Immigration minister Peter Dutton has become so despised by 91自拍论坛 of society that some are questioning if he has a soul or heart.
This could also apply to any Coalition or Labor immigration minister over the past couple of decades.
Watch videos of refugees protests over the past decade and it will not be long before you hear chants such as 鈥淟ock up [insert current immigration minister] throw away the keys, we won鈥檛 stop till we free the refugees鈥 or 鈥淏lood on your hands [insert name]鈥.
We condemn the terror attacks in London and Manchester, but we also need to call out the cynical and dangerous response from those in charge who have one solution 鈥 more of the same.
British Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump are using these tragedies to ramp up Islamophobia, expand police powers, weaken civil liberties and strengthen the 鈥渨ar on terror鈥 鈥 the same policies that have failed to stop individuals from carrying out terror attacks.
As we celebrate the courage and the achievements of Eddie Koiki Mabo we all walk in his determined footsteps in our hope for a brighter future. The Mabo family asked me to paint you a picture of how Australia can offer an example to the world, if we achieve what that passionate man dreamed of, if we do it with reason and common sense, and if we show the care and respect that will create here in the 21st Century a Great Society like none the world has ever seen.
Residents鈥 groups from Sydney's west and inner-west came together in a protest outside NSW Minister for WestConnex Stuart Ayres鈥 electorate office in Penrith on June 5. New tolls are about to be introduced on the M4 motorway as part of the giant tollway and tunnel scam that is WestConnex.
Commuters from western Sydney will be charged $2000 a year in the new M4 tolls, according to a letter from Penrith Valley Community Unions NSW (PVCU) that was delivered to Ayres' office.
Like many Victorian TAFEs, Melbourne鈥檚 Polytechnic is in decline. Trade training facilities sit idle and rusting away, mere ghosts of their former selves. Student activity in the once grand technical campuses is at a record low in Melbourne. Enrolments have dropped by tens of thousands 鈥 an overall decline of 40% 鈥 as courses are cancelled, staff made redundant, libraries shut down.
After promising for months that she鈥檇 never call an early election, Tory Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap general election in April 鈥 fully expecting to be returned with a thumping Conservative majority.
The NSW Department of Planning & Environment admitted on June 7 that it had been inundated with more than 23,000 mostly oppositional submissions to corporate giant Santos鈥 plan for a gas field in the Pilliga region in north-western NSW.
The department has now totalled the figures: more than 18,000 鈥渇orm submissions鈥 were sent in 鈥 meaning that many people took advantage of anti-fracking groups鈥 efforts to broaden the anti-gas campaign, by signing a form and adding their personal view to a statement of concern.
Once again the mainstream media is using lurid headlines and racist hyperbole to convince us that Australia is under threat from the spectre of Islamist terrorism.
Right-wing columnists are whipping themselves into a frenzy calling for further curbs on the already minuscule opportunity for refugees to settle in Australia, further criminalisation of ideological views and imprisonment without conviction. 聽
Gay men in the Chechen Republic are being kidnapped and detained in torture camps as part of the government鈥檚 attempt to 鈥減urge鈥 the country of homosexuality.
Chechnya is currently ruled by the wealthy war criminal Ramzan Kadyrov, who has the backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But Russia鈥檚 "gay propaganda laws", which criminalise the dissemination of information about LGBTQI issues, are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Chechnya鈥檚 deeply homophobic culture.聽
The City of Sydney has put forward an alternative proposal for the controversial $17 billion WestConnex tollway project.
Based on the original design for the motorway project, the alternative proposal offers a more direct motorway route to Port Botany and Sydney Airport for traffic from the west of the city.
The City of Sydney claims this alternative model will reduce congestion and remove the need for expensive tolls, while saving the NSW taxpayers billions of dollars.
The day after a public meeting to oppose development on a toxic site in a northern suburb of Melbourne, the developer put it up for sale on a real estate site, without any mention of the contamination. In Victoria, there is no legal requirement for the sellers of contaminated land, to indicate that a site is contaminated.
Local residents packed the Fawkner Senior Citizens Centre on May 11 to hear speakers about the issues around this toxic site.
The Australian national anthem is a fraud when it says: 鈥淔or we are young and free鈥.
As I pass people on the streets of Melbourne, many grab their bags, dogs, kids, anything valuable, as I pass, simply because people 鈥 especially young adolescents 鈥 with a South Sudanese background are perceived as criminals. What if they greeted us with 鈥済鈥檇ay鈥, as they do to every other Australian, instead of being fearful of us?