Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison pulled out a lump of coal in parliament on February 9 and launched a rant in which he accused the opposition of 鈥渃oal-o-phobia鈥 and regurgitated PM Malcolm Turnbull's outrageous National Press Club speech urging more coal-fired power stations be built.
Morrison went wild while behind him other Liberals and Nationals joined in a pantomime by passing the lump of coal to each other.
In the first ever visit by a serving Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in Australia this month as part of an international tour aimed at shoring up Israel鈥檚 reputation abroad.
The visit has actually attracted attention 鈥 but not the kind Netanyahu would like.
Somewhere along the way, many vulnerable children in state care turn to crime. How this happens and what can be done about it are two of the most important crime-prevention questions facing society.
Evidence indicates that, if the is not acknowledged and addressed, today鈥檚 vulnerable kids will become tomorrow鈥檚 criminals.
"McDonald's workers clearly aren't lovin' Trump's immigration policies,"聽聽"On Thursday, McDonald's restaurants across the United States, along with a聽, closed their doors as part of a nationwide '
鈥淭rump鈥檚 America,鈥 wrote a leading African American journalist, Charles Blow in the New York Times, January 30, 鈥渋s not America: not today鈥檚 or tomorrow鈥檚, but yesterday鈥檚.
鈥淭rump鈥檚 America is brutal, perverse, regressive, insular and afraid. There is no hope in it; there is no light in it. It is a vast expanse of darkness and desolation.鈥
There is a lot of disgust toward Trump and his white nationalist strategist Steve Bannon, former executive chairman of Breitbart News, a leading promoter of conspiracy theories and white supremacists.
I teach at Victoria University, in the heart of Footscray. Footscray is an extremely vibrant and bustling suburb with an incredible population diversity, which is also reflected in VU鈥檚 student and staff population. This diversity is a real asset to our university and I feel privileged to be able to teach in such a unique environment.
Thwe two statements below were聽released by the socialist Awami Workers Party (AWP) in response to the February 16 terrorist attack on the Lal Shehbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, Sindh and the February 13 terrorist attack in Lahore. They are reposted from聽.
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The federal government announced changes to Centrelink鈥檚 controversial automated debt recovery system on February 14.
The changes include no longer demanding immediate payment from people who dispute a debt; allowing people to use bank statements, instead of hard-to-obtain payslips, to prove their income; making it easier to contact Centrelink; and allowing people to by-pass the MyGov portal to review their debt.
But unions, community groups, Labor, the Greens and GetUp! have all warned the changes do not address fundamental flaws with the system.
First Nations activist Lex Wotton has announced he will contest the state seat of Townsville as an independent in the yet-to-be-announced Queensland election.
Wotton was jailed for two years for his role in the Palm Island riots of 2004.
More recently the Federal Court found that police breached the Racial Discrimination Act after the death of Cameron Doomadgee, but the Queensland Government has appealed the ruling.
It was this appeal that spurred him into action.
The Save Our Councils Coalition (SOCC) has announced a "Put the Liberals Last" campaign in the coming state byelections in NSW, with SOCC spokesperson Phil Jenkyn saying: "They [the Liberals] will be massacred in the North Shore byelection."
The group was responding on February 14 to the decision by Premier Gladys Berejiklian to push ahead with the forced amalgamations of 20 urban councils and continue to pursue the mergers of the five Sydney councils that are currently taking legal action against the plan.
The July 15 coup attempt was a nightmare. Kurds remember the terrible army coups in Turkey鈥檚 past. After the coups, Kurdish people were jailed, killed and tortured.
Kurds are against military coups. By nightfall on July 15, the pro-Kurdish Peoples鈥 Democratic Party (HDP) had immediately condemned the coup attempt.
Kurds thought that after the coup attempt, there may be a return to the peace process.
The reasons behind this were:
In Melton, an outer-western suburb of Melbourne, Shane Gillard, a man with links to the far-right group Soldiers of Odin, used Facebook to blame 鈥淪udanese thugs鈥 for a carjacking on February 9.
However, as surfaced, the truth emerged: no Sudanese immigrants were involved, but two men had a violent altercation in a carpark before the offender, 鈥渙f Caucasian appearance鈥, stole the other's car.