A great illustration of how much of the media totally overlooks the huge grassroots campaign for Yes is the fact that the Jewish community’s far-reaching campaign has been unsighted in mainstream media coverage of the referendum.

Australia’s Jewish community has had a special relationship with Indigenous Australia for many, many decades highlighted perhaps by the actions of the Yorta Yorta elder, William Cooper – founding secretary of the Australian Aborigines’ League which was set up to lobby governments. read more

There has been much research and speculation about whether the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC, or more popularly the Gulf Stream) may collapse and what the consequences might be.

Now there is new 2023 research which firms up predictions as to when it might happen. The bad news – it might be earlier than previously estimated. read more

Over the past 400 years England has changed a great deal. Reformation, Republican Interregnum, Revolution, slavery, lots of wars, massacres, colonialism and building and losing an empire are just some of the things which jump out from history.

More recently Margaret Thatcher sought to undo the Bevin Welfare State and privatised public bodies which nowadays rip off customers or pollute the environment. Meanwhile Tony Blair gave remaining State institutions bureaucratic managerialist makeovers which increased their costs and diminished their performance. read more

There is nothing that agitates some whitefellas more than an intelligent, articulate and charismatic blackfella.

The emphasis the No Campaign is putting on Thomas Mayo is a classic example. Thomas Mayo attended the Uluru gathering and afterwards travelled the country visiting hundreds of communities to explain the Voice. At each he movingly recited from memory the Uluru Statement of the Heart. read more

The Australian War Memorial Council believes it’s a strength that Council members can campaign against Council decisions – a far sighted and enlightened view in many ways but also one that could allow a minority to undermine the AWM’s mission.

Recently the Defending Country Memorial Project Inc wrote to AWM Chair, Kim Beazley and the Veterans Affairs Minister, Matt Keogh, suggesting that a Council member, Greg Melick should resign – given normal corporate governance principles – for campaigning against the representation of Frontier Wars in the Memorial and claiming that only people who wore the uniform should be commemorated. read more

Why oh why is anyone surprised by English reaction to the Bairstow stumping?

After all it is no secret that the entire history of England has been marked by deep-seated hypocrisy.

That Bairstow had tried the same thing unsuccessfully in the same Test. That coach McCullum had done the same – claiming the wicket in the process – was irrelevant. read more

Even the Murdoch media had to notice the nationwide launch of the real Yes campaign as the huge national grassroots campaign was launched around the country to mark the start of NAIDOC Week.

Our family was at the Cairns launch in the Cairns Esplanade Park which was attended by several hundred people and featured not only speeches but all the festival events – face painting for kids for instance – you would expect as well as free Yes 23 T-shirt and Yes badges giveaways. read more

Ostensibly Voice campaigns are binary – support for yes or no.

But underneath the overall campaign are a multitude of subsets of campaign groups and tactics.

For a start we have the Dad’s Army campaign featuring John Howard, Tony Abbott, Alan Jones and assorted names which, when you hear them, make you realise you didn’t know they were still alive. read more

The latest Lowy Institute Poll reflects a range of complicated and confusing Australian reactions to our place in the world; the threats we face; and what we think we should do about them.

The top line results suggest the constant propaganda from the Murdoch media, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Peter Hartcher of Nine Newspapers is convincing Australians to be afraid of China but there are also significant hints that the combined histrionic hyperbole is causing a few doubts. read more

Americans understanding of global warming reality is increasing. But they still don’t rate it as a major issue when put in the context of other issues.

The Center for Climate Change Communications has just released its latest report – Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes. It finds that US public understanding of global warming has increased. read more