Other Politics

On 25th April 2006 the Beaconsfield gold mine in Tasmania collapsed. One man was killed and two others trapped nearly a kilometre below the ground. Recognising the incident as a moment of national importance and tragedy, then-AWU leader Bill Shorten flew back from Canada to get to Beaconsfield. Although Shorten wasn’t involved in the mechanics of the rescue effort, he understood that one key aspect of political leadership is presence – being there allowed Bill Shorten to understand what was…

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I couldn’t sleep last night. All the bigotry, hatred and stupidity in the news gets to me sometimes. For some reason, Israel Folau’s story has really bothered me. It’s not just that old Izzy likes to stand at a pulpit and tell people they’re going to hell, it’s that when called out for it he’s gone straight for the ‘I’m being victimised for my beliefs’ trope. You know, the one people use when they want the right to say something…

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Something’s not right here. Scott Morrison’s ‘miracle’ win in May was touted as one of the great political comebacks, but several aspects of the election now appear of questionable legitimacy, and it may just be that someone other than the Australian public was instrumental in putting ScoMo back in the big chair. First, it’s worth reflecting on how the mechanics of Australia’s famously opaque electoral system no longer reflect the will of the people. The Liberal Party itself got just…

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With eight days to go until the world’s 14th largest economy goes to the polls, Australians face a deeply uninspiring choice between continuing with the Liberal (conservative) coalition that has barely kept a moribund economy moving forward in their six years in power, or a change and return to the Labor Party. Woody Allen called this kind of thing ‘the evil of two lessers’, but really it’s a choice between relatively normal and frothing at the mouth insane for the…

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Today’s sentencing hearing, and the taking into custody of George Pell, once the third most powerful man in the Catholic church, marks the end of a career marked by financial and political backing at the highest levels, despite years of otherwise disqualifying controversy and scandal. It is a spectacular fall from grace for a man who once held one of the most prominent positions in Australian public life. Pell is in prison tonight, and will most probably die there. But…

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