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
Can we have some evidence please?
2007-06-08 16:08:00 Would you trust someone who constantly asserts things without a shred of evidence to back up their assertions and who throws around accusations that cannot be supported? There is a vast gap between assertions and the truth, a gap that can only be bridged by evidence that one's assertion is based on something more than ... More About: Evidence , Unions , Howard government , Australian election , Lease
Interference that Howard doesn?t mind
2007-06-07 15:26:00 Threats of "consequences" by Cardinal Pell did not sway members of the NSW Legislative Assembly, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of repealing the ban on therapeutic cloning. Pell was unapologetic about his conduct, stating that he hoped that the upper house "will be better informed" and vote against repealing the ban. Presumably "better informed" means ... More About: Religion , Mind , Australian politics , Howard government , That
Unseparation of church and state
2007-06-06 15:58:00 A few days ago I criticised Cardinal George Pell over his plans to force educators in Catholic schools (which receive government funding) to take a "vow of fidelity". It seems that compelling educators to surrender their intellect and will to the church is not enough for Pell. He'd like politicians to do the same or ... More About: Religion , Church , State , Australian politics , Church and State
Is political theft a crime?
2007-06-05 16:03:00 No, it's not, but if it was, John Howard would probably be doing life by now. We can all remember how he "borrowed" Pauline Hanson's policies, boosting his popularity by playing of the xenophobic sentiments initially stirred up by One Nation. The positive effect of sending One Nation into obscurity, where it belongs, was more ... More About: Political , Crime , Australian politics , Howard government , Theft
Guest Post - One mother?s story
2007-06-05 15:35:00 The following story was sent to me by Raima Fernald, of Maine, US. Permission to post this is on file. Raima is the chairperson of the Maine affiliate of the Huntington's Disease Society of America. It is a story of her son's struggle against Huntington's Disease and her family's struggle with the US healthcare system. Imagine ... More About: Story , Post , Mother , Guest , Tory
Enough Paris already!
2007-06-05 15:13:00 Please excuse the vent - but how many more Paris Hilton going to jail/Paris Hilton in jail stories do we have to endure? Really, who cares what she wore, who she drove to jail with, what she ate for breakfast, what the size of her cell is, etc, etc, etc. This is a girl who ... More About: Media , Ready
Teach, but leave your intellect and will at the door
2007-06-04 15:50:00 I was going to do a post on Richard Dawkins' "The Root of all Evil", but found myself ambivalent about writing it. While being an atheist (or more accurately an agnostic), I agreed with his argument, his presentation of it did not appeal. For someone living in Australia his vociferousness was hard to sympathise with. ... More About: Religion , Intellect , Leave , Door , Teac
Would I lie to you?
2007-06-04 13:32:00 John Howard has tried a few strategies to boost his popularity ahead of the election. There was the expensive taxpayer funded advertising, the personal attacks and smear campaigns, the backflip on WorkChoices to introduce the so-called fairness test and the usual scare tactics. His latest strategy is the best yet - appeal to the voters to ... More About: Australian politics , Howard government , Would
When its time to change, it?s time to change
2007-06-03 10:13:00 Howard just can't help himself. He just can't hide his utter disrespect for the voters. Scared by the opinion polls he has made some feeble attempts at humility - the annihilation warning, the pretended backflip on his WorkChoices policy. But pretending to listen to the electorate just doesn't sit well with John Howard. So in ... More About: Change , Time , Australian politics , Howard government , Chang
Open discussion or frightened censorship - which is better?
2007-06-02 11:48:00 Having just written about Andrew Bolt's inability to understand the concept of politics of fear, it was interesting to read Tony Coady's excellent article titled "Fear drives a bid for censorship" in The Age. Coady critiques the proposal for banning creation or reading of materials that "advocate" terrorist acts. As Coady points out, what constitutes ... More About: Media , Censorship , Open , World Politics , Australian politics
It?s not so black and white
2007-06-02 08:13:00 Isn't it ironic how people to whom racism means very little are prone to see it everywhere? So Andrew Bolt, commenting in the Herald Sun, accuses Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International, of taking anti-racism so far as to engage in racism herself. In her report Khan listed four leaders who engage in ... More About: Media , Human Rights , World Politics , White , Black
On the lighter side - best political insults
2007-06-01 15:40:00 As our politicians are engaged in increasingly fierce verbal jousting in parliament and out, I thought it may be amusing to have a "political insults" thread. Please add your favourite political insult in the comments and, if there are enough responses, I'll aggregate them into a post. My current favourite is by Benjamin Disraeli which, although ... More About: Political , Side , Poli , Lighter , Insults
If I can?t have your money, no one can!
2007-06-01 15:03:00 The notion of a fair political battle does not seem to appeal to the Liberal party. If their conduct over the past years has not furnished adequate proof of that, the proposal ban unions from making political donations unless authorised by vote of a majority of their members, comes close. The Liberal party does not like ... More About: Money , Unions , Australian politics , Howard government , Political advertising
Wither open government?
2007-05-30 16:17:00 A few days ago I couldn't help but marvel at the hypocrisy of Mark Vaile who stated that holding a high office in Australia carried a "great expectation of total transparency". His statement was of course right in principle, but how sincere is the belief of the Howard government in transparent and open government? The Westminster ... More About: Media , Government , Open , Australian politics , Open Government
Be afraid, be very afraid?
2007-05-28 15:53:00 What do you do if you have become unpopular, your policies are unpopular, you can't convince the voters that taking away their rights is actually good for them and the billions you have spent on advertising yourself can't seem to lift your approval ratings? Resort to the tried and true way of winning elections - ... More About: Australian politics , Howard government , Industrial relations , Raid
What a way to spend 2 billion dollars!
2007-05-28 14:33:00 New figures provided to the Senate estimates committee suggest that Howard government spending on political advertising over its decade in power is reaching $2 billion dollars. It looks like I was too generous in my previous post, which refers to political advertising spending of "only" $1.7 billion. Of this amount, over $550 million has been spent ... More About: Australian politics , Political advertising , Dollars , Bill
Rudd, Rein and witch-hunting Howard government style
2007-05-27 15:30:00 Yesterday I wrote about the political attacks on Kevin Rudd's wife, Therese Rein. One of companies owned by Rein mistakenly underpaid 58 of its employees. When the error was discovered, the underpayment was rectified. The Howard government and its supporters took advantage of the issue in an attempt to undermine Rudd's position on industrial relations. ... More About: Women , Government , Style , Australian politics
$4.1 million per week so no one will know where they stand
2007-05-26 12:07:00 Whatever I do these days I can't avoid the "Know where you stand" ads - they are on TV, they are in newspapers, they are everywhere. For a change there are no happy smiling faces (maybe they couldn't find anyone who was good enough an actor to pretend to be happy with the workplace relations ... More About: Week , Howard government , Political advertising , Industrial relations , Million
$4.1 million per week so no one will know where they stand
2007-05-26 12:07:00 Whatever I do these days I can't avoid the "Know where you stand" ads - they are on TV, they are in newspapers, they are everywhere. For a change there are no happy smiling faces (maybe they couldn't find anyone who was good enough an actor to pretend to be happy with the workplace relations ... More About: Week , Howard government , Political advertising , Industrial relations , Million
No fairness test in election year politics
2007-05-26 08:20:00 It would be a mundane story. A company underpays its employees. It carries out an audit, discovers the underpayment and repays the arrears. Worse things happen every day - workers on AWAs lose some or all of their "protected" award conditions, employers sack sex-attack victims for assisting the police. The government passed legislation specifically to ... More About: Politics , Women , Election , Australian politics , Howard government
No fairness test in election year politics
2007-05-26 08:20:00 It would be a mundane story. A company underpays its employees. It carries out an audit, discovers the underpayment and repays the arrears. Worse things happen every day - workers on AWAs lose some or all of their "protected" award conditions, employers sack sex-attack victims for assisting the police. The government passed legislation specifically to ... More About: Politics , Women , Election , Australian politics , Howard government
Who do we blame for politicians abusing their power?
2007-05-24 15:09:00 There is an interesting article by Kenneth Davidson in today's Age. Its titled Blame the High Court, not the pollies, for partisan ads. Davidson argues that through two decisions, one in 1992 (the famous ACTV implied rights case) and one in 2005 (the WorkChoices advertising case), the High Court opened the floodgates to the abuse ... More About: Power , Politicians , Australian politics , Political advertising
Who do we blame for politicians abusing their power?
2007-05-24 15:09:00 There is an interesting article by Kenneth Davidson in today's Age. Its titled Blame the High Court, not the pollies, for partisan ads. Davidson argues that through two decisions, one in 1992 (the famous ACTV implied rights case) and one in 2005 (the WorkChoices advertising case), the High Court opened the floodgates to the abuse ... More About: Power , Politicians , Australian politics , Political advertising , Politician
Hockey?s comments pretty ugly
2007-05-23 16:12:00 The Libs have shown their backwardness yet again. They just can't seem to be able to get over the fact that Julia Gillard is a woman and a politician in one package. First it was the "socially barren" remarks by Senator Heffernan. Given that Heffernan suffers from chronic "foot in mouth" disease, they may have ... More About: Women , Hockey , Comments , Australian politics , Howard government
Hockey?s comments pretty ugly
2007-05-23 16:12:00 The Libs have shown their backwardness yet again. They just can't seem to be able to get over the fact that Julia Gillard is a woman and a politician in one package. First it was the "socially barren" remarks by Senator Heffernan. Given that Heffernan suffers from chronic "foot in mouth" disease, they may have ... More About: Women , Hockey , Comments , Australian politics , Howard government
When law consents to rape
2007-05-22 16:33:00 The legal system has never been great at dealing with the crime of rape, so a story like that about the horrific ordeal suffered by Miss C at the hands of the legal system comes as no surprise. Rather it is a dreadful reminder of how long there is still to go before the law ... More About: Women , Rape , Cons
When law consents to rape
2007-05-22 16:33:00 The legal system has never been great at dealing with the crime of rape, so a story like that about the horrific ordeal suffered by Miss C at the hands of the legal system comes as no surprise. Rather it is a dreadful reminder of how long there is still to go before the law ... More About: Women , Rape , Cons
Psst, maybe no one will notice we don?t really believe it
2007-05-22 14:44:00 Ah, what wouldn't this government do to improve its electoral chances? They tried convincing us that being stripped of industrial rights was good for us. Now they are trying something new. Earlier today Joe Hockey told the press that the government "got it wrong" when it underestimated what would happen when it created "a system that ... More About: Howard government , Industrial relations , Believe , Notice , Really
Psst, maybe no one will notice we don?t really believe it
2007-05-22 14:44:00 Ah, what wouldn't this government do to improve its electoral chances? They tried convincing us that being stripped of industrial rights was good for us. Now they are trying something new. Earlier today Joe Hockey told the press that the government "got it wrong" when it underestimated what would happen when it created "a system that ... More About: Howard government , Industrial relations , Believe , Notice , Really
Hicks? return does not undo the damage done
More articles from this author:2007-05-21 14:13:00 After five years confinement in the infamous Guantanamo Bay Hicks has returned to Australia. There are pictures of him getting off the privately chartered aircraft (an expense which has attracted some media comment), there are statements from his lawyer that he is "elated" to be back in Australia and there is the usually "profound" headline ... More About: Human Rights , World Politics , Australian politics , Return , Turn 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
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