Up till now,the major political parties have “combined” to convince the electorate that a vote for a minor party,or even worse an independent,was a wasted vote. But democracy in Australia is changing.
Some say Kim Beazley,a historian by trade,is the best PM we never had. But the affable West Australian is more focused on his new job as chair of the Australian War Memorial than he is about his own political past,or his time as ambassador to the US.
Oil and gas producers are back into threat mode:threatening to campaign against the government – presumably using their obscene super-profits – and threatening to withdraw future investment
On November 11,1941,the Australian War Memorial was opened in Canberra. The building was a space for the remembrance of all Australian involvement in war and the then Governor-General,Lord Gowrie,officially opened the memorial following a Remembrance Day ceremony.
The Labor elder statesman is being discussed internally by the federal government as a candidate for the Australian War Memorial council.
The RSL’s national president Greg Melick said the War Memorial should be exclusively for defence and peacekeeping operations.
The Indigenous academic says the War Memorial should depict the history of the country’s frontier wars,firing off a withering broadside at Barnaby Joyce.
Parliament is known as a place of regular cacophony. But on the eve of a new parliament,a new prime minister speaks of hope in silence.
The Australian War Memorial is being rebuilt for $498 million,but the Veterans’ Affairs Department,unable to cope with suicides,was stripped of $430 million.
Private Walter Joseph Parker was one of 10 Indigenous men to enlist for service in the Boer War in 1901 – and,of those,he was the only one to die.
Former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson’s absence from the Australian War Memorial,which he ran for seven years until late 2019,has been short-lived.