This week’s Martin Place siege will be remembered as the greatest intelligence failure in Australian history. It cost the lives of two innocent people in a tragedy which was avoidable if NSW police, the Australian Federal Police, the ASIO security service and the criminal justice system had been doing their jobs. The report ordered by…
Maria Vamvakinou, Labor MP for Calwell in Victoria, has tabled a private member’s Bill in Federal Parliament calling for the diplomatic recognition of Palestine, a step already taken by the House of Commons in Britain and the parliaments of Spain and Sweden. Ms Vamvakinou, a co-convener of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, told MPs:…
Step forward Professor Stephen Parker, vice chancellor of Canberra University, and take a bow while the nation-at-large applauds. This week Parker emerged from the suffocating conclave of vice chancellors where political conformity and conservatism rule, and robustly rubbished the Abbott Government’s plan to privatise higher education and turn it into a wealth-driven free-for-all. The timing…
