Month: October 2012
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Nervous days in the Euro zone
Europe waits nervously for the latest deadline in the Greek crisis. The coalition government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has only days to meet the EU Troika’s draconian $13.5 billion package of cuts, after three months of talks have failed to bring agreement. The stumbling block within the coalition appears to be a newly-imposed demand…
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Why Packer is holding all the aces in the pack
A former NSW politician telephoned me back in June saying: “Did you see that James Packer is planning to build a casino at the Barangaroo site at Walsh Bay?” “Yes,” I replied, “ but there is no way will he get approval. There is already a casino in Darling Harbour – Star City – and…
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Behind the savaging of Sir Jimmy Savile
The English are passing through one of their periodic fits of morality and the cause célèbre de jour is the late disc jockey Jimmy Savile. Why do Australians have to be dragged into this morass of English public hypocrisy? Here’s some background to consider … Jimmy Savile, a hugely popular radio and TV presenter, was…
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The unfeeling toffs
SO NOW it’s London, Glasgow and Belfast. There were massive demonstrations on Saturday against the Cameron government’s austerity measures – 100,000 people took to the streets in the capital alone. Called by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the day was a significant show of strength. At the rally, though there were signs that the TUC…
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Australia joins US camp at UN
What is the meaning of Australia winning a seat on UN Security Council for the next two years? It means that the United States and Israel now have an extra vote on the Security Council. The declaration by the Gillard Government and Foreign Minister Bob Carr that their first objective will be world peace is…
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Locked and rocked
FOUR thousand people demonstrated in Murwillumbah yesterday (October 13) against coal seam gas extraction – the biggest protest we’ve seen here yet. So many of our friends were there: a real show of strength from the local community. Lock the Gate president Drew Hutton was joined on a panel fronting the media by local canegrowers’…
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Gillard’s speech secures her place in history
By Alex Mitchell Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s speech in the House of Representatives on October 9 was one of the finest pieces of parliamentary oratory you are ever likely to hear. It was bold, stirring, direct and compelling. I urge you to find it on the web and listen to it in full. The last…
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Shameful episode of Four Corners
ABC TV’s flagship current affairs programme, Four Corners, has done serious damage to its professional reputation by screening “The Battle for Syria” under its colours. It was an imported programme so no one on the staff of the ABC bears any ethical responsibility. But the question remains – who bought it in and decided to…
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The problem with austerity
Austerity doesn’t work – it’s official. An American bankers’ think tank, the Institute of International Finance, has just come out with a report which concludes the bleeding obvious: that the all-out pursuit of debt reduction at the expense of economic stimulus has made the Greek situation worse. The Institute’s chairman Charles Dallara, who worked for…
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French protestors in the streets
IT’S begun in France now. After last week’s massive demonstrations in Greece and Spain, on Sunday thousands took to the streets of Paris in opposition to the austerity package introduced on Friday by President François Hollande’s Socialist Party government. Having called for austerity to be imposed on the economically troubled countries of southern Europe, Hollande…