The AFA expects that tomorrow (Thursday 13th August) the Labor Palaszczuk Government to rush forward the 2019 debate about their proposed ban of so-called ‘conversion therapies’. Section 28 is the problem and we have been activating voters to lobby the LNP opposition to oppose since late last year. ACTION: email or call your state…
Australia and the United States have pledged to strengthen their joint military presence in northern Australia, including establishing an emergency fuel reserve, and to continue naval exercises in the South China Sea to counter an increasingly bellicose China in the region. However, at the recent Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) discussions between Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds and their U.S. counterparts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Mike Esper, Australia also made clear Australia’s prerogative to make its own decisions. The meeting was held against the backdrop of the covid19 pandemic, which is rife in…
by David James The Woody Allen film, Irrational Man, a derivative and not especially amusing or insightful attempt to co-opt the themes of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, has a distinctive sound track. It is a blues called The In Crowd, played by the Ramsey Lewis trio. (Lewis pictured above) Lewis’ piano lines in the piece are entirely predictable; they could easily be reproduced, note for note, by many of the software programs on the market. All you would have to do is hit the “blues” button, set the key and tempo, and the computer would spit out exactly the same…
by Patrick J. Byrne Tensions with China and the covid19 crisis have caused Australians to ask, what have free trade agreements delivered for them? Have they left the nation strategically vulnerable? Can they be renegotiated? Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a false optimism that the age of hostile ideologies was over and that free trade policies would cause authoritarian states like China to evolve into capitalist democracies. On the back of this thinking, Australia’s free trade purists pressed for the unilateral cutting of tariffs and for free trade agreements (FTAs), arguing that consumer welfare would be…
