Where to put a rubbish dump
Canberra once had a reputation as being a planned city. Not so any more.
Category Archives: politics
Richard Denniss
Essay: Dead Right, How Neoliberalism ate itself and what come next
Recommended reading for all of us as we try to work out what the hell happened with democracy and how our governments have ruined this country.
Threat to democratic processes in planning
Planning in Canberra
the sage continues….
Planning in Canberra
2020 ACT Election forecast
Observing the current government and its attitude towards the electorate, it does make you wonder about the 2016 election results and whether this will be repeated in 2020.
Katherine Murphy
and the ship of dangerous fools
Social Housing vs community spaces
With Canberra having such an informed and aware community, one would have thought that a community-focused government planning minister would have surfaced by now – one being committed to development and the future growth of the city while simultaneously embracing the enhancement of (rather than reducing) the city’s amenities that are admired internationally.
equity and talent in cabinet
Government and religion
In Australia we have a small band of conservatives who work tirelessly to have their brands of religion have a greater influence on government and the country’s laws.
Luckily till now they are more of less not so successful – well most of the time.
In their last round of attempts to achieve more religious freedoms (whatever that meant) – what would have been more applicable would have been to remove religion and the influence of such religious fundamentalists completely from the workings of government.
Meanwhile in a land not far away – things are going from bad to worse.
Click here for the story in the Guardian.
Federal COALition
we are being Turnbulled – over and over again.
politicians lie
Michael Leunig
George Monbiot
Bill shorten on equality
Bill Shorten unleashes on Turnbull
Welcome Bill Shorten, the next Prime Minister of Australia
despots galore
alternative facts
David Marr on equality
being Trumped & being Turnbulled
trump
a Telstra NBN story
Another mess made by Malcolm Turnbull
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154819656957544&set=p.10154819656957544&type=3
Populism
Populism now divides, yet once it united the working class
The words populism and populist have no simple, coherent meaning.
All Liberal – all men
click on the image for the story – and wonder which century these people live in?
post truth & politics & energy
A good article summing up the state of politics, where truth is an option to be discarded.
New Poster: Fakewit
Inequality
What we can learn about fighting inequality from Australia’s convict past
Analysis shows that while land values per acre rose at 2.2% per annum, land rents fell by 0.3% per annum in the 1800s. Powerhouse Museum/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Being Trumped
They marched to demand Congress DO THEIR JOB and remove the President from The White House. click here
Malcolm gets a pay rise
Being Turnbulled again
click on image for the video
moratorium on Tony Abbott
Today Tony Abbott called for a moratorium on wind farms.
Share this if you think it’s time for a moratorium on Tony Abbott.
Fake Trump
Another laugh – well maybe? click on the image for the truth.
NO is NOT enough
New book by Naomi Klein
this is my second post on this book:
here’s a new review of the book on The Guardian – click here
Continue reading NO is NOT enough
Pauline Hanson on excluding the artistics
Setting the record straight!
Yet again the media has misunderstood what Pauline Hanson said!
Rebecca Solnit on Trump
It’s Time (again)
It is definitely time for all forms of peaceful and concerted actions to adjust our democratic structures to deal with the damage being done by forces that have resulted in Trump and his cronies being where they are.
Noam Chomsky
Neoliberalism Is Destroying Our Democracy
the democracy experiment continues – but will it get beyond the influence of neoliberalism
inflammable clading
Nothing wrong here!
oh how we wish we could believe the Minister and the building industry spokespersons – of course here in Canberra we have the laws in place! But – we all know better than that.
Man of the onions
says it all.. the idiot of Australian politics
NO is NOT enough
New book by Naomi Klein
“This is one attempt to uncover how we got to this surreal political moment. It is also an attempt to predict how, under cover of shocks and crises, it could get a lot worse.
And it’s a plan for how, if we keep our heads, we might just be able to flip the script and arrive at a radically better future.” — From the Introduction
Turnbull not so generous
Being Turnbulled
Once Australia was a leader in supporting equality and was generous in its assistance to other countries. Oh how things have changed. Here’s a post from Michael Moore on the greedy nature of the Turnbull government – click here.
Emmanuel Macron
The world leaders are stepping forward! – click here for the story
A tale of two parklands
Very strange things happen in the urban design planning space in Canberra.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton makes a fiery commencement speech at her alma mater – taking aim at Trump and his colleagues. She makes the speech nearly 50 years after graduating from Wellesley College in 1969
Being Negative
The message from ACT Labor friends
There’s definitely something evil being played out locally.
George Monbiot
George Monbiot on how dark money is subverting democracy in the UK.
Click on the banner above
ACT labor and the need for new leadership
Very strange events have been unfolding since the local ACT elections in late 2016.
Monbiot on Terrorism
Nicole Lawder, a Liberal who has your back
We expect a lot of our politicians. People rightly expect their elected representatives to do just that – be representatives of the people who elected them. That’s not always a success story.
Remember they are people
A lot has been written about the ACT Government’s announcement to establish small government housing estates on community-zoned land in Weston Creek suburbs.
Hillary Clinton
Inventing the Wicked Witch: Review of Susan Bordo’s The Destruction of Hillary Clinton
Penguin - Michelle Smith, Deakin University
Hillary Clinton
A message to all the purists liberals
see message below – very appropriate for all those who bought the lies
Hillary Clinton
The Destruction of Hillary Clinton
I have already reviewed this book – click here.
However I cannot stop pondering the challenge this story throws up for anyone interested in equity, fairness, and the role of the media in so many aspects of our daily lives.
If we had a real media, this story would have been totally different. Instead what happened here was the total manipulation of the media and through them members of the public, by all forms of malicious groups of people and individuals.
Architecture
a note to the ACT Chief Minister
About the architecture along Northbourne Avenue
Hillary Clinton
The Destruction of Hillary Clinton
It was on hearing certain phrases used over and over again on Australian TV programs talking about the 2016 US election campaign that I became suspicious that we were witnessing a lazy press.
Almost daily the media was taking the same phrases and words and using them over and over again – with no evidence that they could be accurate except that they were the words and phrases being used by most journalists and commentators at the time.
On the basis we were supposed to accept their words as fact.
Being Turnbulled
Australian Values – The Master of Spin
Australians are again being subject to being Turnbulled. Yet Again.
Neoliberalism has run its course
A few stories on this topic – and the world needs more people to identify this and to lead the change away from this nasty ideology.
SHOUT and Jon Stanhope
Sometimes you wonder just what is going on in the heads of our local government and its bureaucrats who make funding decisions.
Quarterly Essay – David Marr
David Marr – The White Queen
From the publishers: Most Australians despise what Pauline Hanson stands for, yet politics in this country is now orbiting around One Nation. In this timely Quarterly Essay, David Marr looks at Australia’s politics of fear, resentment and race. Who votes One Nation, and why? How much of this is due to inequality? How much to racism? How should the major parties respond to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim voices? What damage do Australia’s new entrepreneurs of hate inflict on the nation?
Weston Creek Community Council
Weston Creek Community Council – in the news
click on the image for the piece in the Canberra Times.
Weston Creek Community Council
Weston Creek Community Council – Media Release
A group of Community Leaders met late last night to discuss the outcome from last week’s Weston Creek Community Council Meeting, which had to be postponed due to an overwhelming attendance.
Inappropriate letterboxes to be replaced
Following the resignation of their highly paid CEO, it seems that our postal services need to recover some of the revenue it has been paying out in the last few years.
Linton Kwesi Johnson
Oh how we wish for more voices to be critical of the current political class and their hangers-on – and I include many journalists as being hangers-on.
Land Development – who should fall on that sword
When a system is broken, how easily it is to point the figure at one person and say “It wasn’t me, it was that person over there.”
Continue reading Land Development – who should fall on that sword
Clive Hamilton on Turnbull
being Turnbulled!
Author Clive Hamilton has been engaged in the climate debate for more than 20 years, with books selling worldwide.
The Medicare barn
Medicare was great. Having a universal health care system was the envy of many other countries.
Randy Newman
Randy Newman on PUTIN
Time for some fun – and a new song from Randy Newman…
Being Turnbulled
Again – workers are being Trumped – and Turnbulled
Click on the image for the piece by Andrew P Street – about how workers are to be further exploited by the decisions endorsed by the Prime Minister – and he loves it.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Very good article about this event – click on the image
Being Turnbulled
That idiot Scott Morrison laughs!
Very good article about how low Australian politicians have travelled – and their lies about the dangers of climate change. Click here.
Being Turnbulled
Turnbull on alternative facts and energy
Two stories that point to the big problem we have here in Australia.
Jonathan Jones
Jonathan asks the question of Barack Obama
How can Barack Obama smile at a time like this? I think he knows something. Click on the image for the story by The Guardian.
Trump and 1984
Trumpland gets even weirder
OMG – is this really 2017 – or 1984. Click on image for the story
Trump and the media
click on the image for the wise words about dealing with Trump
Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey‘s new posters
click on the image for the story behind these ‘we the people’ posters
The Media
Did Media Literacy Backfire?
click on the image for the article
Ashby Hanson
postnationalism
Australia continues to be Turnbulled – and is being led by dud politicians.
trump
irony on the streets of Mumbai
click on the image for the story
Architecture
Architectural vandalism at Parliament House
They have tried before and have failed–but this time they have got their way.
trump
Jane Fonda on Trump
Michelle Obama
Canberra
a light on the hill
A very good piece by Jack Waterford about Canberra. Click on the image
The climate is Turnbulled and now Trumped
Here’s a worrying view on Trump and the efforts to deal with climate change.
Being Turnbulled
How we are being turnbulled on economics – and everything else
Click on the image for a piece about a load of garbage- or what Turnbull is now saying.
Paid work in Australia
First they reduce it, then they lie about it
Click on the image for an article from Independent Australia.
Lies, lies and the NeoCons
There’s so much wrong with the democracy experiment at the moment. But is good that a few journalists are seeing the issues that must be dealt with.
Kingston Arts Precinict
LDA up to its old tricks again
There’s one thing about the way the ACT Government goes about planning for Canberra–it will always use any tricky method to justify how it assists the developers.
Climate, Trump-Abbott-Turnbull
An article about how this country has been there on the climate before Trump with both Abbott and now Turnbull. Click here.
Clive Hamilton on Trump
Trumpism as Whitelash
Clive Hamilton, Charles Sturt University (republished from The Conversation)
( a note from Paul Costigan – Before you read the Clive Hamilton article below from The Conversation– – have a look at the photograph above. It is scary!)
George Monbiot
Neoliberalism: the deep story that lies beneath Donald Trump’s triumph–click on image
Australia’s shame
Dutton’s ‘sham marriage’ furphy
Leslie Knope writes to America about Trump
A last word or two on our 2016 politicians
We were driving along Limestone Ave when the Ainslie church sign came into view. It is regularly changed and sometimes takes a minute or two to comprehend.
Being Turnbulled
The Curious Story of Malcolm Turnbull, the Incredible Shrinking Man in the Top Hat
I wrote briefly about this earlier – and as I said before – it’s a book for anyone puzzled by the current loser who is Prime Minister.
click here for more on the book and here’s an article by the author about his dilemma–click here.”
Lawyers, files and money–and those responsible for this mess
It took about three hours of argument on Friday 28th October for a decision by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) on whether certain government planning documents should be released to those making objections to the Government’s agreement to the revised Development Application (DA) for the Dickson supermarket.
Continue reading Lawyers, files and money–and those responsible for this mess
Being Turnbulled
The Australian Government has carried on bullying good people
All this and more is happening with the blessing of the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull. The country is being Turnbulled again – or is that ‘still’. There are two good articles that address the issue of this officially sanctioned bullying. This is an international disgrace. Here’s the first – click here; and the second – click here.
George Monbiot
George Monboit identifies the Trump amongst us all
Sadly our political system has been corrupted. As much as we wish we lived in a democratic country–sadly it is not so.
Stanhope to ALP MPs: Take a stand on asylum seekers
click on the image for a good report on Jon Stanhope’s message to his Labor colleagues. Note the link in the story to the full speech – it is worth reading.
Being Turnbulled
The Curious Story of Malcolm Turnbull, the Incredible Shrinking Man in the Top Hat
Here’s a book for anyone puzzled by the current loser who is Prime Minister. I am still reading it… click here or on the image. and here’s an article by the author about his dilemma–click here. Review to follow…..
Another idiot senator
James Paterson, Institute of Public Affairs senator
Just when things were getting stupid in most sectors of Australian politics, up pops another idiot. These people vote!
American exceptionalism
America is exceptional! Because god says so. America has the right to deal with matters anywhere in the world as it wishes – because America is exceptional.