As the Morrison government continues to avoid scrutiny relating to its curious allocation of sports grants, Peter Dutton has ramped up his years-long effort to increase the ability of the federal government to eavesdrop on Australians. Dutton’s ‘International Production Orders Bill’ has made headlines as the proposed law would allow overseas police to monitor Australians phones, but further from view another rubicon has been crossed in the fraught digital relationship between citizen and state. Despite initial denials, a recent Buzzfeed […]

In May of 2016 Donald Trump tweeted a photo of himself eating a taco bowl at his office at Trump tower, in a naked attempt to improve his poor standing with Hispanic Americans. The photo showed Trump grinning and giving his trademark thumbs-up as he dug into the tasty dish. ‘I Love Hispanics!’ he wrote, unconvincingly. In the background of the shot was the standard stuff you might expect from Donald Trump – photos of himself, golfing trophies, two (apparently) […]

The worst of it is that we’re just half way through Australia’s normal fire season. Who is to say what devastation a scorching late summer might wreak on our already scarred landscape. But some day the mercury will fall and the rains will come, and when the fires finally go out Australia is going to have to face the reality that this has at last ended the debate as to whether climate change threatens human life on this dry continent. […]

Champagne corks were conspicuous by their absence as Amazon recently announced plans to expand their operation in Australia by opening a new warehouse in Perth. Australia’s ‘boom to bust’ capital is experiencing its weakest economy in over two decades, and retailers have borne the brunt as the commodity miracle has come spectacularly to an end. At the mineral boom’s zenith, more than a 747-full of people were arriving to live in WA each week, but the one dimensional nature of […]

Thinking he would lose and in order to save money, Donald Trump hired a small hotel ballroom for the Republican reception on the night of the 2016 election, so when he and his family emerged at 2.50am even the stage looked crowded. Trump’s entourage seemed genuinely shocked by the result. There were tears backstage. Right to the last moment, no-one had expected him to win. For the next few weeks there were calls for electoral college officers to change their […]