Five questions about democratic power

MANY people complained that Malcolm Turnbull was running scared by cancelling next week’s sitting of the Parliament. But that was a political reaction. The more important constitutional question, and its implications for democracy, went unanswered: how is it that a Prime Minister without a majority in the House of Representatives can prevent that House from sitting? Continue reading “Five questions about democratic power”

Upheaval likely when oppressed pushed too far


THE release of the Paradise Papers in the week of the centenary of the Russian Revolution and in a week when the peaceful leaders Catalonian independence were branded criminals should warn us that history did not end with the coming down of the Berlin Wall in the 1989. The clash between the forces of capitalism-individualism-rentiers vs the forces of communism-socialism-collectivism-labour is alive and just as destructive as it has ever been.


THE release of the Paradise Papers in the week of the centenary of the Russian Revolution and in a week when the peaceful leaders Catalonian independence were branded criminals should warn us that history did not end with the coming down of the Berlin Wall in the 1989. The clash between the forces of capitalism-individualism-rentiers vs the forces of communism-socialism-collectivism-labour is alive and just as destructive as it has ever been. Continue reading “Upheaval likely when oppressed pushed too far”

Medibank attack’s collateral damage on private health

THE Howard-Abbott-Turnbull attempts to bury Medicare while publicly praising it and its attempt to boost the bottom line of the private health providers are now proving to be corrosive not only of the public health system, but of the private system as well. Continue reading “Medibank attack’s collateral damage on private health”