Bartlett's Blog

It is over five years since I wrote a post on this blog about the many promises that have been made over the years to build a rail link from Brisbane to Redcliffe. In the five years since, plans to build to build the railway have been put on and then off the table once again. Redcliffe has also ceased to be a separate city, being forcibly amalgamated with ...

I've had a piece published at Online Opinion where I give some of my impressions of the first week of the campaign. Obviously, this is the first federal election I've contested with the Greens, but it is the eighth I've been involved with as either a campaign organiser or a candidate - always of course from the perspective of a 'third party' trying to convince voters to reduce ...

Jeff Goodell is an American who wrote a book called “Big Coal: the dirty secret behind America’s future” – there’s a good interview with him about this book on You Tube at this link.  He’s written a new book called “Cooling the Planet”, which is about geo-engineering: scientists who are researching the ways we could use technology to alleviate global warming. I’ve occasionally read articles about such research, and ...

Earlier this week I spoke to a class of politics students at the University of South Australia about some of the internal factors which impact on how political parties make decisions.  As part of that course, each lecture is followed by reflections on the topic by Alexander Downer and Natasha Stott Despoja - so it made for a fascinating day for me (and hopefully also for the students.) I used ...

Yesterday saw both the government and Opposition make policy announcements regarding asylum seekers. Most of the attention has focused on Prime Minster Gillard’s speech on the issue, although (conveniently for the government) there is so much detail yet to be finalised that it is hard to make definitive judgements on how it will all work. By contrast, the Opposition’s policy release got less attention, beyond general comments about how ...

How on earth could anyone possibly believe that public or political debate on asylum seekers is being constrained by political correctness?! For at least the last decade, public commentary in letters to the editor, talkback shows and online forums have contained a vast array of views on this matter, including many that are extremely aggressive, antagonistic, abusive and vilifying - and all of which have clearly not been put ...

This Sunday marks the start of Refugee Week, with plenty of events around the country to acknowledge and celebrate the contribution refugees have made and continue to make to our society, culture and economy. I'm speaking at a rally being held in Brisbane Square this Sunday from 1pm to mark World Refugee Day. I have attended many refugee week events over the years, and they often involve people from ...

The latest Newspoll may turn out to be an outlier, but the marked drop in support and approval ratings for both Labor and the Liberal-Nationals, and their respective leaders, does seem to have a logical connection to the diminishing credibility and increasing cynicism and shallowness which both party’s leaders have been displaying of late. The 16% support level recorded for the Greens is not just a record for that ...

Some sad news for independent media today, with the announcement that the New Matilda website is likely to be shutting up shop at the end of next month. As most readers would be aware, I've had a number of pieces published on New Matilda over the years. I'm sure I'll still be able to find places to publish my pieces if and when I want, but I'll certainly miss ...

For the last few months, I’ve found it hard to shake the idea that the Liberal Party’s overriding approach to politics and policy has deteriorated to a level little better than where the US Republican Party now finds itself. I think the reason why things have sunk this low has a lot to do with the perverted nature of the so-called culture and history wars which were embraced with ...

From the very first day after I’d finished my term in the Senate in July 2008 – in fact for many weeks before I’d even formally finished – there would be no question I have been asked more frequently that the one about whether I miss being in politics and whether I’m enjoying being out of it.  Even months after having announced I was getting formally involved with ...

It’s a fair while since it was announced that I was contesting the House of Reps seat of Brisbane for the Greens at the upcoming federal election.  Since then, I’ve spent a fair bit of time preparing the foundations for that campaign, as well as working within the party on our overall campaign in Queensland.  Whilst I’d love nothing more than winning the seat of Brisbane, my first ...

Some thoughts on the UK election result The UK election result provides a real opportunity for major improvements in the way politics and voting is done in the UK. At time of writing, with 9 seats out of 650 still to be declared, it is clear that the Conservatives will fall short of a majority, and without support from the Liberal Democrats, seem unlikely to able to form a coalition ...

One of Afghanistan's most prominent human rights advocates is in Australia this week attending a conference in Canberra. Nader Nadery has been a commissioner on the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission since it was established in 2002 and he was part of the Afghan delegation to the Bonn conference on Afghan reconstruction after the US led invasion. ELEANOR HALL: What's your view of the Australian Government's change of policy on ...

With the UK election happening this week, I recently wrote a piece for New Matilda about some of the parallels (as well as some of the differences) between the rising third parties of the Liberal Democrats in the UK and the Greens in Australia.  You can read the full piece at this link. For space reasons, I had to leave out a couple of other points I was going ...

It’s Official: Tasmania really is different!! Parochialism seems to be part and parcel of the human condition, and is part of what gives rise to people making exaggerated claims about how different their city, state or country is from all the others, and also to exaggerate how different (usually in a negative way) other places are.  Living in Queensland all my life has shown me plenty of examples of ...

The fascination with the still unresolved post-election situation in Tasmania has drawn some attention away from the somewhat more run of the mill situation in South Australia.  With the Rann Labor government gaining a clear, albeit slightly unexpected, victory in the South Australian election, and the Liberals in that state quickly reverting to type and engaging in internal squabbles, it is fair enough that the curious Tasmanian situation ...

The announcement by Malcolm Turnbull that he will retire from Parliament at the next election has understandably gained a lot of attention.  With his seat of Wentworth having a margin of under 4% - and being the only seat in the country that swung to the Liberals at the last federal election – no doubt there will be some speculation that the seat is vulnerable, although Antony Green suggests it ...

The contest for the House of Reps seat of Brisbane at this year's federal election will almost certainly be the only one which features 3 competing candidates each with over 10 years of experience in the federal Parliament. Those 3 candidates are: - Arch Bevis, who has held the seat on behalf of the Labor Party since 1990; - Teresa Gambaro from the Liberal National Party, who held the seat of ...

Riptides reforming for a one off show. Ground-breaking Brisbane band The Riptides, who played an influential role in the post-punk independent music scene in Brisbane and Australia, are reforming for a one-off show at 4pm on Sunday 18 April at the University of Queensland’s Great Court. It’s happening as part of the University’s centenary celebrations. The band was formed in the late 1970s by students at the University, crystallising as ...