Peter Tait

Oslo Davis cartoon, February 28, 2026

Oslo Davis cartoon, February 28, 2026 www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/cart... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

"The Government can dance around it all they like, but this raises huge questions for Australia," writes @emmashortis.bsky.social, Director of The Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs Program.

Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/3N7opp1

Inquiry into racism, hate and violence toward First Nations people comes late, lacks power – and must deliver

Inquiry into racism, hate and violence toward First Nations people comes late, lacks power – and must deliver www.croakey.org/inquiry-into... #publichealth

Health leaders urge de-escalation of conflict in Middle East, condemn attacks on healthcare and children Melissa Sweet writes: The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified 13 attacks on healthcare in Iran and one in Lebanon,

Health leaders urge de-escalation of conflict in Middle East, condemn attacks on healthcare and children www.croakey.org/health-leade...

Only a few days to go till Community Assembly
Most agreed Proposal:
- Tax the fossil fuel industry

Most disagreed Proposal:
- AUKUS is a good investment of our money

Register and come to decide what we want our MPs to do for us this year

Full Poll report and registration link here: bit.ly/3XZgr32

Australia’s shameless support for the US attack on Iran makes us gullible, duplicitous, or both | Allan Behm For Anthony Albanese – as well as Mark Carney and Keir Starmer – to go along with Trump and Netanyahu’s cynical ploy negates any sense of moral authority we possess – a catastrophe for the rules-based...

Allan Behm takes a blowtorch to govt BS

"For a country that is constantly trumpeting the essentiality of the international rules-based order in preserving global peace and stability, Australia is shameless in its ability to slide into the American slipstream."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Australia’s shameless support for the US attack on Iran makes us gullible, duplicitous, or both For Anthony Albanese – as well as Mark Carney and Keir Starmer – to go along with Trump and Netanyahu’s cynical ploy negates any sense of moral authority we possess – a catastrophe for the rules-based order.

If Australia champions a rules-based order, it cannot selectively abandon it. By backing US strikes on Iran, Canberra risks trading moral authority for reflex alignment, Allan Behm writes.
#auspol #InternationalLaw #Iran #RulesBasedOrder #ForeignPolicy

Extraordinary from the Liberal Party's 2025 election review: not all shadow ministers are "equipped" to develop policy.

Their main job is to "cultivate relationships" with interest groups, who are "keen to assist in policy development".

Private donors are keen to assist too.

Small win for good government.

#TheZap: latest health and aged care news, plus important consultations now open – @croakeynews.bsky.social

www.croakey.org/the-zap-late...

#SDOH

An independent or green MP should just read this in Parliament and then ask Albanese, Wong or Marles why Australia has not declared that it will not support this war initiated by the US and Israel in any form

On the 'hard skill' of winning freedom thru collaboration.
"The only true freedom is in collaborative action, where we voluntarily participate, seeking our path through and with the group."
Thrival is a community not individualist effort.
#democracy #goodgovernance #birthingthenew

The What Canberrans said they want MP action on in 2026
Poll Report now available on our Activities Page.
Please:
-> Have a read (summary and long versions)
-> Register for the Community Assembly on March 8th (link also on Activity Page)
-> Share this widely

canberra-alliance.org.au/activity/

Albanese wants us to turn the temperature down. He should start by showing kindness not contempt for those in Syria | Julianne Schultz Those who know the Australian prime minister well say that he is an empathetic person, but all too often his public language masks this

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Arendt 1, Leeser 0.
I've supervised group student assignments. Meeting 1 always included the 'how will we work together fairly' conversation.
Maybe universities should be teaching this!
Collaboration across all aspects.

How John Howard reshaped Australia – and not for the better Many of Australia’s most pressing social and economic problems can be traced to policy choices made during the Howard years, from housing and inequality to wages, tax and public services.

Housing stress, inequality, insecure work and budget strain didn’t appear by accident. They were built into Australia by deliberate policy choices during the Howard years, Crispin Hull writes.
#auspol #HowardLegacy #inequality #housing #tax

On mushrooms, death, transformation... and Epstein Wonderings on the echoing implications of our relationship with death When I die, compost me. Put me under a tree - a snow gum, if possible - and let it feed. Let the mushrooms and their mycelia un...

Here are some wandering wonderings on the echoing implications of our relationship with death

There’s a trigger warning on this one

in-between-days.ghost.io/on-mushrooms...

“The rise of One Nation may excite the right, but it has also turned left-wing voters into kingmakers,” writes Bill Browne, Director of The Australia Institute’s Democracy & Accountability Program.

Read the full piece on The Point: https://theaus.in/4rGnQl2

Regenvanu urges support after US climate rejection - ABC Pacific Vanuatu's Climate Envoy Ralph Regenvanu is urging countries to stay engaged, after the United States pushed for Vanuatu

Vanuatu’s Climate Minister, Ralph Regenvanu, is urging countries (looking at you, Australia) to resist US pressure and stand with Vanuatu for climate justice. Vanuatu wants the UN to back the ICJ’s finding that countries are legally responsible for climate damage. Australia — whose side are you on?

Image of a walkable, local coffee shop in a walkable neighbourhood, with the caption “Walkable Neighbourhoods aren’t scary, they’re convenient.” With the logo Urban Truth Collective” at the bottom. @urbantruth.bsky.social

Walkable neighbourhoods aren’t scary, they’re convenient.

#UrbanTruth

URGENT
Only ONE WEEK remains for people to vote on the proposals in CAPaD’s community Poll before we analyse the results.
To vote in the poll and register for the Community Assembly (Woden Valley Uniting church) on March 8th visit our website at canberra-alliance.org.au/activity/.

Hurry last week.
Sounds like a marketing promotion?
Well it is.
We need to wind this up end Feb so we can analyse the results to get the indigo out to people.

Single frame. Morning tv show set with male and female hosts on curved couch facing PM Albanese. Albanese says: “My mother would have said, ‘if you make your bed, you lie in it…’” Female host says: “What if the bed involves leaving kids in camps overseas to be stigmatised, traumatised and radicalised instead of repatriating and rehabilitating them?”

Make your bed.
My @smh @theage cartoon.

A new survey from the Australia Institute has found a majority of voters for all political parties – save one – are in favour of taxing gas exports more heavily.

Read more: https://theaus.in/4aCaIpK

A government without an effective opposition is a danger to democracy The Coalition’s internal decay has left Australia without an effective opposition at a time when scrutiny, debate and accountability are more necessary than ever. The result is not just a party in trouble, but a democratic failure.

Australia does not just have a weak opposition – it has a dangerous absence of scrutiny. Without effective challenge, secrecy grows, accountability fades and executive power goes unchecked, Jack Waterford writes.
#auspol #Democracy #Accountability #Parliament

When both sides chant 'lower tax', the country pays in division As the Coalition reasserts “lower tax” as political identity and Labor rushes to deny the high-tax label, Australian politics is losing the language needed to fund shared purpose, rebuild trust and sustain public life.

When both major parties compete to look “low tax”, politics loses the language – and permission – to fund the public goods that hold society together, Stewart Sweeney writes.
#auspol #TaxPolicy #PublicGoods #SocialCohesion

Instagram Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

ACT Community Assembly and Canberrans Poll
www.instagram.com/reel/DUwo86b...

Did Stephen Hawking predict Pauline Hanson? Stephen Hawking once said the history of the universe depends on the question you ask. So, what questions put Donald Trump in the White House twice or made Pauline Hanson the fastest rising politician...

"In politics or physics or faith the old world is gone and the new is yet to be born."
Grant's relevant reflection on the 'Between Times' we are in.
Did Stephen Hawking predict Pauline Hanson? www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topi... via @thesaturdaypaper.com.au

About time!

Paying tribute to a leader for health justice – “comrade, colleague, teacher and friend to many” Introduction by Croakey: Many people have shared tributes and memories of health justice scholar and activist Emeritus Associate Professor David

Paying tribute to a leader for health justice – “comrade, colleague, teacher and friend to many” – Croakey Health Media www.croakey.org/paying-tribu...
@franbaum.bsky.social writes about the legacy of her dear friend & colleague, David Legge.