January 17, 2020
My country is burning.
The Australian bushfires have turned the skies from blue, to a deathly black, to a scorching red. The fires have killed 25 people since September 2019, as well as 500,000,000 mammals, birds and reptiles – the equivalent of burning down the Bronx Zoo 125,000 times.
Yet, despite the 5 million hectares of land burning in the country, the Australian government’s response has been tone-deaf, unsympatheti...
March 30, 2019
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s immediate response to the Christchurch shootings as a far-right terrorist attack have been praised. In vowing to never utter the name of the individual responsible for the killings, calling him an ‘extremist, criminal, terrorist’ in Parliament, in many eyes she has become a model for the world to follow.
Most victims of New Zealand’s worst mass shooting were migrants or refugees, with...
January 11, 2019
Even in these heady days of Brexit and Trump, Australian politics continues to lead the way in its example of absolute political chaos. In the time Angela Merkel has been German Chancellor, Australia has had six Prime Ministers, and so it is not surprising that at the recent G20 summit Merkel had to attend a meeting with the latest leader of the ‘ruling’ Liberal party, Scott Morrison, armed with a factsheet about her latest co...
November 14, 2018
The United States has been the dominant player in the Pacific since the end of World War Two and has a well-established military presence in the region. Knowing this, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been engaging in a systematic effort to draw Pacific nations closer to its sphere of influence by pouring aid into the region.
The PRC clearly hopes to reduce the influence of the United States and its allies. One such ally...
September 30, 2018
In 2008 Kevin Rudd came to power in Australia on a Labour Party platform that promised change for minorities and indigenous peoples in the nation. In his famous ‘apology speech’ Rudd apologised for a century of policies that aimed to make Australia a white Europeanised nation. Mr Rudd apologised for what is known as the white Australia policy that prevented Asian immigration and openly persecuted aboriginal peoples until as re...