Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Burwood (NSW) is a multicultural suburb. Ethnic Chinese are the most populous minority in this area. They have been integrated with the host society and feel an increasing consciousness of taking part in politics. Chinese citizens are no longer marginal and spectators of elections. Chinese people’s sense of political participation in Australia is rising. It is manifested in [various] ways...

Hodges [a candidate in the recent council election for Sutherland Shire (NSW)] has every right to campaign and seek media attention to boost his voting numbers; however, when did racial campaigning become such a news story and part of the normal election process?

In this month’s edition, the history of WEL, a new head for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the 2007 federal election enquiry, constitutional reform and indigenous rights, the Senate and accountability, and much, much more…

Analysis of the reporting of electricity privatisation initiatives in New South Wales brings disturbing confirmation that the major Australian newsmedia does not accurately report essential facts on issues of vital concern to us. Indeed, it often acts as a conduit for propaganda against our best interest.

Following political turmoil in NSW political circles, Webdiarist Claude has announced his tilt at the job of NSW Premier.

The Stanhope government seems to think that their tenure and so called experience are the factors that will work in their favor during this campaign. But our shared experience of a lifetime of community values tells us otherwise for their tenure has been an abject disaster.

Just in: NSW Premier Morris Iemma has resigned shortly after sacking his Treasurer, Michael Costa. Minister for Water, Nathan Rees, is expected to be the new Premier.

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...

Resources and skills that could be used to fight climate change, develop new health-care technologies, or create environmentally responsible industries, will be channelled into a trade in death and horror that will make some very rich, and many very dead. We need to stop this nightmare vision before it begins.

I hope the dimwits in the National Party and the Liberal Party up there sent their sitting Senators off for health checks before they voted to amalgamate because, by convention, the Governor of Queensland is obliged to follow the advice of his Ministers.

So, by all means go out and be annoying but don’t be inconvenient or obstructive or threaten anyone. The decision is, in my opinion, apellable but we’ll probably never get to that because of the time constraints. Nevertheless, would you put it past this NSW Government to pass a new Regulation tonight?

Somehow, the Rat Singer just knew it was going to be hell or some rhyming equivalent: mell, smell, something like that. Yet he had decided that there should be a kiddies’ day for all the little kiddies so that they could get in touch with their inner priest...

Wholesale constitutional reform in Australia is long overdue. The starting point should be true independence. It is past time for an Australian Republic. ... Surely we are sufficiently grown up to be masters of our own affairs. (Joel Fitzgibbon)

“An authorised person may direct a person within a World Youth Day declared area to cease engaging in conduct that … causes annoyance or inconvenience [my emphasis] to participants in a World Youth Day event...”

Iemma is trying not to sound worried, declaring: "It is still a party at war with itself as you've seen from this week, and they've done nothing to stop the war." He might well be right. With Howard gone, the Libs no longer have a strong leader to keep Campbell and Photios from stabbing each other in the back.

Rich-poor, Left-Right, black-white. You can profile a politician by ideology, colour, class, caste, religion, party or geography. But I’ve long preferred another form of profiling, one that transcends all of the above. It derives from a simple but dazzling insight of the British contrarian Tony Benn. (Phillip Adams)

This month's update from Democratic Audit Australia has some interesting material on political donations, electoral changes, and the lobbyists' register.

The ostensible argument for power privatisation is that NSW needs the money for schools, hospitals and other expenditure. The reality is that sale of capital is touted as the way to finance ongoing expenditure, analogous to the classic case of the farmer who sells off a bit of the farm each year to keep the family clothed and food on the table.

The case against members of ABC TV's The Chaser's War on Everything has been dropped. Here's why.

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at Swinburne on how our democracy is working.

The States, individually, retain all the power. So whatever agreement was made at COAG is still only nibbling at the edges. What is needed is national management of, not only water resource  but also infrastructure, health, and education. I propose that the states be abolished, and we have a national government only and an elected Head of State.

I joined the Liberal Party in 1978, and was a member until the mid 1980s. Then, for many reasons, I didn’t renew. Indeed, I switched my vote back to the ALP, and kept voting for them in the House, while voting Democrat in the Senate, until 1996, when I voted for John Howard.

Not longago an appealing aspect to life in Narrung was that the water coming from yourtap was piped directly from the lake. Well, it was appealing before the water receded.  On returning there at Easter I’was greeted byan initial spurt of green-grey ooze from the plumbing, a clear sign of what hadbeen going on.  A bottle of the stuff waspresented to Victorian Premier Brumby as he entered the COAG  conference in Adelaide on Wednesday.  He wouldn’t take it.

Until recently the peak oil debate in Australia has been largely confined to internet forums such as Webdiary. That situation has changed dramatically in recent weeks with the release of the Queensland Government’s long-awaited Oil Vulnerability Taskforce Report. World oil production is peaking – it’s official, at least here in Queensland.

The APEC thuggery results from a Labor and Liberal conspiracy to destroy our civil liberties and give police untrammelled power to serve political ends. I've been warning of this on Webdiary for many years. We saw with Haneef that now, police and/or government lawyers are prepared to lie under oath to the Courts to get their way. And the NSW Labor Government's disgrace started long before Iemma.Have a look at the start of the rot, under Bob Carr, in 2002, when Howard was revving up his 'terror' laws.

Later I saw another old lady asking police if she could go to David Jones.  They told her it would be always there and it would be best if she went home. Kindly old ladies being discouraged from David Jones?  That's not the Australia I grew up in!  I saw the reassuring sign that "it costs no more to shop at David Jones" but security guards blocked me from leaving via the Elizabeth Street doors.  How bizarre.

Then it got really ugly. The police moved into the centre of the intersection and formed an outward moving circle, forcing the protesters to the curb.  I ended up trapped amidst protesters and media, shepherded into a corner with armed and mostly unidentifiable police (many police on the day had no ID badges, and I have footage).  Nowhere to move to, and cops in riot gear moving in behind them, and the chopper overhead, I was beginning to get scared.

The latest update from the Democratic Audit program at ANU on how our democracy is working, including 'Be honest, Minister!' Restoring faith in government in Australia

Hello, and welcome to Spring! I'm finishing off my project this weekend before getting back to Webdiary, but just couldn't resist posting this transcript - an interview between Charles Wooley and the PM on the pulp mill. How tricky is this for our tricky PM?

Susan Kiefel's appointment as a High Court judge is great for Australia, and one decision of Ruddock I not only applaud, but do so with gusto. Maybe after all his terrible deeds over the last decade he wants to leave something special in place as his career nears its end. I'm reminded of Paul Keating's appointment of Michael Kirby to the High Court just before he lost office. I met Justice Kiefel in the early 1980's in Brisbane, when she was a junior barrister and I was an articled clerk briefing her on a case. She told me then that Tony Fitzgerald had personally mentored her when she worked as a secretary in his chambers, convincing her that she talented enough to finish year 12 and take the bar exam.