Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to dissolve both houses of the Australian parliament and thus precipitate a full Senate election is coming back to haunt his government, writes Dr Nick Economou. In addition to all his other self-inflicted wounds, the sense of crisis enveloping the composition of the Senate followingRead More →
Melbourne, November 2: Amongst the surprise losses in the final results for the state’s councils votes, tallied, Monday included Indian origin councillors, the then, Wyndham Cr Gautam Gupta and Glen Eira Cr Oscar Lobo. Gupta was recontesting for Wyndham council from Chaffey ward and was noted to have worked heavilyRead More →
Get control of your borders or face instability: Malcolm Turnbull to UN, while Rudd attacks Turnbull Melbourne, November 2: Former PM, Kevin Rudd in a blistering attack over Malcolm Turnbull’s proposed boat-arrived asylum seeker policies, said that “Turnbull’s latest legislative folly should be opposed”. In his opinion piece published in Fairfax,Read More →
Canberra, Oct 30: Asylum seekers who use people smugglers to illegally come to Australia by boat will be given a lifetime ban from entering the country, under a government plan set to be put to Parliament next week. Even if they are found to be legitimate refugees, those who employRead More →
Melbourne, October 13: Victoria Police is investigating Melton council candidate, Dilpreet Singh who posted photos online of his toddler son, holding firearms and ammunition. The Watts ward candidate Singh also has been a JP (justice of the peace) since 2010. He had posted the photos on his personal Facebook page aboutRead More →
Melbourne, October 12: Anxiety within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community will be a record high today, set to continue for some more time as arguments and debate rage through for three more years. Labor MPs yesterday voted unanimously to oppose the plebiscite, effectively blocking the opportunityRead More →
With changes made to local government by Jeff Kennett, the local government framework has moved from being representational democracy – of annual elections, many councillors representing smaller wards and dominating the running of the municipality or shire. Based on increasing notion that local government elections are an irritation to theRead More →
Melbourne, September 29: A record number of Indian-origin candidates will contest local council elections next month in Victoria, home to Australia’s largest Indian population. According to official figures, Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) received total nominations from 2,135 candidates for 637 councillor posts across 78 councils in the state. This includesRead More →
Melbourne, September 11: John Howard addressing National Press Club in Canberra was more than mundane politics. Australia’s second-longest-serving prime minister at his appearance to celebrate his forthcoming ABC documentary on Robert Menzies, was thrown a question of ‘under-representation of women in the Liberal parliamentary ranks’ – a long held beliefRead More →
Free speech debate should be a question on policies rather than fib-filled spin doctoring and demagoguery of 18C writes Dinesh Malhotra Melbourne, September 5: “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist,” said Salman Rushdie. And the protagonists of ‘Kill 18C’ in Australia seem toRead More →