Author: Alex Mitchell
-
Gina’s employment coup
Thirteen months ago the Gillard Cabinet approved the introduction of Migration Employment Agreements between the giant mining houses and the Department of Immigration.It followed intense talks between Gillard and the mining groups over the mining tax. Gillard wanted an across the board agreement with Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Xstrata and the Australian mining billionaires and…
-
Arbib’s mysterious exit
Julia Gillard’s easy victory over Kevin Rudd was predictable, the resignation of Mark Arbib wasn’t. The NSW ALP right has an unwritten set of rules and one of them is that members must gain any and every bureaucratic position they can in the labour and trade union movement, no matter now menial.Once they’ve gained those…
-
Press junket to Israel
Greg Sheridan, the pro-American and pro-Zionist appropriately named foreign editor of The Australian, is just back from Israel on a privately sponsored trip.Sheridan writes in the second column of his article: “I have been spending a week in Israel, and visiting some of the Palestinian territories, under the auspices of the Australia Israel United Kingdom…
-
What’s that smell of dead fish?
Welcome to Gambaro’s restaurant and seafood emporium in Brisbane. One of the beneficiaries of the fortune made by the seafood giant is Teresa Gambaro, the federal Liberal MP, Tony Abbott’s spokeswoman on citizenship and a vicious Howardite.She has told The Australian’s Patricia Karvelas (who else) that new immigrants should be taught the Australian custom of…
-
Brazil 1 England 0. No extra time
In case you missed the news, Brazil has deposed Britain as the sixth largest economy in the world, according to the annual world economic league table compiled by the Centre for Economic and Business Research.Britain’s steady economic and industrial decline is one of the most remarkable events of the past century, on a par with…
-
Murdoch’s conga-line spewing over lost ABC contract
IF you needed confirmation that the Gillard Government did the right thing in awarding the Australian Network contract to the ABC, pick up a copy of today’s Australian, the local flagship of the Murdoch empire. (December 7, 2011). The decision to leave the $223 million contract with the ABC and to resist the temptation to…
-
Libya, the new failed state?
The wire story about the “arrest” of Seif al-Islam Gaddafy doesn’t stack up. It looks more like he has been abducted for ransome.Why? Well, he’s been captured by a Berba military unit and taken to the Berba mountain capital, Zintan.They played a leading role in the fighting to overthrow Gaddafy and they want a slice…
-
Netanyahu is a liar – so what’s new?
Don’t be alarmed by the hue and cry over the remark by French President Nicholas Sarkozy to President Barack Obama that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is a liar. That scathing description of “Bibi” Netanyahu is widespread in the corridors of world power. Among the Israeli elite and its commentariat the contempt for the…
-
Papandreou drops referendum – and credibility with Greeks
The international bankers have stiff-armed the Greek Government and forced Prime Minister George Papandreou to drop the planned people’s referendum on the Euro zone bail-out. The decision to put the poverty-inflicting measures to a vote followed a marathon session of ministers and senior members of the ruling PASOK, the Pan Hellenic So…cialist Party, which ended…
-
Athens – Olympics 2004, Bankrupt 2011
The media has been aghast at the temerity of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to call a referendum on the EU bail-out plan.Listening to the aggrieved cries of TV and radio commentators and reading the outraged reaction of newspaper columnists has been a weird experience. They find abhorrent Papandreou’s plan to hold a popular vote…