Talk It OutTalk It OutThis blog is about issues that we do or should care about and talk about - politics, womens issues, law, society and the like. It's aim is to create a space to discuss and debate Articles
Welfare as a means of (even more) control
2007-07-05 12:43:00 In the previous post I commented on the government plan to "quarantine" a part of the welfare payment to parents who are considered not to be spending enough money on essentials for their kids and what the move meant in terms of using welfare as a means of control. The federal cabinet approved the plan, also ... More About: Family , Education , Australian politics , Howard government , Control
Welfare as a means of social control
2007-07-03 15:47:00 I have deferred writing about the Howard government action on child abuse in indigenous communities as I am still in two minds about it. However, one aspect of the plan involves quarantining a portion of welfare payments received by indigenous families to be spent on essentials for children. While the concept of ensuring that children ... More About: Social , Australian politics , Control , Welfare
Sacrificing the rule of law at the altar of fear
2007-07-02 15:55:00 Our defense is in the spirit which prized liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your own doors. — ABRAHAM LINCOLN They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — BENJAMIN ... More About: United States , Human Rights , World Politics , Fear , The A
Let?s talk about the Liberal party ?thugs?
2007-07-01 11:37:00 The Howard government has been very vocal about so called union "thugs" - using incidences of inappropriate behaviour on part of a couple of union officials to attack Labor's affiliation with the union movement and to run a scare campaign about union "thugs" taking over Australia should Labor win the election. Those suggestions are of ... More About: Party , Liberal , Talk , Unions
Playing pass the responsibility
2007-06-30 14:32:00 A federal system of government (ie. a system of state and commonwealth governments) has many advantages. One of its disadvantages, however, is the ability of a government to pass responsibility or blame for various defaults to another government (eg. commonwealth to state and vice versa). The game of pass the responsibility is more likely to ... More About: Australian politics , Pass , States
Finally - Paris Hilton story put where it belongs
2007-06-29 11:14:00 For the last few weeks, when reading any online newspaper I just felt like shouting - get that stupid girl out of my face! Enough already - do we have to have those vacant-eyed photos and meaningless snippets about Paris Hilton every day? What's so damn interesting about a young idiot who behaved like a ... More About: Media , Funny , Story
Green with envy or just plain stupid
2007-06-28 13:22:00 The Age reports that the Labor party are planning another "assault" on the Green s, with the aid of Dr Evil and Mini Me billboards and a website. The campaign is apparently to be based around the fact that the Greens have occasionally voted with the Liberal party opposition in Victorian parliament. No doubt the billboards ... More About: Plain , Stupid , Australian politics
The Australian Workplace (Dis)agreement
2007-06-27 15:50:00 These days The Australian often reads like it is edited by the Liberal party. Today's editorial regarding Labor's IR policies is no exception. The backhanded compliments to Labor for "fine tuning" its IR policy do little to disguise the fact that the Australian apparently believes that the only way that Labor's IR position is ... More About: Media , Workplace , Unions , Industrial relations
Addicted to power
2007-06-26 15:58:00 The Howard government reportedly had the audacity to "warn" the voters against giving the Greens and minor parties the balance of power in the Senate, stating that the government has used its Senate majority "responsibly" (and so presumably should be entitled to retain it). According to the government "responsible" use of the Senate majority includes pushing ... More About: Power , Democracy , Australian election
It can only happen in America (conclusion)
2007-06-26 13:17:00 A couple of weeks ago I did a brief post regarding a US administrative court judge Roy Pearson who sued his dry cleaners for $64 million because they lost a pair of his pants. Well, not surprisingly, he lost the case. But if anyone thinks that justice prevailed, consider that the migrant family running the dry ... More About: America
Sacrificing Australian citizens
2007-06-24 15:34:00 Yesterday, an Australian citizen, Hew Griffith was sentenced to more than a year in jail by an American court for setting up a software piracy ring. There is no question that Griffith broke the law - he pleaded guilty to distributing pirated software. However, the case is extremely disturbing because Griffith did not engage in piracy ... More About: United States , Howard government , Citizen
We don?t support discrimination, we just practice it
2007-06-24 10:43:00 Last Thursday the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) released the report of the Same-Sex: Same Entitlements Inquiry - a year long audit of federal laws that discriminate against same-sex couples and/or their children and the impact of these laws. The Inquiry found that: 1. The 58 federal laws in Appendix 1 discriminate ... More About: Practice , Support , Discrimination , Howard government
Crystal balls and election year politics
2007-06-23 16:36:00 A yet another embarrassing leak about big business plans to advertise in support of Howard's WorkChoices revealed that the business groups commissioned economic models to speculate on what economic benefits WorkChoices brings to Australia. The models are likely to be used as basis for advertisements to tell the voters about the inflation, unemployment levels and ... More About: Politics , Economics , Crystal , Election , Balls
Encouraging people to become citizens is a dirty trick - just ask Hockey!
2007-06-23 08:40:00 Every time I think that the Howard government has reached the pinnacle of hypocrisy and dirty politics, I'm in for a surprise. Today is no exception. Joe Hockey accused the unions of using dirty "tricks to get workers to vote against the Howard government at the next election". Now that of itself is nothing new, the ... More About: People , Trick , Dirty , Unions
Who is afraid of whom?
2007-06-20 15:31:00 OK, lets face it, no one can be in the least bit surprised to learn that the intended advertising campaign by business organisations to promote WorkChoices is not quite independent of the Howard Government. The $11 million dollar ad blitz will be directed by a Liberal party pollster Mark Textor of a firm called Crosby/Textor, ... More About: Unions , Howard government , Industrial relations , Australian election , Raid
Can it all be a coincidence?
2007-06-19 15:28:00 Can it be a coincidence that we are being treated to all these exciting tapes, videos or photos of a few union members "behaving badly" at the same as Howard is leading a fear campaign against unions? There are was the semi-nude photo, foul language caught on tape and some more foul language caught on ... More About: Unions , Australian election , Coincidence , Cide , Coin
Can you justify torture?
2007-06-18 12:50:00 There is an excellent article by Sally Neighbour in the Australian, titled "Asking the painful questions", which deals with use of torture by the West in the "war on terror". The article mentions the dilemma formulated by the US legal academic Dershowitz. Imagine this scenario: "A massive bomb has been set to go off in downtown New ... More About: Human Rights , World Politics , Torture
Some flattery will get you nowhere?
2007-06-17 08:49:00 I noticed an unusually high number of visitors coming from Tim Blair's blog. Surprised, I thought I'd try and find out what gives. Well, apparently a person by the "name" of CB posted a comment suggesting that I am actually Dr Nina Philadelphoff-Puren from Monash Uni. CB's actual name is Charles Woodscolt - he emailed ... More About: Latte , Nowhere , Where , Flat , Some
Nothing a sound beating won?t fix?
2007-06-16 12:47:00 About a week ago Tony Abbott was doing his best to pretend that his opposition to same sex couples accessing IVF or adopting kids had something to do with concern for children's well-being and development, rather than pure prejudice. Well, now this "champion" of children's rights says that there is a case for reintroduction of corporal ... More About: Education , Sound , Australian politics , Beat , Thing
Search for a scapegoat - starring John Howard (sort of)
2007-06-16 09:38:00 For some weekend amusement of the political kind here's a great video about Howard's search for a scapegoat for the next election. Thanks very much to "killerspud" for his permission to use the video on this site. Enjoy. More About: Funny , Search , John , John Howard , Australian politics
Not committed to preventing genocide
2007-06-16 05:23:00 The Howard government has reportedly rejected the UN request to contribute troops to an international force for Darfur . Since February 2003 the genocidal conflict in Sudan has claimed as many as 450,000 lives (although the figure of 200,000 is often utilised) and created some 2.5 million refugees. One might question the adequacy of the UN and ... More About: United Nations , Human Rights , World Politics , Genocide
A bomb you’ve got to love
2007-06-15 14:48:00 I can't decide whether this is offensive or funny. Apparently, in 1994 the US military considered making a "gay bomb", containing powerful aphrodisiacs, which was supposed to turn enemy soldiers homosexual. This was supposed to somehow make them worse soldiers (they'd prefer to make love rather than war, maybe? But then shouldn't it have been called a hippie bomb?). The concept was abandoned (wonder if that was due to concerns that the chemical would become a popular substitute for the traditional chocolates and champaign). But is a love bomb such a bad idea? Just imagine, instead of carpet bombing each other the warring sides could just get a bit of love and go home happy hand in hand (kiss and make up?) Actually, if this wonder chemical would make people less likely to want to make war or commit violence, perhaps we should all get a "hit". For emergencies only, of course… Thanks for reading More About: Love , Bomb , A-Bomb
A BBQ with Hitler, Stalin and Mao
2007-06-14 15:47:00 In a post yesterday I contended that the government (with the help of right-wing commentators) has manipulated public discourse to stigmatise expressions of opinion adverse to their ideology. The post contained a few examples from the day's newspapers. Well, how about some more evidence from today's papers: First, there's Wilson Tuckey, a Liberal party MP from WA. ... More About: Media , Hitler , Democracy , Unions , Australian politics
How did we let democracy become a ?conspiracy??
2007-06-13 16:04:00 A healthy democratic society thrives on debate and discussion of the merits of different view points. In a healthy democracy a multitude of voices can clamour for attention, each as entitled to be heard as the next, each equally entitled to persuade and lobby. There are several ways to undermine a healthy democracy. One is by ... More About: Democracy , Unions , Australian politics , Conspiracy , Howard government
It can only happen in America (hopefully!)
2007-06-13 13:30:00 The ABC reports that a Washington DC administrative court judge sued his local dry cleaner for $64 million dollars because - wait for it - they lost a pair of his pants. There was nothing special about these pants, but as the ABC report (and TV news item) reveal he expects the family of Korean ... More About: America , Hopefully
Humanitarian grounds useless when humanity is missing
2007-06-12 15:50:00 It should come as no surprise that the Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews has refused a plea from an injured Sri Lankan asylum-seeker (the man has shrapnel embedded in his head and suffers from psychological problems) to apply for on-shore protection from Australia (where he has 20 relatives to support him), rather than be shipped to ... More About: Human Rights , Humanity , Australian politics , Missing , Useless
The Left looks skewed from the Right-field
2007-06-12 11:17:00 Reading an editorial such as the one published today in the Australian, I am starting to wonder whether it is preparing to merge with the Herald Sun. The offending editorial is titled Reality bites the psychotic Left - not the sort of title that foreshadows a well-balanced piece of writing. The piece (which lacks a byline) ... More About: Media , Australian politics , Howard government , Field
The disappeared
2007-06-11 08:20:00 On 7 June 2007, Amnesty International released a report into "off the record" detention in America's "war on terror". The existence of a secret detention system was acknowledged by President Bush in September 2006. However the US government has never disclosed the numbers of people subject to this system. Secret detention allows a person to be ... More About: United States , Human Rights , World Politics , Disappear , The D
Use and abuse of the rights of the child
2007-06-10 09:26:00 Yesterday I wrote about the prejudiced approach of the Howard government to the question of access to assisted reproduction technology, adoption and parental recognition for same-sex couples. I'd like to look at a slightly different aspect of the debate - the use of child rights or best interests of the child rhetoric to justify one's ... More About: Religion , Family , Abuse , Rights , Human Rights
The circle of prejudice
More articles from this author:2007-06-09 10:37:00 On 7 June 2007 the Victorian Law Reform Commission released the final report into Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption. Among other recommendations, the LRC recommended that same-sex couples not be discriminated against in access to assisted reproduction (such as IVF) and adoption and recognition of parenthood. As the law presently stands only women who are ... More About: Family , Human Rights , Howard government , Circle , Dice 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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