Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Acknowledging such realities does not fit with the [Howard] government’s consistent practice of demonising asylum seekers, which now extends to children. If the parents of the Afghan boys have heard of the UN Convention on the rights of the child, they certainly could invoke it in an attempt to be reunited with their children. (Mike Steketee)

NSW Premier Iemma has seized upon a limited and deficient Auditor-General's report as grounds to proceed with electricity privatisation, planning to rush through the legislation in a special sitting this week. The sale has been consistently opposed by the NSW public and unions...

Water is a critical lubricant of the global economy. And as with oil, supplies of water—at least, the clean, easily accessible sort—are coming under enormous strain because of the growing global population and an emerging middle-class in Asia that hankers for the water-intensive life enjoyed by people in the West. (Andrew Liveris)