from the Drum …..

Ahead of SBS's Go Back to Where You Came From, participant Catherine Deveny reflects on the Government's asylum seeker policy and asks, is this the Australia we want?

from Crikey …..

So Bill Shorten is doing it tough on his $330,000 a year. The poor fellow. 

Well if it's hard living on a ministerial income, he will find it even harder living down this comment published in the Sydney Daily Telegraph this morning. 

It was a tale of two interviews this week. Leigh Sales from the 7.30 Report destroyed Tony Abbott and exposed the Leader of the Opposition for the fool he is.

from politicoz …. 

On the weekend, Northern Territorians voted out the ALP government, replacing it with Terry Mills' Country Liberal Party. This was the fourth successive state or territory election in which a Labor government has been ousted.

is genetic manipulation democratic?...

Well this where there is confusion; The answer to genetic engineering is quite clear: NO... Not at this point in time... Though it depends on who and what we include in our "democracy"... Has nature got a vote?...

So far not a single country has had the courage to get their voters to adjudicate on the "genetic engineering" vexing issue...

Forget the Prince Harry photos. Forget Julian Assange's balcony address from the Ecuadorian embassy. The best thing published this week, by a country mile, is the transcript of Julia Gillard's exit interview from the law firm Slater & Gordon, conducted 17 years ago and printed on Wednesday by The Australian.

My, how they do love a saucy scandal or a sinister conspiracy theory out there on the lunar right. The first I ever heard came from one Russ Hinze, a large and repellent oaf who was Joh Bjelke-Petersen's minister for roads and police in Queensland.