Bartlett's Blog

Every Monday morning during my radio show on community radio 4ZzZ FM, I chat with Peter Black, a constitutional lawyer, follower of social and political issues and obsessive user of social media. I don't normally put links to those chats on this blog, but given that our talk this morning was all about the federal election, I thought it was worth putting a link to it on this ...

Given I am now running as a Greens candidate, I suppose it is no surprise that I am indicating my agreement with a comment that Bob Brown made today.  But I would also say that it isn't any secret that I haven't agreed with every public comment that Bob has made, and I would agree with the following comment about the schoolyard level nonsense regarding another possible leaders ...

The prospect of the refugee detention camps on Nauru being reopened has become very real, with the issue of asylum seekers in boats apparently being of such magnitude to Tony Abbott that he would make it virtually his first priority for action above almost everything else, should he end up being elected on the weekend. Apart from a visit by Philip Ruddock and the then shadow Minister for Labor, ...

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog post about mountaintop mining in the USA. All mining has some impact, but the sheer destructiveness of this type of mining is astonishing - and that's before you take into account the greenhouse impact of the coal. This article in the New York Times details the potential impact of a similar project in West Virginia. The significance of this proposal ...

Following are links to a couple of recent radio interviews I've done, plus an online one

As I noted in my previous post, this week's Newspoll saw the Greens register 16% support - the highest that party has ever achieved, comparable to the Democrats best Newspoll result of 17% back in 1990. History suggests it is unlikely that this peak will be maintained right through to election day (or even the next Newspoll) but it is part of a continuing trend of solid Greens ...

Contention over Queensland's  Wild Rivers legislation has been bubbling along for quite a while now. Unfortunately, as with many issues which become polarised, each "side" is focused on defending their position, which has meant that some important underlying issues are not getting the attention they deserve. I've just had a piece on this topic published at The Drum on the ABC's website.  It's fairly long, so they published it ...

Hip hop fans in Brisbane might be interested in tuning in to my radio show on 4ZZZ FM this Monday morning around 7:30am. I’ll be talking with the Gold Coast based duo Choose Mics, who are launching their debut full length album Beggars Can’t Be Choosers at the Step Inn in the Valley this coming Friday night as part of what will be a big night for fans of hip-hop/rap/urban ...

I just saw this piece on The Advertiser's site about a new law which has come into force in South Australia The law "requires internet bloggers, and anyone making a comment on next month's state election, to publish their real name and postcode when commenting on the poll." The law will affect anyone posting a comment on an election story on mainstream news websites.  It reportedly also applies to social networking sites, and ...

The Japanese whale hunt in the Southern Ocean is always controversial in Australia. But, as predicted earlier this week, the political and public heat around the issue has escalated further in the aftermath of the ramming and subsequent sinking of the Ady Gil - a small trimaran - from the Sea Shepherd fleet, by a security ship from the whaling fleet. Most Australians are anti-whaling – a stance supported by all ...

Many not for profit and charity groups have got a lot smarter over the years in tapping into some of the large amounts of money that get spent over Christmas.  Christmas catalogues full of gifts for good cause groups have become widespread. In recent times, that has extended to bypassing a present all together, and giving someone a donation which actually goes direct to the good cause. This form ...

Peter Mares is a long time follower of refugee issues and critic of the problems inherent in the former government’s approach to asylum seekers in boats.  He wrote a piece in The Age which emphasised a point about the Howard’s government asylum policies which does not get highlighted enough. former treasurer Peter Costello wrote in these pages that the only way to prevent asylum seekers coming to Australia by ...

For a variety of reasons, I haven’t written a piece on this site lately.  I seem to have been in a headspace of late more suited to listening and talking, rather than writing.  Last night, I was talking (and listening) at a forum on climate change – one of the regular Politics in the Pub events organised by the New Farm Neighbourhood Centre. The night before, I chaired a ...

Queensland Teachers’ Strike – what are teachers worth? Tomorrow’s statewide strike of teachers has garnered a lot of attention and debate (and newspaper advertising). Regardless of views on the strike, it brings up the issue of how important the role of teachers is in assisting the development of children. Without going into the fine details of the dispute, the broad message that Queensland state school teachers are paid less than those in ...

The federal Parliamentary Library has produced a research paper on the history, role and record of the Australian Democrats following their disappearance from the Senate. It’s appropriately titled “the Passing of an Era” It has a few mostly minor errors, but it’s fairly good as a short outline of the Democrats’ 30 years in the Senate.  It notes a few of the controversies, but avoids expressing opinions on them. The report list ...

It’s hard to think of another time when the goings on at a local Parish church has received so much media coverage.  Father Peter Kennedy, the about-to-be-ex Parish priest of St Mary’s Catholic Church at South Brisbane, featured in the glossy weekend magazines of both The Courier-Mail and The Australian.  This follows a myriad of previous stories in the local media, the ABC’s website and Catholic media in recent weeks covering the ...

The horror of the bushfire tragedies in southern parts of Australia is occupying the minds of many people at the moment.  The Our Community website has packaged up in one place all the various ways people can help out and give to people affected by the Victorian bushfires. The page describes where to: •    Donate Money (Online, at Banks & Australia Post Offices); •    Donate Time; •    Donate Blood; •    Donate Clothes or ...

I’ve linked to Jeremy Gans’ Charterblog in a number of posts I’ve written here. It provides a perfect example of legal expertise detailing the reality of a Human Rights Charter, rather than the rhetoric, misrepresentation and misunderstanding that infects most commentary about the topic. Unfortunately, just as Australia is about to start a national debate on the merits of some form of Bill or Charter of Rights, Jeremy Gans ...

On this day four years ago, people in our region were stunned by the horrendous impact of the tsunami that caused such devastation to Aceh and parts of Sri Lanka and the Maldives.  I wasn’t aware until reading this piece in the New York Times that on almost the same date 100 years ago, another tsunami with similarly horrendous consequences hit southern Italy and other areas.  100 000 people died ...

I’ve written here before about forums I've been involved in on food and climate change.  There are a couple more public forums in Brisbane over the next week for people interested in further exploring practical ways for positive change in this area. One is on tomorrow night (Thurs 20th) at the Southbank campus of Griffith Uni, organised by local group Food Connect, which encourages and supports local farmers.  The ...