The government's treatment of refugees reads like something out of George Orwell鈥檚 seminal work, 1984. Fortunately, 1984 is fiction and we can force them to change.
Jonathan Strauss
Politics in Britain is in turmoil. An early election will most likely happen as soon as December, or at the latest within a few months 鈥 the second early election since 2017.
This election will pit the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party against various parties representing the interests of the 1%, including the governing Conservative party (Tories), the Liberal Democrats and the recently-formed, far right, Brexit Party.
Jonathan Strauss joined the September 1 vigil in Cairns for the Biloela family of Priya, Nades and their two children and writes about the growing impact of the refugee rights mvement.
Mainstream talk of Queenslanders embracing the Coalition at the federal elections is louder than ever but the facts are otherwise, writes Jonathan Strauss.
Populism Now! The Case for Progressive Populism
David McKnight
New South, 2018
177 pages, rrp $29.99
David McKnight鈥檚 Populism Now! catches a wave of discussion about the chances for a progressive 鈥減opulism鈥, writes Jonathan Strauss.
Also in the spray, for example, is a June Quarterly Essay piece by the Australia Institute鈥檚 Richard Denniss 鈥淒ead Right: how neoliberalism ate itself and what comes next鈥 and the previously post-whatever Chantal Mouffe鈥檚 musings on 鈥渓eft populism鈥.
Staff and students at James Cook University (JCU) in Townsville and Cairns have refused to accept course and job cuts proposed by the university鈥檚 management.
The highlight of the campaign was a 120-strong student-led rally on April 30 at the Cairns campus, the largest student protest action in more than a decade at JCU. Students also joined the community protests called by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch on April 27.
Staff at James Cook University in northern Queensland 鈥 at least half of whom are employed casually, and often infrequently 鈥 have rejected a management proposal for an enterprise agreement at the university. Of the 54% of staff who voted, 58% voted against the proposal in the non-union ballot held over September 13鈥15.
National Tertiary Education Union members mobilised in the brief one-week consultation and balloting period to secure a vote nearly three times their own numbers.
Far North Queensland Stop Adani groups mobilised when the Queensland government announced its latest "governing from the regions" exercise would be in Cairns over July 10鈥14.
They wanted their message that the massive Carmichael coalmine must be stopped to become the main issue and not the government鈥檚 pork-barrelling.
Stop Adani groups are rapidly springing up in cities and towns across northern Queensland, intent on helping the movement against the company鈥檚 Carmichael coalmine.
Campaign roadshows have been springboards, including in Townsville and Port Douglas, with others proposed for Gordonvale and the Atherton Tablelands.
The Labor and Liberal National parties hope to slip in four-year fixed parliamentary terms in Queensland through a referendum being held at the same time as state-wide polls for local councils. A four-year term proposal was defeated in 1991.
James Cook University (JCU) management is proposing to make nearly 40 academic staff redundant in Cairns and Townsville as it starts a third year of job cuts at one of the largest employers in northern Queensland.
Under the proposals, JCU's Division of Tropical Environments and Societies would lose 10% of its teaching and research staff and Tropical Health and Medicine would lose eight workers.
Management's rush to reduce staff numbers, which could see academics sacked in the middle of teaching the semester, shows that this is an inept 鈥渂alance the budget鈥 exercise.
Do we need to debate whether Australia should become a republic?
After all, it is not just parties that say Australian society should be transformed (Socialist Alliance) or reformed (the Greens) that want a republic. The national leaders of the major capitalist political parties and all the state premiers agree on ending the situation where a British monarch is Australia's head of state.
I suspect this is in line with what most Australians think: who gave birth to you should not make you the head of state, even nominally. So why is there an argument about this?
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