Issue 44 : 13 – 19 May 2021

May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 editor

As in Australia, so in Palestine: the colonial logic of striking at terror
Jeff Sparrow | Meanjin
The Israeli state depends on the dispossession of Palestinians, and so, by its nature, will constantly create and recreate violence, just as the Australian settler state did.

Inaudible
Randa Abdel-Fattah | Meanjin
Our names, our lives, our dreams, our aspirations, our trauma, our rights are transcribed over and over again: inaudible, inaudible, inaudible. What will it take for you to hear us?

Missing a Nakba in 2021 is unforgiveable
Micaela Sahhar, Nader Ruhayel | Arena
This week, our language must be unequivocal and it is incumbent that we name what is unmistakably on display: at al-Aqsa mosque, in Sheikh Jarrah, in Lydd and in Gaza itself. Across a differential and fragmentary geography in all of historic Palestine, the structure of settler colonialism, which has until this point been invisible, is now visible.

In Israel, it’s not a fight between identities. One side is fighting to survive.
Guy Rundle | Crikey
The current attacks on Gaza by the IDF are all about survival — the political survival of Bibi Netanyahu. After four elections in two years, he has been unable to shift the needle in such a way as to give him a stable majority.

I once despised Australia’s ‘pollie pension’, but there’s a bargain in funding MPs for life
Van Badham | The Guardian
The idea truly grates, yet the nation could benefit from paying some ex-politicians to simply take the money and go away

Business fails to make its case on borders as government, community comfortable with hermit Oz
Bernard Keane | Crikey
Australian business is so obsessed with profits that it thinks ‘some people may die’ is a good argument for opening our borders.

Private contractors get $156m to vaccinate Australia’s most at-risk. Why can’t we know what they’re doing?
Amber Schulz | Crikey
Private contractors scored $155.9 million in last week’s budget to put jabs into arms as part of the government’s $7.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine program. Despite the eye-watering amounts, the rollout isn’t going well — and the government has refused to make tender details public.

Between detention and neighbourliness in Darwin’s shadowlands
Domenico De Pieri | Arena
Australia’s policy of indefinite detention has been recognised by the UN as a form of torture. We are adding irreversible psychological trauma to already highly fragile lives.

We need to wake up to the new economic normal
Ross Gittins | Nine Newspapers
Our shift to relying on government spending rather than manipulating interest rates to manage the economy is not temporary.

Time to give up the search for the budget’s thylacine
John Quiggin | Inside Story
Surplus budgets have been the Tasmanian tiger (or thylacine, to be zoologically correct) of Australian politics for more than a decade. Rendered extinct by the global financial crisis, they have been much sought after ever since, but with gradually decreasing hope.

Australia is unlikely to ever go back to pre-GFC interest rates. We can’t afford to
Greg Jericho | The Guardian
The last time the Reserve Bank increased interest rates was November 2010, and the budget estimates it won’t happen again for at least four more years. But importantly, given the increased size of mortgages, we are unlikely to ever again see interest rates as high as they were before the GFC.

“Political Stunt”: how the Budget cash splash means profit to providers over aged care reform
Dr Sarah Russell | Michael West Media
The Budget cash splash in aged care has rendered the Royal Commission a political stunt as the billions in extra funding are not tied to reform measures or direct care and food for elderly Australians.

New immigration minister trashes Australia’s international education industry
Abul Rivzi | Independent Australia
New Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has abandoned limiting work rights for student visa holders with little regard for the reputation of Australia’s international education industry, perhaps reflecting the general attitude of the Morrison Government to Australia’s universities.

A third or fourth way: should Albanese listen to a ranting Tony Blair?
Kishor Napier-Raman | Crikey

Federal budget wrap 2021-22: Lacklustre funding for mob
Hannah Cross | National Indigenous Times

Governments must let go of their power over the lives of Australia’s First Nations children
Paul Gray | The Guardian / Indigenous X

Don’t believe what lightweights tell you about Josh Frydenberg’s spending spree
Ross Gittins | Nine Newspapers

Scott Morrison’s Right-Wing Government Wants to Scrap Austerity — But Only for the Rich
Ben Eltham | Jacobin

Working long hours kills hundreds of thousands a year, WHO says
Reuters / ABC News

Morrison must be stopped from downsizing the NDIS
Graham Matthews | Green Left Weekly

Campaign to save historic Willow Grove enters new phase
Susan Price | Green Left Weekly

‘Duque out!’ A youth-led rebellion in Colombia
Robert Narai, Tom Sullivan | Red Flag

Revealed: Australia defies UN pleas over atrocities in Yemen, escalates weapons exports to Saudis
Michelle Fahy | Michael West Media

Australia Is Supporting the Oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka
Barathan Vidhyapathy | Jacobin

Australia’s coronavirus evacuation flight from India left me behind due to an inaccurate test
James Oaten | ABC News