Category: World
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Oz mercenaries in the Boer War
Between 1899 and 1902 some 16,000 Australian volunteers travelled to South Africa to take up arms against the Dutch white settlers. Australia’s irregular militiamen, i.e. mercenaries, served under the Union Jack using arms and ammunition supplied by the British army. Some “bushmen” travelled at their own expense but most were paid with private donations from…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Please, don’t erect a shrine in Martin Place
I walked through Sydney’s Martin Place on Wednesday, June 3, the day after vandals smashed windows of the Lindt Café, the scene of the fatal siege last December. The footpath was crowded with television cameras, photographers, tourists and rubber-neckers. People were taking “selfies” with the café as a backdrop. In their own way, so was…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Stench of cover-up from Lindt inquest
Stage management of the coronial inquest into the Lindt café siege broke down in spectacular fashion this week with the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions scrambling to ban publication of embarrassing evidence. The DPP wants to suppress evidence of why the siege gunman Man Haron Monis was on bail on serious criminal charges when he…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Abbott starts having delusions of grandeur
The age of entitlement is over, according to Tony Abbott, but not for his own family. While he orders Australians to tighten their belts to rein in the ballooning deficit, Abbott is loosening his own, and we are footing the bill. The family’s latest taxpayer-funded scam is to turn the historic Kirribilli House into their…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Abbott’s Budget heralds an early federal election
This week’s Federal Budget was not about Australia’s economic future. And it wasn’t about the future of the country either. Its overriding purpose was to rescue Prime Minister Tony Abbott. It was the “Save Abbott” budget. It sets the stage for a snap federal election between now and the end of the year. He has…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Only a Royal Commission will tell who’s got Bali blood on their hands
A royal commission remains the only way to establish the facts about the complicity of John Howard’s security committee, the Australian Federal Police, ASIO and ASIS in the arrest the Bali Nine drug smugglers and this week’s execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. Senator Nick Xenophon’s well-meaning parliamentary committee inquiry should not become an…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – ANZAC spirit tainted by Abbott and greed
Politicians, the media, the RSL and the military lobby have kicked an own goal. Incredibly, they have managed to tarnish the Anzac legend and turn off a large number of Australians. How did they do it? By crassly politicising the event and grossly commercialising it. The Abbott Government invested some $200 million in the 100th…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Mad Monk remains toxic with electors
Two polls published this week came to conflicting conclusions. One said Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his scabrous federal government were clawing their way back while the other said Abbott remained unpopular and Labor would easily win an election if held now. The first conclusion to draw is that the polls are rubbish. Their modelling…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – Why “star” MPs can be unpredictable disaster
NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley is rarely photographed without Jodi McKay at his side. She is the ex-TV host who has just won the seat of Strathfield after being parachuted into Sydney’s inner-west by Foley himself. Ms McKay is channelling the role which Cheryl Kernot once played for federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley. He would…
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Alex Mitchell’s WEEKLY NOTEBOOK – The generals and governors who plotted against Whitlam
During the politically tumultuous days in Australia in late 1975, some top army officers and businessmen held weekly after-work “drinkies” at the exclusive Queensland Club in George Street, Brisbane. While whiskies, G&Ts, brandies and ports were being served, discussion turned to who should run the nation in the event of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam being…