(2010) Don’t Let Greens Benefit from Vote Preferences
On current trends, the Greens have a chance of winning the Federal seat of Melbourne and perhaps even the seat of Sydney at the election.
(2010) Maher Created a Powerful Force: Jim Maher, 1927-2009
As the national leader of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (the “shoppos” or “shoppies” union) from 1970 to 1995, Jim Maher was one of the most significant Australian unionists in the past 50 years. He created a powerful force, the country’s largest union, with an influential presence within the Australian Labor Party.
(2010) How the Machine Ate the Labor Party
The two unlikely heroes in Simon Benson’s Betrayal are former NSW premier Morris Iemma and former NSW treasurer Michael Costa.
(2010) Political Rehabilitation
Written to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and sent by email, 29 June 2010.
(2010) Red Confession with a Twist
Mark Aarons’s book The Family Files is a red confession with a twist. He tells his story and that of three generations of the Aarons family’s activity at the highest levels of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) with the aid of a unique documentary source: the 209 files, wire-tap transcripts and reports of the Australian security services in the National Archives. Aarons has written an interesting, honest assessment.
(2010) A Tribute to Jeff Shaw
The Hon. Jeff Shaw (1949-2010) QC, former union official, solicitor, barrister, politician, NSW Attorney General, Supreme Court Judge, probably feared his death would only engender reminders of his fall from grace and further shame for his family. Instead, there was an incredible outpouring of sympathy, support and respect, and a fresh, public assessment of the man and his life.
(2010) Get Governance Right and Governing Follows
Politics is a cruel business. Earlier this year the tough guys from NSW, senator Mark Arbib and national secretary Karl Bitar, demanded that prime minister Kevin Rudd drop the emissions trading scheme. Just drop it. He did.
(2009) Mary: A Series of Health Bulletins
In July 2009 my wife Mary Easson popped into Concord Hospital in Sydney for what we thought would be a routine operation, keyhole surgery to remove small fragments of gallstones left behind from a previous operation. She drove herself there mid-morning with the intention of my picking her up late afternoon the same day.