If dying rock stars was the worst thing about 2016 then things must have been very comfortable back then. 2017 has been a bit of a shocker. It could not have been a worse start really with the hapless Trump maladministration getting underway. Trump and his rapidly disintegrating band of cronies has been […]

The net result, an Australia that has both back wheels bogged in climate denial, coal industry protectionism and religious motivated homophobia.

I was recently invited to speak in a panel discussion about individualism with two excellent co-panellists our illustrious former Mayor Jenny Dowell and Lismore’s new and quite surprising Bishop Gregory Homeming. A very interesting topic in these days of late stage capitalism and one I found myself contemplating deeply before […]

Capitalism has its many flaws and neo-liberalism even more so as it reduces our environment, our communities and our cultures to mere commodities with tradeable values. Probably the greatest generic error of both theories is their abject failure to align themselves with the observable and known laws of basic physics.

Climate change is […]

We are certainly facing challenging times. The growth of fascism in Europe, the US and Australia, fuelled by a concoction of traditional racism and uber nationalism combined with corporate greed is a potent cocktail for accelerating destructive forces.

There are no magic bullet answers. All around me I see people struggling to […]

The election of Trump presents very challenging times ahead for those of us who care about the planet, human rights, equality and peace. He represents the raw face of corporate power over people and the environment, the veneer of civil democracy has been torn away and in its place we are seeing an […]

As the dust settles on an extraordinary federal election; we came very close to a hung parliament as nearly a quarter of voters rejected the two major parties.

Despite the duopolistic commentary flowing from the big old parties, I personally don’t see a hung parliament as a bad outcome. A hung parliament is […]

Corruption is an imprecise concept. At its most obvious it about under-the-table bribes to secure specific outcomes, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of practices that corrupt our political system. Corporate donations to major political parties is one of the most pervasive corrupting influences in Australian politics.

Globally and […]

Australia is one of the few modern democracies that lacks constitutional protection of important civil rights such as freedom of assembly and the right to protest. Our rights can be removed by any government desperate, corrupt or short sighted enough to go down that path.

While the High Court has confirmed a limited […]

It’s time for a Drug Summit in NSW. Only a portion of the very sensible harm minimisation proposals put forward last time by experts were ever implemented. Those that were such as the heroin injecting trial; drug courts and cannabis cautioning policies have been great successes.

Australia was once a world leader in […]

The current impassioned debate about senate voting reform is a good debate to have. Voting systems certainly do affect the outcomes of elections and the complexion of future parliaments, but not always in easily predictable ways.

A lot of the heat in the argument over senate voting reform is being generated by political […]

No-one seriously disagrees with getting actual drug-impaired drivers off the road. The rules for alcohol and other drugs should be the same. Unfortunately the current drug testing regime in NSW is a debacle, it has lost its connection to the aim of road safety and is bringing the law into disrepute. The current […]

During the 19th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill elucidated very coherent arguments about the proper role of the state in relation to personal liberties and personal choice. In essence, the law should only intervene to prevent us harming others. He argued that the state and society generally should avoid interfering in the […]