state capture on ‘rules to reality’ podcast
In mid February I spoke to Simon Katterl on the underrated ‘Rules to Reality’ podcast.
21 February 2022
field notes
the census should be delayed
My office uses census data practically every day, and until recently, most Australians trusted the process. That’s why #censusfail is so distressing.
4 August 2016
1 December 2015
nuclear is dying. that’s a good thing.
Peak nuclear has passed. There’s no science to support an Australian nuclear industry.
6 November 2015
g20 data breach: putin on an act
The Australian government can’t safeguard Putin’s data. That means yours isn’t safe, either.
3 March 2015
thanks to you, the real opposition
END OF YEAR SENATE SPEECH TO GET A FEW THINGS OFF MY CHEST. I rise tonight to thank and acknowledge all of those people around the country who are providing the real opposition to the Abbott Government. If it’s your view that democracy is just about putting a piece of paper in a box once every few years and hoping for the best, then you’re really leaving that concept of opposition to the politicians who file in here for 19 weeks of the year.
2 December 2014
Dear Jo
ON OCTOBER 19 I WAS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN ‘MEN OF LETTERS‘ in Sydney – an occasional departure for the wonderful women of letters team. Ten of us were invited to write a letter to a woman who changed our lives. This was mine.
18 October 2014
A digital call to arms: #StopDataRetention
FIRST PUBLISHED AT JUNKEE.COM I’d have never made it as a journalist. The tyranny of a blinking cursor on a blank white page. Rendering legibility out of complex, high-dimensional events while deadlines drum their fingers on the desk impatiently. Day, after day, after day. Then there’s that whole fourth estate thing; peering under the paving slabs of power and documenting the creepy-crawlies as they scuttle away from the light. Of all the paving slabs you’d want to look under, the blank, formless expanse of the one labelled ‘national security’ is the one you’d probably want to be the most careful with. Some of those creepy-crawlies have a venomous bite, and they don’t take kindly to this kind of paving-slab-disturbing behaviour. Al Jazeera journalist Peter Greste and his colleagues just
2 October 2014
our new war in iraq
piece on our latest deployment into iraq; first published on ‘the strategist‘ Cracks are already starting to show in the Government’s strange haste to commit Australian troops and aircraft to war in Iraq, and the equally confused messaging about how we are meant to respond to raising the domestic terror threat level. Because of the institutionalised horror calling itself the ‘Islamic State’ that has taken root in Iraq and Syria, and because of Australia’s evident complicity in destabilising the region following the invasion in 2003, it’s not enough to stand back and leave it to the locals to fix the violent mess we helped create. We do have an obligation to help restore stability in Iraq; the question is what constitutes the most effective and appropriate kind of help.
19 September 2014
parliament must have the power to decide on war
The prospect of another military deployment in the Middle East is real. After the strategic failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, the executive cannot be trusted to make that decision alone.
17 July 2014