They blew up 46,000 years of human history for $135 million worth of iron ore. And it was legal. From Juukan Gorge to 80,000 abandoned toxic sites, Australia’s mining industry is cannibalising its own future while shipping 86% of profits offshore.
Category: Politics and Society
Australia’s Environmental Policy Crisis: A Closer Look
Labor’s Eco Renaissance: Destroying the Joint, Sensitively As federal parliament resumes its familiar variety show of “Consensus or Catastrophe”, the Labor government unveils another environmental revolution; provided it doesn’t trouble its donors in hi-vis or hard hats. Gina Rinehart’s chequebook, Woodside’s lobbyists, and the captains … Continue reading Australia’s Environmental Policy Crisis: A Closer Look
Ask Not What You Can Do for One Nation—But What Has One Nation Ever Done for Anybody?
If Helen of Troy had the face that launched a thousand ships, Pauline Hanson has the face that launched a thousand chips. But the real story isn’t about Hanson at all—it’s about Long John Howard, who stole her racism in the 1990s, laundered it through the language of sovereignty and security, and left both major parties trapped in a political theatre he built thirty years ago.
One Nation polls at 14% between elections but collapsed to 6.4% in May—the evergreen boost that never makes it to the ballot box. Yet even with Anthony Albanese’s historic landslide, Labor still governs within Howard’s frame, still talks tough on “border security,” still uses his language. The government changes. The script endures.
From Barnaby Joyce playing pantaloon to Hanson serving up warmed-over resentment with extra chicken salt, this is how we all ended up living in Howard’s Australia.
Trump’s Ballroom: Democracy Under Demolition
Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing to build a “self-funded” ballroom is more than vandalism. It’s the Gilded Age reborn — a cash-for-access cathedral where billionaires buy permanence and democracy is reduced to rubble.
Red Earth, Red Meat and Red Herrings: How Australia got played in Washington
The $8.5 billion U.S.–Australia critical minerals deal was marketed as strategic genius. What we got was dinner theatre, a roasted ambassador and another generation locked into extractive dependency. When the only thing “free” about free trade is how costly it gets, perhaps it’s time to read the fine print.
The Real Deal: Why Critical Minerals Matter More Than Submarines
Nobody in Canberra gets the Trump 2.0 administration. When Albanese meets Trump on 20 October, Canberra will bang on about submarines. The real conversation should be critical minerals—where Australia actually has leverage and America has desperate need. China controls the supply chains that power everything from semiconductors to missiles. Australia can break that stranglehold. If we’re smart enough to see it.
The Celebrity-in-Chief: How Trump’s ‘Peace Deal’ Was Always a Franchise
This isn’t satire; it’s the hard political arithmetic of a man for whom non-payment is a core strategy. Experts have already warned the plan’s mechanisms are ambiguous, fragile, and built to fail. Why would a durable peace be the goal? Donald John Trump has never settled his debts in full.
The Parliamentary Sin Bin: How Conscience Became a Foul
When Senator David Pocock questioned why the Parliamentary Sports Club was funded by gambling lobbyists, he was expelled. The former Wallabies captain’s crime? Noticing that a “purely social” club is registered as a lobbying organisation, sponsored by Responsible Wagering Australia, and presided over by the Prime Minister.
The War on Dissent: How Western Democracies Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Thought Police
The genius of modern repression is that it doesn’t require jackboots or midnight knocks. It requires bureaucracy. Forms. Watchlists. De-banking. IRS audits. Loss of tax-exempt status. It’s not a gulag; it’s a compliance nightmare. You’re not disappeared; you’re just financially ruined and socially destroyed. Much more civilised.
The Betrayal Myth That’s Remaking the Pentagon
How Trump and Hegseth are using manufactured history and dominionist theology to transform the U.S. military into a sectarian warband. The neglected story.
Urban Wronski Writes 