How much money is donated to political parties in Australia every year? Take a moment to contemplate a guess. $5 million? $10 million? $50 million? In 2018, Australian (federal) political parties disclosed that they received $319 million in donations from various organisations and members of the public. An average of $184 million per year was […]
Despite all the media influence, donations, business networks and messaging, young residents are the most influential demographic in this election. If any candidate can activate that vote, they will easily win. However, from local government elections, young people are known to have low levels of engagement as local government elections usually aim to address the issues of rate-payers – in this case lots of businesses who all have two votes for every one vote a resident has.
Culture Human Rights Peace Politics Thinking
For the vision of the society I believe Australia aspires to be, it is a fundamental necessity that we strive to maximise our freedoms of expression, freedoms of speech, freedoms of the press, the rights to free assembly and other such rights which are required to ensure that we are always able to maintain the societal conversation, which is required to address issues and problems as they present themselves.
Dear Mr Carey, Alas I was not available when you came to my home recently as I’m always keen to speak with our elected representatives and express some opinions and feedback. I appreciate the gesture and acknowledge it with this feedback on my topics of priority and some general observations. Economics – preparing for the […]
Once upon a time there was a town with only two shops, “Scott’s Supermarket” & “Bill’s Supermarket”. Both shops sold common everyday items, but due to their intense competitive rivalry, they agreed, and insisted, on a very bizarre commercial agreement – every three years all the people in the town must choose one, and ONLY […]
Tonight was like any other Tuesday evening of my life, until that moment a stranger pulled a knife on me as I walked home. I don’t recount this story as a victim statement of any kind as the ironic thing about the situation is, although I was the one at the pointy-end of the knife, […]
Altered states of consciousness and the hallucinogenic molecules which facilitate them, have been part of the human story since time immemorial. In more recent times, the “War on Drugs” stigmatised the personal use of conscious altering substances by making them highly illegal to possess. This in turn derailed legitimate scientific research on hallucinogens which was […]
There are three kinds of lies; white lies, damned lies and statistics. – Mark Twain A recent Guardian article, deriving from an Essential Media poll around Australian’s feelings towards Christmas, is an example of how statistics can be twisted or misrepresented to prove any point one cares to prove. In this case, it’s a phenomenon we can […]
Re: Motion on Establishment of Anti-Corruption Agency, 8-9/12/2015 Dear representative elected on behalf of the people of the Republic of Ireland[1], This week a motion was proposed to the Dáil to set up an independent agency to address corruption in Ireland. The Government proposed amendments to the motion which stripped it of all its substance […]
Our world is in crisis, with violence being the core issue; violence towards each other and our environment, originating from violence towards ourselves. For the violence external to us to be solved, the violence internal needs to be addressed. We commit offences towards ourselves all the time. These minor acts are the framework for the […]