damning memo from the Office of the Prime Minister was tabled before the Chief Commissioner. The memo came to light after the former AUB Chairperson handed over a large number of documents related to the illegal sale of uranium to China, breaking the 10 year sanction regime imposed on that nation.The sanctions were imposed after the United States of the World decl ...

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March 2006 #4 - Malthus and Empire

Empire building is not something politicians are keen to discuss these days. In particular as we commemorate the third anniversary of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and lets not forget Afghanistan, it is worth highlighting an underlying theme in all the bluster and spin coming from the offices of John Howard, George Bush and Tony Blair. I was interested to hear the Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, talking about the aftermath of the cyclone that has devastated norther ...

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March 2006 #3 - The Stolenwealth Games

The Stolenwealth Games are in full swing and what a blast they are, if you believe the headlines and what an extravaganza Melbourne is hosting. Aren't you glad you're a tax payer? We've had the Queen's Torch relay dramas. We've had the hype and mystery of the Opening Ceremony rehearsals and we've endured the droning of Victorian politicians from all sides talking up what promises to be one of the most extravagant, taxpayer funded white elephants of all time. I'm so glad I'm a Victorian! W ...

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March 2006 #2 - International Women's Day 2006

Wednesday 8th March was International Women's Day, a day when the world is supposed to stop and consider the plight and role of women around the globe. As could be expected what we saw and heard, if anything, was mostly wealthy white women talking about how more needs to be done. In some isolated cases the mainstream media did give some coverage to the vast majority of women who don't live in the wealthy west or who do live in developed societies but don't have access to the same opportun ...

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March 2006 #1 - Pollution: Time to Grow Up

When I was a little kid there was no such thing as pollution. Well, there probably was but it wasn't until I started school that it was drummed into me that we all had a role to play in stopping the mess. We had to do silly things like pick up papers at lunch time if we got a detention. We were not allowed to drop our waxed paper wraps from lunch time sandwiches on the floor. We had to draw pictures of fish and whales and put silly captions on them like "if it gets into the water it will ...

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February 2006 #4 - The ABCs of the Bridge Keeper's Son

The first time I heard the following story I was told it was true but since then I've heard a number of variations on it so you make up your own mind. In a remote part of Scotland in the 1880s there was a bridge keeper. His sole duty was to make sure the draw bridge over the river was closed twice each day so the train from the city could cross the river safely. The rest of the day the bridge was kept raised so that ships could sail unhindered up and down the river. One evening as he s ...

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Febrary 2006 #3 - One Last Kiss

He can still recall the first time he held him. Eyes so brown he could see the generations reaching back beyond his family's memory. A heritage so rich, so timeless its eternity is as vast as the universe. He holds him close and feels his tiny heart pulsing beneath the wraps and smells his sweet breath, an aroma so rich he can taste the earth and all the stars and moons that have ever existed. He smells his hair and is transported back to the night of passion on which he was conceived. He ...

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February 2006 #2 - Tony Abbott's Values

I'm confused. Now, some may say that's fairly normal for me but I want to be serious for a moment. As you're probably aware, our parliament recently voted for the power to remove ministerial control over the drug, RU486 and hand it back to doctors. No doubt the public debate will continue to rage long after the final count of hands is done. But that's not what I'm interested in at present. What interests me is the government's and in particular, its senior minister's response to the debate ...

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February 2006 - AWB: Just Doing Business

Business is business and company directors are under an obligation to ensure the owners of the business, that is the shareholders, don't lose their money. It's their job to make sure that the cash keeps flowing in and that the returns are perpetually increasing so the wealthy get wealthier. We don't want disgruntled shareholders turning up at the AGM and causing strife now do we? The current fracas surrounding the Australian Wheat Board gives us a glimpse into the workings of internationa ...

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The News of the Year 2005 - 48 Minutes

This is a 48 minute satirical look at some of the news headlines from 2005. Please note it comes in nine 'segments' with throws to local breaks. Theme music gives you a cue. The full script can be accessed at http://www.shane.araustralia.org/Editorials%202005/Dec05-04.htm

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Dec 2005 #3 - poor, Backwards but Showing the Way

I've always marvelled at the resilience of "backward" peoples. You know the types. They live in lands far across the sea. They speak in strange tongues and often dress in very colourful and weird costumes. They have strange customs and many of them have "benefited" from colonisation. These people often suffer from strange diseases and under the guidance of "modern" medicine have been able to slow their death rates from "easily" preventable diseases. Quite often our histories show them to h ...

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Dec 2005 # 2 - Howard's Bigoted Beliefs

John Howard believes that Australia is not a racist country. He also happens to believe that there are no poor, only those who choose to be poor. He happily believes that workers all want to work harder for less pay. He lives in bliss with the belief that young, single mothers are young, single mothers because they want to rip off the rest of us. In a state of perpetual joy he believes that the sick, the elderly and the disabled should be able to take care of themselves without tax payer su ...

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December 2005 #1 - Signed, Sealed and Delivered

In one of the more up market restaurants in a big city a small group of men are sitting in a private room enjoying some fine wines prior to settling into their business. Two politicians from one of the major parties, their chief advisors, a well known radio personality and one of the party's major benefactors have gathered this night to settle a deal. As the first of the entrees arrives a hearty laugh is heard as old tales of electoral battles are recounted.Over a thousand kilometres away i ...

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Nov 2005 #3 - Hate, Fear and International Relations

Im sitting in a bar in Jakarta with my new friend when, without warning, in the middle of our chat he asks, Why do Australians hate us so much? Im stunned into a few seconds of embarrassed silence as my mind races to provide an answer.We had been talking about our families. I told him about mine and my adult sons and what kind of work I and my partner did. He told me about his young children and about how he wanted to start a furniture making business.Why do Australians hate us so much ...

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Nov 05 #2 - 'Tis the Season to be Jolly?

As I write Tony Blair is telling the British parliament that his proposed changes to detention legislation are not an attack on human rightsor turning Britain into a police state. Seems that he and Howard and Bush are all, as they say, singing from the same song sheet.In a couple of weeks we'll hear on the radio and TV the sounds of kids singing, "'Tis the season to be jolly, falala lalala la la la". Why is itthe season to be jolly? Why is it that our so called leaders fail to recognise the ...

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Oct 2005 #4 - Terror Gays Scare John

The latest edition of one of the only two real newspapers in Australia, the Green Left Weekly, arrived in the mail the other day and Isettled down with a cup of tea for a read, as one does. I got to page three and an article by Pip Hinman, a regular contributor, caught myeye. The title of her article was "Same-sex couples recognised in new terror laws."It seems that our government, while quite willing to terrorise our gay community by passing laws preventing them from engaging in basichuman ...

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2005 Lionel Murphy Memorial Lecture: Recovering the Human: The Disappearance of People in the 21st Century.

Queue jumpers, illegals, aspirational voters, insurgents, lefties, conservatives, wets, dries, radicals and anarchists. At some stage the language of the public sphere forgot the human. Real people have been removed from public discussion and have been replaced with metaphors, "real speak" and ciphers. A new set of codes have emerged in which the hopes and suffering of real people are replaced by accusations of individual weaknesses, unpreparedness or unwillingness to change or adapt.This n ...

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Oct 2005 #3 - Little Prince What's His Name

So Mary and Fred have had a nipper. Whoopee! Great timing too. Just as the government gets stuck into promoting its return to the salt mines industrial relations proposal and as the sport's calendar is clear of footy and ruggers, along comes little What's His Name. Why all the fuss? A baby born to rule is what he is. Now don't get me wrong, the little bugger is, as they say, not responsible for his own birth. That was a little out of his control. To Fred and Mary, congratulations and commis ...

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Oct 2005 # 2 - Conversion, Power and Fear

Some things fade with time. Others just keep coming back to haunt you, don't they?Many years ago when I was much younger (and some say better looking) I had what is termed a "conversion" experience. Being from a Christian family, my primary religiousunderstandings were, of course, shaped by that environment. So 'becoming a Christian' was not something I thought was foreign. Being young and full of beans I threw myself into thisnew experience. My eyes had been opened, I thought. My spiritual ...

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Sept 2005 #5 - Gerard's Little Knitting Circle

Back in July John Howard was kissing the arse of Gerard Henderson and the corporate highfliers who frequent Gerard's quaint littleknitting circle, the Sydney Institute. Firmly nailing his colours to the mast, Howard declared that no commentator "possessed a sharpereye or pen" than the great GH. Howard was attending Gerard's little shebang to spout one of the neoliberal mantras, this time what isloosely referred to as "industrial relations reform".Howard was in full flight a little more that ...

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Sept 2005 #4 - Dummy Spitting Democracy

Mark Latham is stupid or he's brave. I'm not sure which at this time but I think perhaps he's a bit of both. Oh, and he has a very healthy ego. What I find interesting in the whole 'Latham spits the dummy' hurrah is that rather than critically examining what he has to say, regardless of how it's said, the "key stakeholders" in all this have chosen to play the man. So in the interests of fair and balanced reporting, I want to have a crack at asking some of the questions most of the press gal ...

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Sept 2005 #3 - Bling and the Thumb

Things are bad when a litre of petrol costs more than a litre of Coke! Things must be bad when the poor have to compete with the rich for scarce resources. You know things are really bad when the International Association of Hitch Hikers puts out a press release.This group is not well known outside its constituents. The people who form the membership of the IAHH are drawn from the lower socio-economic strata of our society and are not usually in a position to put out press releases. This si ...

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Sept 2005 #2 - Mexican Magic

Ever since I first saw a magician chop a lady in half I've wondered how it was done. How did the man with the funny hat cut the lady inhalf with a huge handsaw and then put her back together without any blood or noticeable injury? Wow. I wished I could do that. Manyyears later I'm sitting here thinking, how is it that the men in funny hats are telling me they're going to cut Telstra in half or perhaps evenquarters or smaller and still make sure it functions exactly like it did before th ...

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Sept 05 #1 - Robeson's vs Forbes' vision of the world

In his 1958 autobiography Paul Robeson wrote that his dream was that all people could be, "free - to walk the good earth as equalcitizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil to give our children every opportunity in life - that dream which we have held solong in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands". As a black American, the third black person to win a scholarship toRutgers, who went on to Columbia University to study law and who throughout his life ...

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Aug 2005 #4 - Dragons, Dangers and Assassins

On the same day that Scotsmen and women symbolically buried William Wallace, a true hero and freedom fighter for their cause, American rightwing Christian extremist televangelist Pat Robinson calls for the assassination of another true freedom fighter, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. What links these two events through history is the firm belief that both Wallace and Chavez are threats to the dominant ideology of their times and the links between the religious zealots who defend that ideology in t ...

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Aug 2005 #3 - Frocking up with Johnny

Last weekend saw some in the Australian media once more go into overdrive, or should I say over-hype, as another government sponsored day of remembrance was turned into another day of great forgetting. Writing in the Melbourne Age this week Tony Kevin puts forward a case that one of the most successful programs run by the current government is the take over of our military remembrances. Kevin argues that the remembrance of VP Day has become, like so many other occasions under the Howard go ...

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October 2005 #1 - I'd Love to Drink With Richard

Richard Butler is one bloke I'd like to invite to a party. From what Mr. Ladder of Opportunity, Mark Latham, says about him, he's a loudmouth drunk who's been sacked from more jobs than Peter Costello's had budgets. Dick, if I can be so bold, was the keynote speaker at a shindig held in my little part of the world the other week during which he made the observation that, in regards to the Latham meltdown, "the media just did the sensational stuff." He went on to say, "you've got to be a cri ...

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Aug 2005 #2 - Young Blokes and Train Wrecks

I flicked on the radio the other night and tuned into a fascinating radio program. The program was being hosted by a bloke who was talking with two other blokes about blokes. It seems the host and the two blokes with him were very concerned about young blokes. They were discussing the ways in which young blokes 'go off the rails' and how we need to help married blokes be better blokes so their young blokes can become good blokes when they grow up. It was all rather blokey and got me thinkin ...

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Aug 2005 #1 - History and our Enemies

As more information leaks out about the farce that is the US handling of suspected 'terrorists' and while David Hicks continues to languish while our servile and lickspittle government does nothing to assist an Australian Son, it is timely that we return to the brutality that is atomic war. History will forever record that the US government was the first to authorise the use of atomic weapons. On August 6 and 9 we remember the death of innocence and the war crimes that were the dawn of the ...

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July 2005 #4 - Harry, Charles and Death by Cop

Harry Stanley is a name we're not overly familiar with. Harry's story though, does have a number of links to recent events in the London underground. Harry liked a drink and liked it even more if he was sharing it with his family and friends. But one night in September 1999 Harry became a victim of death by cop.Harry's brother was a bit of a handy man and when one of the legs on Harry's kitchen table became a little wonky, Harry asked his brother to have a look at it. A few days later Harry ...

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July 2005 #3 - Chapman, Marx and the need for Blankets

Having the opportunity to lie in bed and relax recently I turned on the bedside radio. Within moments the Tracy Chapman classic, Talkin Bout a Revolution came on. Part of the lyric is, While they're standing in the welfare lines, Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation, Wasting time in unemployment lines, Sitting around waiting for a promotion. Don't you know you're talking about a revolution, It sounds like a whisper. I think its an OK song. But that wasnt what made me ...

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July 2005 #2 - Our Blood in Their Veins

What difference is there between the blood and pain and tears and terror in London and the blood and pain and tears and terror in Baghdad?

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July 2005 #1 - Peter Costello Raising the Dead

What does it mean when a national leader declares sides in the war for our souls?

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June 2005 #5 - Lurking Lippy Dangers

In the fight against weapons of mass destruction, what dangers lurk on our shopping mall shelves?

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June 2005 #4 - Moral Panic, Outrage and Bob

Why do the floppy bits on Big Brother cause a moral outrage when people like Bob are treated with contempt?

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June 2005 #3 - BHP, The Battle and the Main Game

Distraction is a common element used by PR flacks, governments and the powerful. So what goes on when our attention is diverted?

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May 2008 #3 - Al-Nakba and Optimism

Margaret Thatcher once proclaimedthere is no alternative! She made this pronouncement during the miners strike that almost shut down England during the 1980s. A closer examination of the subtext of her speech and this declaration reveals that, from a position of state based, capitalist supported and ideologically endorsedpower, there can be no alternative to the will of the rulers being imposed on those they rule. When we turn to examine the so called problems in the Israeli occupied ...

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