History shows that governments have consistently resisted any proposals from First Nations advisory bodies to deliver real justice. The Voice to Parliament could end up as another token gesture, unless there is a strong and independent movement for First Nations justice.
As Australia’s billionaires increased their wealth by 34% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, while the wages share of national income dropped to a historic low, a billionaire tax is a modest proposal!
The federal government delivered another budget for the billionaire class that runs Australia and is hell-bent on putting their profits ahead of the climate emergency.
The property-owning class has come out of the pandemic richer and more determined to use their wealth to get even wealthier. Typically, they are demanding measures that will only make housing prices more unaffordable to most.
Albanese rushed to support the Coalition’s plan to give billions in more tax-cuts-and-subsidies for its business mates — to be funded by a historic increase in public debt to nearly $1 trillion.
There is a big lie at the heart of Frydenberg’s budget speech. The rich don’t need more public largesse; if they wanted to create more jobs they already have more than enough money to do this.
The wages share of national income has fallen to below 50% for the first time since 1959
The latest revelation by the ABC of a massacre of up to 11 Afghan civilians by Australian Special Air Services troops in December 2012 adds to a long list of war crimes that the public has only been able to see after years of painstaking research by a special investigation team.
Most of the mainstream media ran with that unsubtle lead and went berserk with another round of Trump-style China-bashing, even though the Chinese government had promptly denied the accusation.
The JobMaker plan, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on May 26 at the National Press Club, is an attempt to get us to accept a post-COVID-19 return to the neoliberal regime that made jobs precarious, ran down hospitals and other public services, and made housing and education unaffordable.
The slogan “There’s no going back to normal” has gained considerable popularity for good reason. As governments all around the world have struggled to deal with the health and economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been forced to take emergency steps they would not have countenanced just months ago, challenging the idea that greater public spending to address social needs is simply unaffordable.
The fall in the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the last few days has been received by most people with cautious relief. The official advice of federal and state governments remains to maintain the social distancing and to stay at home.
But the capitalist class is looking at things very differently. It is growing impatient for capitalist exploitation to return to “normal” and they are preparing us to accept the cost in lives.