Antinuclear

Australian news, and some related international items

Submarine boasts, yet nuclear waste dumps submersed in secrecy.

Albanese and Marles clearly don’t think they’ll be around in politics when the radioactive mess hits the fan. For them, that’s a future Government’s problem to solve.e.

by Rex Patrick | Feb 16, 2026 , https://michaelwest.com.au/submarine-boasts-yet-nuclear-waste-dumps-submersed-in-secrecy/

As the SA Premier basks in the campaign glory of a $3.9 billion downpayment on shipyard for nuclear subs, the Federal Government is kicking the nuclear waste can down the road.    Rex Patrick reports.

Meanwhile, two senior government officials have told the Administrative Review Tribunal that the public they serve need to be kept in the dark on plans to deal with civil and AUKUS nuclear waste.

For over 40 years, Australian governments of various flavours have been trying, and failing, to work out what to do with the nation’s growing medical and industrial nuclear waste. That problem has become harder as the need to deal with AUKUS’s high-level reactor waste has been added to the task.

Australia’s 3,700m3 of low-level and 1,300m3 of intermediate-level radioactive waste is stored in over 100 locations nationwide, including at hospitals, science facilities and at universities.

Since July 2023, when the Federal Court set aside the decision of the Morrison Government to locate a civil National Radioactive Waste Management Facility at Kimba, there’s been radio silence from Prime Minister Albanese’s Government on what the next steps will be.

There has been a similar silence about the plans for AUKUS high-level waste, despite the Government already having a plan for selecting a dump site.

Narrative control

As MWM tried to use Freedom of Information (FOI) laws to squeeze some information from the Government about on what’s going on, what was instead revealed was a conscious plan to keep the public in the dark.

In order to try to keep everything secret the CEO of the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA), Mr Sam Usher, give evidence to the Tribunal explaining the dangers of letting what he described as a “nuclear illiterate” Australian public know what’s going on. The Government’s remedy to public illiteracy, it seems, is to keep the public illiterate.

In an 18th-century approach to winning over the public, he affirmed in an affidavit that

“The release of information (requested by MWM) in these circumstances does not align with current messaging or status on (redacted) – which heavily relies on public approval – could negatively impact trust, and the building and sustaining of the social license that ARWA and the Australian Government will need to deliver (redacted).”

And indeed, CEO Usher asked the Tribunal to keep that statement secret. MWM challenged the secrecy, and the Tribunal ordered the statement to be released; trust and social licence, all to be obtained from the public by narrative control.

Thou shalt not debate!

Alex Kelton, Deputy Director General of Strategy at the Australian Submarine Agency, gave similar evidence. The public should not know – it’s too dangerous for government.

Kelton testified that transparency would cause the diversion of Government resources “by inviting [public] discussion about early contemplative thinking on a matter which Australia does not have a long-standing policy position”.

Transparency would, she said:

“provide signalling about the advice to Government which may result in commentary“

“that places pressure on government to rule in or out particular options, ideas or strategies, or effectively forecloses approaches to issues, by reason of adverse public sentiment that is not fully informed and which it is premature for the government to engage publicly on until it has done further work to develop its view of the options and the position.”

The Australian Government has never run a successful program to obtain social licence for a nuclear waste facility. A fact that flows from that is that Deputy Director General Kelton has no experience in such an endeavour either. She was the Chief of Staff to Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, so she does have political experience.

“Important or urgent?“

The argument adopted by Usher and Kelton on behalf of the Government is that there will be a public consultation, but until that occurs, nothing should be made public.

The evidence in the Administrative Review Tribunal paints a disturbing picture.

In the middle of Usher’s evidence was a sentence with unusual quotation marks around the words “important” and “urgent”.

21.9. Managing radioactive waste that is “important” but rarely “urgent”, considering the long lead times involved

Redacted evidence from Kelton, which the Government was later forced to reveal the gist of under challenge from MWM, explained that the Government was sitting on its hands, not doing anything. A brief on how to choose a location for AUKUS nuclear waste was provided to Defence Minister Richard Marles in December 2023, and nothing has happened.

Under cross examination it was clear that Usher was frustrated by the Government’s failure to deal with an “important” issue with the necessary “urgency”,.

No consultation

MWM was at pains to point out to the Tribunal that there is no legal requirement for the Government to conduct consultation. Section 10 of the Australian Naval Nuclear Power Safety Act allows the Defence Minister to issue a regulation declaring any site in Australia as a nuclear facility for the purposes of AUKUS.

No consultation is required, and any future Government, faced with delays caused by inaction by today’s Government, can just announce a site – and in those circumstances, the Government is asking for no information to be released under FOI.

“Any place in Australia is on the cards.”

Kelton also put in her affidavit that (this) Government has announced the AUKUS nuclear waste site will be on current or Defence land.

However, during cross-examination, Kelton conceded that any location in Australia can be selected and then turned into Defence land by way of compulsory acquisition. She confirmed that all the Defence Minister’s announcement means is that whatever land is used, it will be a “Commonwealth Facility”.

Along with an announcement that any decision on a future nuclear submarine will now not be made until the 2030’s, it is clear that from the Administrative Review Tribunal proceedings that, against the advice of the ARWA, the Government are not interested in advancing work on a future high-level radioactive waste dump. Again, starting from scratch, that project might take at least a decade, probably longer, but Marles and Albanese appear to have no interest in getting things underway.

Living in the moment

Marles gets to jump on a private jet and head to Washington to meet with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. He gets to strut around and talk tough on Defence. Meanwhile, Albanese clings to AUKUS like a political lifebuoy, hoping to avoid a hostile social media post from President Trump and any suggestion Labor is “soft on defence”.

But in a gross act of maladministration, they’re avoiding the tough political decisions needed now if AUKUS nuclear waste, and indeed all our other radioactive waste, is to be properly tackled.

Albanese and Marles clearly don’t think they’ll be around in politics when the radioactive mess hits the fan.  For them, that’s a future Government’s problem to solve.

Rex Patrick

Rex Patrick is a former Senator for South Australia and, earlier, a submariner in the armed forces. Best known as an anti-corruption and transparency crusader, Rex is also known as the “Transparency Warrior.”

February 18, 2026 Posted by | secrets and lies, wastes | Leave a comment

Political Futures: Can the Influence of the Political Far Right be Tamed Across Regional Australia?

15 February 2026 Denis Bright

The Farrer by-election offers a real opportunity for Australian Progressive Politics. This by-election is a potential change-maker.

Conservative representatives have an enormous swathe of regional federal electorates across Australia. In Queensland, these conservative electorates extend into coastal areas north of the Petrie electorate in Brisbane with the current exception of Leichhardt. The twilight zone of adversarial politics extends from the regions to outer metro areas like Longman in Brisbane’s Outer North and even Canning in Metro Perth’s South.

In Canning, Andrew Hastie MP with 42.5 percent of the primary vote scored a swing of 1 percent on his primary vote. This result was built up to 56.6 percent after preference allocations from far-right parties. In Canning the supportive preferences for the LNP came from One Nation and the Citizens’ Party.

A victory for a more moderate Independent in Farrer would have immense national significance in cooling the adversarial nature of politics in regional areas and in outer metro areas.

At this stage, the outcomes of the Farrer by-election are impossible to anticipate. With the support of preference flows from Labor and the Greens, Independent Michelle Milthorpe has a real chance of success. Her significant support against Sussan Ley in the 2025 Australian elections has been well noted by political commentators (Image: Simplified AEC Map from SMH 13 February 2026):

Michelle Milthorpe has quite a following in Albury but her vote after preferences her vote was still 12 percent below Sussan Ley’s vote across the sprawling electorate in 2025 as shown by the overall voting returns:

The results in Albury itself divided approximately 55 to 45 percent in favour of Michelle Milthorpe after preferences. This was Michelle’s strongest support area of support.

The relative prosperity of large towns and farming districts across the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) and Murray Valley distinguishes Farrer from some other regional electorates with higher levels of social disadvantage and a more marginal political category.

Drought conditions and excessive summer heat should click with a grassroots awareness of the need for more action against global warming and climate change. Conservatives detest Labor’s energy initiatives. Liberal Deputy leader, Senator Jane Hume, restated her commitment to nuclear power options (Insiders 14 February 2026).

The more disadvantaged regional electorates very occasionally to Labor in Page, Hinkler and Capricornia. Even Andrew Hastie’s seat of Canning was won by Labor in the substantial swings of 1983 and 1998.

Farrer has never taken this path since the formation of the electorate in 1949. It is far from being a swing seat for Labor. However, the election of a moderate and mainstream representative in Farrer is so important as a symbolic token for the future of regional Australian politics.

My articles for theaimn.net occasionally refer to The Rappville Factor in voting trends in less advantaged conservative regional electorates………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Ionically, US academic opinion has strengthened our understanding of just why more disadvantaged communities respond to dog-whistle politics to vote against their own self-interest….

If humanity survives this Trump era and learns to control politically motivated media networks, I expect the 2030s to be a peaceful and left-leaning era in both Australia and globally. Future leaders try to tame global capitalism with more open trade and investment by applying the investment multiplier to deliver the essentials of affordable housing, environmental initiatives and other essentials through the resources available through both private and public sector networks.

Keeping Farrer out of the hands of the far-right is an important insurance premium against those never-ending cultural wars which deceive our most disadvantaged fellow-Australians into accepting the prevailing status quo in a thousand country towns and rural districts across regional Australia…………………….

The drift to more progressive policies is complicated by the rise of One Nation in recent polling. NSW State Independent Helen Dalton MP for Murray may stand as a One Nation Candidate. Helen Dalton represents voters in the Griffith-Deniliquin Districts……………………………………………………

Here is another opportunity for the Albanese Government to offer the unexpected outcomes like Environmental Protection legislation, the anti-hate speech measures and bans on inappropriate soft media influence on junior high school students.

From the side lines, negative comments about Angus Taylor’s leadership style have come from former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull whose own resignation from the LNP leadership paved the way for Scott Morrison to move Australia in a far-right direction………………………………

Progressive Liberals Should be Welcome in the Australian United Front

February 18, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Australia-based Bannerman Energy join China’s CNNC  for debt-free construction of its Namibian uranium project

World Nuclear News , Friday, 13 February 2026

Australia-based Bannerman Energy has signed a strategic financing and joint venture agreement with China’s CNNC Overseas Limited, paving the way for debt-free construction of its Etango uranium project in Namibia.

Under the agreement, CNNC Overseas Limited (CNOL) – a subsidiary of China National Uranium Corporation (CNUC) and part of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) – and Bannerman will form an incorporated joint venture. This will be done through Bannerman’s UK subsidiary, Bannerman Energy (UK) Ltd (JVCo), by way of CNOL’s subscription for newly issued shares in JVCo, resulting in JVCo ownership of 55% by Bannerman and 45% by CNOL upon completion. JVCo holds a 95% interest in the Etango Project. CNOL will make an initial investment of USD294.5 million into JVCo upon completion.

The agreement includes a provision for additional investment by CNOL of up to USD27 million upon completion, to reimburse Bannerman for CNOL’s 45% share of project-related expenditure incurred between 1 July 2025 and completion. Bannerman and CNOL will each fund post-completion capital expenditure and operating costs of JVCo and the Etango Project pro rata to their respective 55% and 45% equity interests. The agreement also includes a life-of-mine offtake entitlement for CNOL covering 60% of actual production from Etango.

Upon completion, underlying economic ownership of the Etango project will comprise 52.25% Bannerman and 42.75% CNOL, with Namibian social welfare organisation One Economy Foundation (OEF) retaining its 5% loan-carried shareholding.

Bannerman said the agreement “enables debt-free construction of Etango mine – a financing pathway that delivers greater financial and offtake flexibility and with reduced risk”.

The transaction is targeted for completion in mid-2026, pending key conditions including filings with the relevant Chinese government authorities and foreign exchange registration, CNUC shareholder approval, clearance from the Namibian Competition Commission, amendment to the OEF funding agreement, and execution of key infrastructure supply contracts………………………………

Etango is in Namibia’s Erongo uranium mining region, which hosts the operating Rössing (in which CNUC holds a 68.62% stake), Langer Heinrich and Husab uranium mines. The proposed Etango mine received environmental approval in 2010 and the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy in 2017 granted Bannerman a five-year, extendable, mineral deposit retention licence over the project. Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy granted Bannerman Energy a mining licence for Etango in December 2023.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/bannerman-partners-with-cnnc-for-namibian-uranium-project

February 17, 2026 Posted by | uranium | Leave a comment

Why The Economics of War in Australia Matter

14 February 2026 AIMN Editorial, By Denis Hay  

Australia’s defence spending is rising at a time when housing stress, health system pressure, and energy transition demands are also intensifying.

Public debate often treats defence and social investment as separate conversations. They are not. Both draw on the same public money, skilled labour, industrial capacity, and political attention.

This article examines how the war economy functions, how Australia’s major defence commitments shape long-term fiscal settings, and what opportunity cost means in practical terms. It does not argue for ending defence. It does not dismiss strategic risk.

Instead, it asks a structured economic question: when public funds are allocated to long-duration military programs, which alternatives are delayed or constrained?

Unlike earlier articles on Monetary Sovereignty that focus on financial capacity, this piece concentrates on real resource allocation and political incentives within defence policy.

The Problem: The Economics of War and Locked-in Spending

Rising Global Military Spending

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reports that global military spending reached US 2.7 trillion in 2024. Australia is part of this global expansion…………………….

Australia’s Major Defence Commitments

Under the Department of Defence strategy and the AUKUS submarine pathway, Australia has committed to multi-decade procurement and sustainment programs………………………………………………………

Systemic Causes

  • Alliance integration priorities
  • Strategic deterrence doctrine
  • Industrial policy embedded within defence
  • Long-term contracting frameworks

Political Incentives

  • Regional job creation promises
  • Perception of strength and security
  • Limited scrutiny of lifecycle costing
  • Concentrated contractor influence

Beneficiaries of the Status Quo

  • Large defence primes
  • Specialist subcontractors
  • Regions hosting major facilities
  • Political actors are able to signal security leadership

This does not imply corruption. It shows structural incentives.

The Economics of War in Australia and Opportunity Cost 

Opportunity cost is not abstract. For example, if $10 billion in defence procurement employs engineers and advanced manufacturers, those same skilled workers are not simultaneously available to expand public housing construction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Conclusion

The economics of war in Australia are about allocation, not ideology.

Defence commitments such as AUKUS are long-term and capital-intensive. Housing shortages, healthcare strain, and energy transition pressures are immediate and socially destabilising.

Public money reflects political priorities. The central question is whether more military capability delivers greater marginal security than investment in social resilience.

Australia has the institutional capacity to pursue both strategic security and domestic stability. Outcomes depend on policy choice, not inevitability.

The economics of war in Australia are not just about defence budgets or alliance commitments. It is about choices. Every dollar committed to long-term military expansion is a dollar not invested in housing, healthcare, education, and productive industry. A balanced approach to the economics of war in Australia requires transparent costing, clear strategic purpose, and a serious national discussion about opportunity cost. https://theaimn.net/why-the-economics-of-war-in-australia-matter/

February 17, 2026 Posted by | business | Leave a comment

Aussie Flotilla Team to Gaza Announced

13 February 2026 AIMN Editorial, https://theaimn.net/aussie-flotilla-team-to-gaza-announced/

The Australian Delegation of the Global Sumud Flotilla released the names of the first wave of Australians, including several First Nations participants, a feminist author, climate justice activists and an anti-zionist Jewish activist, due to set sail to Gaza in late March 2026.

Australian delegates, including Anny Mokotow, Sam Woripa Watson, Clementine Ford, Surya McEwen, Juliet Lamont, Zack Schofield and Jayden Kitchener-Waters, will join thousands of participants from 100 countries as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The flotilla will again attempt to break the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza to deliver crucial aid and medicine to Palestinians.

In January, the Israeli government banned Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, Save the Children, and over 30 other aid organisations from operating within Gaza. Medical evacuations have ended. This attempt by the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza is now more vital than ever. One of the Australian delegation’s demands is the establishment of a Palestinian-led humanitarian corridor to deliver food and medicine, and to facilitate the entry of health, legal, engineering, logistics and construction workers to support the people of Gaza.

Spokesperson Juliet Lamont stated: “People around the world have had enough of watching the starvation of children and the bombing of Palestinian families in tents. Members of the Australian delegation are sailing to Gaza to sustain and support life. Meanwhile, the Australian Government hosts the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, a president who has been accused of incitement to genocide by the United Nations Human Rights Council.”

Juliet Lamont, leader of the Australian delegation sailing to Gaza on the Global Sumud Flotilla, condemned the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Australia, calling it “a failure of democracy and a betrayal of human rights”.

Zack Schofield of climate activist group Rising Tide stated, “Most Australians reject association with breaches of international law. Australians do not want to welcome or assist the architects of mass civilian starvation. We don’t want to be tied to governments that openly flout the Geneva Convention and commit war crimes.” He confirmed a much larger delegation of Australians will be sailing this time in an attempt to break Israel’s illegal maritime blockade and deliver food and medical aid to Gaza.

As Israel continues to attack Gaza from the air, land and sea (despite the so-called ceasefire), the Global Sumud Flotilla is needed now more than ever to break the siege and to let aid flow to Gaza. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, since the ‘ceasefire agreement’ came into effect on October 10, 2025, Israeli forces killed more than 464 people, including at least 100 children. UNICEF reports that Israeli bombing injured 1,275 people during this period of time. According to the UN, more than three-quarters of the population of Gaza is facing acute hunger and malnutrition.

Zack Schofield explained “A country our politicians call a mate is actively starving and bombing civilians and instead of punishing that behaviour, we’ve just spent millions in taxpayer dollars to play host to a politician who has, according to the United Nations, incited genocidal violence.”

“Ordinary Australians don’t want us to extend friendship, free trade, and even weapons components to a country so proficient at killing unarmed civilians as people suffer through a cost-of-living crisis at home. It’s time for us to get new mates, get aid to Gaza, and get Australia out of Israel.”

He went on to say, “those of us joining the flotilla will be putting our lives on the line to protect what people we can against tanks made with Australian steel, and bombs dropped from F-35s with Australian engineering.”

Jewish activist Anny Mokotow stated “I’m joining the Flotilla because I cannot stand by while Palestinian children die from starvation, homes and hospitals are bombed, and aid is blocked. As a child of Holocaust survivors, I believe “never again” means for everyone. When governments fail, ordinary citizens must act to bring food, medicine, and hope to the most vulnerable.”

Sam Woripa Watson, Wangerriburrah and Birri Gubba community activist and film maker said “We see our collective liberation in Palestinian liberation, and theirs in ours. As First Nations people, we know what colonial violence looks like – land theft and erasure. Palestinians are facing that same violence now. Standing with Gaza is standing for justice everywhere. Let Palestinians live. Let aid flow. Cut ties with Israel.”

Author Clementine Ford stated on joining the Flotilla “I am no different to the mothers in Gaza, even if governments want me to believe I am while they send weapons that kill their children. I know what it is to love a child the same way Palestinian parents do. Let aid flow. Cut ties with Israel.”

Jayden Kitchener-Waters a Gomeroi and Ngiyampaa singer and storyteller said “Our government is helping to do to Palestinians what they did to our people – colonisation, land theft, and starvation. We need to cut ties with Israel, instead of spending millions on bringing Herzog here.”

Surya McEwen, taking part in his fourth flotilla stated “We all feel that the suffering on this mass scale is too much to bear, and something desperately has to be done. Taking these steps together is the most natural and reasonable response in the world. Let Palestinians live. Let aid flow. Cut ties with Israel.”

The Global Sumud Flotilla is calling on people around the world to get involved, sign up to join the flotilla or donate and follow online to keep participants safe. The Flotilla will be sailing from various ports around the Mediterranean from late March 2026 onwards.

February 16, 2026 Posted by | politics international | Leave a comment

NSW Police’s attacks on protesters in Sydney likely to lead to lawsuits

10 Feb 26

February 16, 2026 Posted by | New South Wales, politics | Leave a comment

The non-corporate nuclear-related news this week

Some bits of good news

France launches its largest ever rewilding project in the Dauphiné Alps. 

 Chile’s dark skies look set to stay that way.

Colombia Cedes Vast Amazon Land to Indigenous Peoples as Deforestation Surges


TOP STORIES. 

As Landmark Treaty Expires, No Binding Limits on US-Russia Nuclear Arsenals. 

The right to have nukes. 

The Future of Los Alamos Lab: More Nuclear Weapons or Cleanup? 

If You Think Our Rulers Do Bad Things In Secret, Wait Til You See What They Do Out In The Open. 

Left to Bleed: How Israeli Forces Treat the Killing of Palestinian Children as Routine. 

WANTED: Volunteers to host nuclear waste, forever. 

Climate. These US states want polluters to pay for the rising insurance costs of climate disasters.

Noel’s notes. The complex, long-form writers – but is anybody listening?

AUSTRALIA. Aussie Flotilla Team to Gaza Announced. .                                                                           In Australia The Police Beat You Up For Opposing Genocide.                                                           Selective context: Why Isaac Herzog’s visit deepens Australia’s moral failure.                                                                                         Albanese v Albanese.      

For more see Australian nuclear-related news this week

NUCLEAR-RELATED ITEMS       

ATROCITIES. Israel Destroyed Gaza’s Hospitals – Now It’s Banning Doctors Without Borders.
ECONOMICS. Electricity: A confidential EDF report anticipates an explosion in costs and risks.
EMPLOYMENT. Nuclear weapons workers vote for strike action. Dounreay workers among 200 allowed to leave Nuclear Restoration Services’ UK in early exit scheme
ENERGY. Nuclear Power –A White Elephant in the Energy Debate.
ENVIRONMENT ‘Green laws hold up nuclear plans —but we can’t say where’– ALSO AT https://nuclear-news.net/2026/02/14/4-b1-green-laws-hold-up-nuclear-plans-but-we-cant-say-where/  A Business Necessity: Align With Nature or Risk Collapse, IPBES Report Warns.  Trump nixes nukes from environmental reviews.  £700m plan with ‘fish disco’ could save 90% of marine life, says Hinkley Point C study.  New Mexico Environment Department Takes Necessary Action on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Hexavalent Chromium Plume.
ETHICS and RELIGION. Rot at the Top: The Elite’s Darkest Secrets Spill Out.
EVENTS. 19 February – VIRTUAL EVENT-Decision Time: AI and Our Nuclear Arsenal 
HEALTH. Residential proximity to nuclear power plants and cancer incidence in Massachusetts, USA (2000–2018).
INDIGENOUS ISSUES. Submissions to the Federal Court of Appeal about UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) .Sizewell C opponents to appeal High Court decision.  Palestine Action protesters found not guilty of Elbit burglary.
MEDIA. Leading PapersCall for Destroying Iran to Save It.  Whitehaven’s Polluted Harbour is “Riviera of the North” NuSpeak Lives.
OPPOSITION to NUCLEAR . An environmental coalition defends Environmental Justice (EJ)  against the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s (NWMO) latest Deep Geological Repository (DGR) scheme.

POLITICS.

POLITICS INTERNATIONAL and DIPLOMACY.

RADIATION. Shrimp with a side of cancer? – Radioactive contamination is real.
SAFETY. Russian nuclear agency insists it can run seized Ukrainian atomic power plant. France must start to plan nuclear closures – safety chief.
SECRETS and LIES. UK ignores corruption scandals when awarding major military contracts.
SPACE. EXPLORATION, WEAPONS. Hegseth calls for U.S. space dominance.
SPINBUSTER. Ontario – Lecce’s nuclear spin –and the $3.3 billion he forgot to mention EDF makes distorted claims about Hinkley C fish deterrent.
TECHNOLOGY. US campaign puts case for disposal, not reprocessing, of used nuclear fuel.
WASTES. Hanford begins removing waste from 24th single-shell tank.

WAR and CONFLICT.

WEAPONS and WEAPONS SALES.

February 15, 2026 Posted by | Weekly Newsletter | Leave a comment

Australian nuclear-related news this week

AUSTRALIA. 

February 14, 2026 Posted by | Christina reviews | Leave a comment

A “Call for Peace”

Australian Anti=AUKUS Coalition

We call on the Government of Australia in the interests of peace and security for the Australian people and the region:

  • To advise its AUKUS partners that Australia will not be involved in a war against China over Taiwan or disputed territorial waters in the South China Sea, or any other country, and will not allow use of Australian territory for that purpose
  • To sign and ratify the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
  • To cancel military spending for AUKUS war preparations, including cancellation of the acquisition of nuclear-propelled submarines, so that urgent domestic social needs (climate change mitigation, education, health including public hospitals and housing) can be better addressed.

Please read the full statement and sign here

February 13, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

 18 February – Rally against militarism and the Australian military establishment 

Wednesday 18th of February at 4:30  Outside the Hyatt hotel  

February 13, 2026 Posted by | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Exposing the DISTURBING ISRAELI Lobby inside Australia | Ex-Foreign Minister Bob Carr

In this exclusive interview, former Australian Foreign Minister, the Hon. Bob Carr reveals the deep underlying influence of the Israeli lobby in Australian politics – and how it has long shaped Canberra’s stance on Israel–Palestine.

Once a co-founder of the Labor Friends of Israel with Bob Hawke in 1977, Carr has undergone a dramatic transformation – from being hailed in Tel Aviv as an “honourable gentile” to now becoming one of the loudest critics of Israel’s brutality in Gaza.

February 13, 2026 Posted by | secrets and lies | Leave a comment

Herzog’s Visit to Australia: Just Who Is Being Comforted, and at What Cost?

12 February 2026 AIMN Editorial, By Ricky Pann, https://theaimn.net/herzogs-visit-to-australia-just-who-is-being-comforted-and-at-what-cost/

Chris Minns, symbolism, policing, and the narrowing of dissent

The five-day visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Australia in February 2026 was framed by the federal government as a gesture of compassion. A “moment of profound significance,” we were told, intended to comfort a Jewish community still reeling from the Bondi Beach massacre. Yet as Sydney’s CBD was placed under extraordinary police powers under the authority of NSW Premier Chris Minns, and peaceful dissent was progressively marginalised, a harder question emerged. Who exactly was being comforted, and who was being disciplined?

This essay is not about Jewish Australians, nor is it an attack on Jewish identity, culture, or faith. It is about power. Specifically, it examines the political influence of pro-Zionist lobbying networks, their intersection with far-right activism, and the way criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza has been recoded as antisemitism in order to narrow the space for lawful protest and political dissent in Australia.

The radicalization confronting this country is not racial or religious. It is ideological.

Symbolism, Selectively Applied

Symbolism, Selectively Applied

Political authority in modern Australia is increasingly exercised through symbolism. In October 2023, the Premier Chris Minns NSW Labor Government authorized the projection of the Israeli flag onto the Sydney Opera House, a unilateral display of solidarity following the outbreak of war in Gaza. No equivalent space was afforded to Palestinian grief, despite mounting civilian casualties and credible allegations of war crimes.

Less than two years later, when hundreds of thousands of Australians sought to march peacefully across the Harbour Bridge in the “March for Humanity” to protest the starvation and bombardment of Gaza, NSW Premier Chris Minns attempted to block the demonstration entirely. The stated reasons were “logistics” and “public safety,” yet the inconsistency was glaring. The same government that had no difficulty illuminating national icons for one side of a foreign conflict suddenly discovered insurmountable risk when confronted with mass civic dissent.

This contradiction matters because Minns’ own federal party had already moved to recognize the State of Palestine in early 2025, a move grounded in international law and bipartisan precedent. His resistance to the march therefore cannot be explained by party policy. It must be understood as political pressure from lobbying networks that historically provide the largest sponsorship of non-government funded international trips for federal parliamentarians.

Electoral Mandates and Managed Fear

Minns’ 2023 election was powered by Muslim and multicultural Western Sydney electorates. These communities did not merely vote Labor. They organized, volunteered, and mobilized. By 2026, those same voters found their protests discouraged, surveilled, and in some cases forcibly dispersed under expanded “Major Event” police powers.


The Premier moved from campaigning on inclusion to presiding over the criminalization of dissent. Symbolically, he shifted from promising a “fresh start for all of NSW” to publicly accepting praise from Isaac Herzog as a “friend of Israel,” even as Palestinian Australians were told their grief must remain silent.

Why?

Dissent Recast as Disloyalty

That question sharpened further when the police response and official rhetoric began to frame protesters as “anti-Australian.” The remark was not incidental; it signaled a reframing of peaceful assembly as national disloyalty.

Anti-Australian is not marching with placards. Anti-Australian is pepper-spraying, manhandling, and arresting ordinary citizens exercising democratic rights. Among those dispersed and detained at Town Hall and Bondi were young people affiliated with the Labor movement itself. The irony is difficult to ignore: a government elected by grassroots mobilization now presiding over the physical suppression of its own political base.

When dissent is redefined as threat, the social contract fractures. Protest becomes suspicion. Citizenship becomes conditional.

The Infrastructure of Influence

The answer lies not in religion, but in networks. Central to this landscape is Jillian Segal, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism appointed by Prime Minister Antony Albanese. Appointing any lobbyist as a special envoy is a dangerous move for social cohesion, especially one with strong links to a right wing government that operates with its military, intelligence agencies, the military industrial complex and propaganda machine hand in glove.

While the role is framed as protective, its credibility has been undermined by Australian Electoral Commission data showing her household, via the Henroth Discretionary Trust, as a significant donor to Advance Australia. Advance Australia led the campaign against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, arguing that constitutional recognition would grant disproportionate influence to a single minority. Yet the same ideological ecosystem now demands exceptional legal protections that redefine criticism of a foreign state as racial hatred. In doing so, it collapses the distinction between antisemitism and opposition to Zionism or Israeli military policy.

This is not a contradiction. It is a strategy.

By expanding definitions of antisemitism to include phrases, political speech critical of Israel, these actors create a legal and cultural environment in which Palestinian Australian identity itself becomes suspect.5 Protest becomes threat. Dissent becomes hate. Assembly becomes extremism.

Fear as a Political Tool

Former Foreign Minister and Labor Premier of NSW  Bob Carr has described the pro-Israel lobby in Australia as a “well-funded foreign influence operation.” Its power does not rest solely on donations, though the Henroth Trust alone provided $280,000 to the Liberal Party in 2024-25, but on fear. Fear of reputational destruction. Fear of being branded weak on security. Fear of becoming the next viral political target of confected rage.

Public rebukes from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including claims that Australian policy “fueled” the Bondi attack, functioned as signals. The message was clear: deviation will be punished. For a state premier, the threat of an organized backlash from internationally connected lobbying networks appears to have outweighed the expressed will of his voters, the principles of his party caucus, and the basic democratic right to protest.

The Theatre of Tragedy

The Bondi Beach attack must be named for what it was: outright terrorism driven by radicalized ideology. It is a national trauma. Australians are grieving. Jewish Australians are grieving. Muslim Australians are grieving. This pain is real and shared.

To use that tragedy as diplomatic cover for Herzog’s visit is not an act of healing. It is socially inflammatory populist theatre. It is exploitation pornography, weaponizing grief to silence dissent and to morally coerce the public into picking a side while laws are quietly rewritten in the background. Politicians call for social cohesion while banning words, narrowing protest rights, and empowering police to detain, search, and suppress political opponents. They invoke unity while demanding ideological compliance.

Is this cohesion, or is it theatre?

Surveillance and the Authoritarian Horizon

That question becomes more urgent in light of the federal government’s expanding relationship with Palantir, the data analysis firm whose platforms underpin United States immigration enforcement (ICE) and provide battlefield intelligence to the Israeli military.

Australia has now granted this company “protected-level” access to sensitive national data following its Nov 2025 assessment. The question is no longer theoretical. How long before these tools are turned inward? How long before citizens who challenge laws championed by foreign-aligned lobbyists find themselves catalogued, profiled, and neutralized in the name of security?

True social cohesion is not achieved through surveillance, intimidation, or moral blackmail. It is built through consistency, restraint, and the protection of civil liberties. When governments abandon those principles, they do not preserve democracy. They hollow it out. And no amount of symbolic lighting can conceal that erosion.

Author’s Note

I am pro-Jewish. I am pro-Arab. I am unequivocally opposed to antisemitism, Islamophobia, and political violence in all forms. I draw a clear distinction between race, religion, and ideology. In an age of populism and misinformation, where mainstream and social media demand that we pick a side, I refuse to do so. As a centrist, I reject the false binary that equates moral clarity with tribal allegiance. Democracies fail not when citizens disagree, but when dissent itself is recast as disloyalty. I have resigned from the Labor party as it no longer hears my voice or  represents my values

February 13, 2026 Posted by | secrets and lies | Leave a comment

This was planned. And Chris Minns owns it.

by Andrew Brown | Feb 10, 2026 , https://michaelwest.com.au/this-was-planned-and-chris-minns-owns-it/

NSW Police have assaulted dozens of peace protestors who gathered to protest the visit by Israeli president Isaac Herzog to Australia. Andrew Brown was there.

I was there. Not watching from a distance. Not reconstructing events from police statements. I was on the steps of Sydney Town Hall, with organisers and MPs, looking out over a vast peaceful crowd and then watching the state choose violence.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrived in Sydney for a tightly secured visit. That context matters, because what unfolded was not crowd management. It was a demonstration of power. A message. A deliberate assertion of authority.

An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people gathered peacefully at Town Hall to protest Herzog’s presence. Thousands more were turned away by police cordons. Had the crowd been allowed to assemble freely, numbers would almost certainly have reached 30,000 or more. Families. Elderly people. Students. Health workers. Jews and Muslims standing together. Calm. Disciplined. Focused.

“There was no riot energy. No vandalism. No threat.“

I stood on the steps with protest organisers and elected representatives, looking out over a crowd that never surged, never damaged property, never turned violent. Beside me were Stephen Lawrence MLC, Sue Higginson MLC, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Cameron Murphy MLC, and other Greens MPs and MLCs.


At least five sitting members of the Minns government were present. They were not hovering at the edges. They were chanting with the crowd. Standing shoulder to shoulder with constituents. Watching events unfold in real time.

This was not fringe politics. This was Parliament in the street.

Dr Muhammad Mustafa, known widely as Dr Mo, did not address the crowd. He spoke quietly to me. Online, he goes by the handle Dr Mo the Beast from the Middle East, a name that reads like bravado until you understand what forged it.

He told me about operating on children without anaesthetic. About hospitals without power. About performing surgery by torchlight while bombs fell nearby. About the dozens of his own relatives who have been murdered in Gaza.

He did not raise his voice. He did not need to. People who have lived through that kind of loss do not perform outrage. They carry it.

“That was the moral gravity of the gathering.“

And while tens of thousands of Australians stood in the open air exercising democratic rights, Premier Chris Minns was not there.

He was dining.

Dining with a war criminal

Inside the International Convention Centre, Minns broke bread with Herzog as the Israeli president spoke about social cohesion.

This is the same Isaac Herzog who once declared there were no innocent civilians in Palestine. The same Herzog who autographed artillery shells later dropped on Gaza. His government now stands before international courts, its conduct under legal scrutiny.Minns knew exactly what this moment represented.

Last year, more than 300,000 people marched across the Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine.

“Minns tried to stop it. He failed.“

He lost in court. He lost the argument. He lost control. That march exposed the limits of his authority and the strength of public opposition.

This was his chance to correct that.

Herzog was in town. The optics were international. Minns was not going to lose again.

Peace, then the violence

The rally ended peacefully. Speakers finished. People began to leave.

That should have been the end of the day.

Instead, it was the beginning of a deliberate escalation.

New South Wales Police blocked exits and sealed movement south toward Circular Quay. People trying to go home were trapped without explanation. There were no clear lawful directions. No safety rationale. Just containment.

Bottlenecks were deliberately created. Confusion was manufactured. Then force was applied to the disorder police themselves had caused.

This was not crowd control. It was crowd engineering.

Police brutality

I watched police push into a dispersing crowd.

I watched elderly people panic.

I watched bodies hit the ground.

I helped a young girl who had been pepper sprayed in the face and collapsed into a seizure on the pavement. She was convulsing, incapacitated. As she lay there on the ground, police sprayed her again in the face. Again.

Attacks on the elderly

Nearby, I helped a 71-year-old woman whose eyes and face were burned red from pepper spray. She was blinded, sobbing, asking what she had done wrong. She had done nothing.

“My own family was not spared.“

My mother is 84 years old. She was attempting to leave peacefully. She was pushed by police, knocked to the ground, and suffered a fractured arm.

My sister lives with Parkinson’s disease. She was shoved and thrust by police during the same operation.

As the evening wore on, the brutality escalated. Dozens upon dozens were arrested. Protesters were dragged across pavement, punched, kicked, restrained. This was not reactive policing. It was proactive force.

“Attacks on people praying“

Later, I witnessed a line crossed that should alarm anyone who believes Australia still respects basic freedoms. Sheikh Wesam Charkawi was praying peacefully with followers, prostrate on the ground. Silent. Non-confrontational. Police moved in anyway.

People were brutalised while in the act of prayer. Shoved. Dragged. Hauled up by force.

This was no longer just an attack on protest. It was an attack on worship.

There were roughly 500 police deployed at Town Hall and an estimated 3,000 across the CBD. This scale was not accidental. It was a show of force. Police created the disorder they later claimed to suppress. This tactic is known. It is taught. It is deliberate.

And it is political.

“Minns owns this”

Chris Minns owns this operation from top to bottom. He cannot hide behind operational reviews or police statements. His own MPs were there. Chanting. Watching. Warning. They knew instantly this was wrong.

Minns wanted to prove he was in charge. He wanted to assert authority while hosting a foreign leader accused of mass atrocities. He chose force as his language.

A Premier who dines with a leader accused of genocide, who has signed the very bombs dropped on civilians, while his police break the arm of an 84-year-old woman, assault a woman with Parkinson’s disease, spray a seizing child in the face, and brutalise people at prayer has forfeited all moral authority to govern.

This was not a mistake.

“It was a tactic.“

Chris Minns may still occupy the office. “Thank you friends,” he told the pro-Israel crowd at the Convention Centre to a warm round of applause.

But tonight, in the streets of Sydney, while he clinked glasses with Isaac Herzog, he lost the right to lead this state.

And I watched it happen.

February 13, 2026 Posted by | New South Wales, politics | Leave a comment

Herzog protests. Medics attacked too, lawyers question police violence

by Stephanie Tran and V Y Franco-Klothos | Feb 11, 2026 https://michaelwest.com.au/herzog-protests-medics-attacked-too-lawyers-question-police-violence/

Monday’s police actions against anti-genocide protestors in Sydney represent a significant escalation of unwarranted violence. Stephanie Tran and V Y Franco-Klothos report.

Editor’s note: An earlier version included unconfirmed claims that the police used tear gas (in addition to pepper spray, which was used).

NSW Police are on the defensive. Following the spate of attacks on pro-Palestine protestors on Monday night, and amid rising criticism of their brutality, the Police are refusing to answer questions as to the number of people arrested, the number charged, and the nature of the charges.

According to the ABC yesterday, 27 people were arrested and 9 have since been charged. That was yesterday. Today, they were not responding, apart from a motherhood statement unrelating to those arrested.

From the outset of the protest against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, police had set up clear lines around every exit from the Town Hall area to contain the protest within Town Hall Square.

“Police were seen giving contradictory instructions to protestors – both instructing them to disperse from the square and demanding that they stop attempting to leave the square.“

“Aerial video clearly shows NSW police kettling protesters and causing a crowd crush.

“Incontrovertible evidence of the police hemming in protesters, preventing them from leaving(kettling) and attacking them.”

“They started this from before the speeches had even ended. The police commissioner is proud of this. He needs to resign with Minns. pic.twitter.com/ERU7K3Tn9f“

— The Longford Slasher (@Longfordslasher) February 10, 2026

Aggressive police behaviour

Activist Larissa Payne was near a group of Muslim demonstrators who had begun evening prayers in a corner of Town Hall Square. Payne, her family members and other members of the public linked arms to form a barrier between the praying group and riot police.

“It was a deliberate expression of non-violence, it was an expression of love and solidarity,” Payne said.

Footage of the scene shows officers moving in and violently grabbing members of the prayer group.

Payne was restrained using a wrist hold and dragged down steps, leaving her with sprained wrists.

Payne’s 78-year-old father, Ian Payne was with her. When he put his arm out to protect her, police forced his arm behind his back, causing a deep wound to his elbow. 

“When he instinctively put his arm out to protect me, they grabbed his arm and put it right up behind his back. They tore open his elbow so he had skin and blood hanging everywhere. It was just awful.”

Payne’s partner, former Senator Scott Ludlam, was knocked to the ground, leaving him with a possible fractured rib. He was handcuffed and arrested before being released.

Payne said a lack of accountability for the police brutality on Monday would lead to police impunity becoming “normalised”, telling MWM:

“If we don’t do something collectively to hold them to account, if the police get impunity, this violence is going to become normalised.“

“The police violence is a symptom of something larger. If you look at the global context, we’re moving towards more extreme right wing politics. The fact that this was done under the leadership of a Labor Premier speaks to how Labor is being dragged to the right,” Payne said.

Another protester, Ali Al-lami says he was pushed to the ground and called a “brown c*nt”. Police proceeded to punch Al-lami and handcuff him while pressing his head to the ground.

“It was like how an IDF soldier would put a Palestinian to the ground and brutalise them. That’s exactly what they did to me,” Al-lami said. He was arrested but subsequently released without charge.

“They released me without any charges because they know what they did was wrong. They didn’t have any legal basis to arrest me. I did nothing wrong, I wasn’t resisting, I didn’t attack anyone,” he said.

Jordan, who asked that his surname be withheld,  was also injured during the police operation.

“I saw police knock someone next to me to the ground and punch them,” he said. “When I tried to help the victim on the ground, I was knocked down.”

He said officers removed his safety goggles, threw them aside and restrained him. “I was cuffed tightly and left with injuries on my face, hand and wrist,” he said.

He was charged with inciting violence, breaching the peace and resisting arrest.

“There’s photographic evidence that shows I didn’t resist arrest in any way,” Jordan said.

“I knew it was state-sanctioned violence but I was surprised at how openly and proudly they were all doing it. Many of the officers were literally grinning as they were hitting us – they were loving life.”

Medics under attack

Volunteer street medics, who operate independently of PAG, were in attendance on Monday evening and treated dozens of protestors who had been indiscriminately attacked with pepper spray.

Omaim Al-Baghdadi was one of the medics at the scene. She told MWM that police officers attacked and pepper-sprayed medics who were assisting injured protesters.

“We were in the middle of treating people. We told them we were medics, but it didn’t matter to them. They grabbed us and shoved us and told us to move on.”

1×1515

5:10 / 11:23

Listen to this story

11 min

Monday’s police actions against anti-genocide protestors in Sydney represent a significant escalation of unwarranted violence. Stephanie Tran and V Y Franco-Klothos report.

Editor’s note: An earlier version included unconfirmed claims that the police used tear gas (in addition to pepper spray, which was used).

NSW Police are on the defensive. Following the spate of attacks on pro-Palestine protestors on Monday night, and amid rising criticism of their brutality, the Police are refusing to answer questions as to the number of people arrested, the number charged, and the nature of the charges.

According to the ABC yesterday, 27 people were arrested and 9 have since been charged. That was yesterday. Today, they were not responding, apart from a motherhood statement unrelating to those arrested.

From the outset of the protest against the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, police had set up clear lines around every exit from the Town Hall area to contain the protest within Town Hall Square.

Police were seen giving contradictory instructions to protestors – both instructing them to disperse from the square and demanding that they stop attempting to leave the square.

Aerial video clearly shows NSW police kettling protesters and causing a crowd crush.

Incontrovertible evidence of the police hemming in protesters, preventing them from leaving(kettling) and attacking them.

They started this from before the speeches had even ended. The police commissioner is proud of this. He needs to resign with Minns. pic.twitter.com/ERU7K3Tn9f

— The Longford Slasher (@Longfordslasher) February 10, 2026

Aggressive police behaviour

Activist Larissa Payne was near a group of Muslim demonstrators who had begun evening prayers in a corner of Town Hall Square. Payne, her family members and other members of the public linked arms to form a barrier between the praying group and riot police.

“It was a deliberate expression of non-violence, it was an expression of love and solidarity,” Payne said.

Footage of the scene shows officers moving in and violently grabbing members of the prayer group.

Payne was restrained using a wrist hold and dragged down steps, leaving her with sprained wrists. 

Ian Payne

Payne’s 78-year-old father, Ian Payne was with her. When he put his arm out to protect her, police forced his arm behind his back, causing a deep wound to his elbow. 

“When he instinctively put his arm out to protect me, they grabbed his arm and put it right up behind his back. They tore open his elbow so he had skin and blood hanging everywhere. It was just awful.”

Larissa Payne

Payne’s partner, former Senator Scott Ludlam, was knocked to the ground, leaving him with a possible fractured rib. He was handcuffed and arrested before being released.

Payne said a lack of accountability for the police brutality on Monday would lead to police impunity becoming “normalised”, telling MWM:

If we don’t do something collectively to hold them to account, if the police get impunity, this violence is going to become normalised.

“The police violence is a symptom of something larger. If you look at the global context, we’re moving towards more extreme right wing politics. The fact that this was done under the leadership of a Labor Premier speaks to how Labor is being dragged to the right,” Payne said.

Another protester, Ali Al-lami says he was pushed to the ground and called a “brown c*nt”. Police proceeded to punch Al-lami and handcuff him while pressing his head to the ground.

“It was like how an IDF soldier would put a Palestinian to the ground and brutalise them. That’s exactly what they did to me,” Al-lami said. He was arrested but subsequently released without charge.

“They released me without any charges because they know what they did was wrong. They didn’t have any legal basis to arrest me. I did nothing wrong, I wasn’t resisting, I didn’t attack anyone,” he said.

Jordan, who asked that his surname be withheld,  was also injured during the police operation.

“I saw police knock someone next to me to the ground and punch them,” he said. “When I tried to help the victim on the ground, I was knocked down.”

He said officers removed his safety goggles, threw them aside and restrained him. “I was cuffed tightly and left with injuries on my face, hand and wrist,” he said.

He was charged with inciting violence, breaching the peace and resisting arrest.

“There’s photographic evidence that shows I didn’t resist arrest in any way,” Jordan said.

“I knew it was state-sanctioned violence but I was surprised at how openly and proudly they were all doing it. Many of the officers were literally grinning as they were hitting us – they were loving life.”

Medics under attack

Volunteer street medics, who operate independently of PAG, were in attendance on Monday evening and treated dozens of protestors who had been indiscriminately attacked with pepper spray.

Omaim Al-Baghdadi was one of the medics at the scene. She told MWM that police officers attacked and pepper-sprayed medics who were assisting injured protesters.

“We were in the middle of treating people. We told them we were medics, but it didn’t matter to them. They grabbed us and shoved us and told us to move on.”

“Many families and elderly people were caught in the crowd as tear gas* was deployed by police.“

Another volunteer medic, who asked not to be named, was caught in the middle of the crowd as police simultaneously crushed, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed* families.

“I saw a lot of horrible things at the protest, but what really stuck with me was the fear and panic I saw in the eyes of children and their parents as this was all unfolding. It was really distressing to me, even as someone who has personally witnessed and experienced a lot of police violence,” they said.

“We were being crushed in as the police kettled us, and then everyone around me began to cough violently. I think it took longer to hit me than others because I had an N95 mask and goggles on, but when it did eventually hit, it was awful. I felt like I was being choked and began to wretch and shake. It has been nearly 24 hours since the protest, and I still have ongoing nausea and wretching.”

Excessive police powers

In the wake of the Bondi attack in December 2025, NSW parliament rushed through the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, which gave police powers to effectively ban protests and other public assemblies for up to three months following a ‘declared terrorist incident’.

In addition to the rushed “anti-terror” legislation, the Minns Labor government made a “Major Event Declaration” to facilitate the Herzog visit. This legislation gives police additional powers, including the ability to significantly increase officer numbers, enact warrantless searches and block the public from a “declared area”.

On Monday afternoon, the NSW Supreme Court dismissed PAG’s challenge to the major event declaration, leaving the public vulnerable to these broad powers.

The major event declaration not only extended police powers further, but also gave them relative immunity for their brutality. Perhaps most concerningly, the Major event declaration diminishes the right for protestors to receive compensation for violence inflicted by the State.


Specifically, section 62 of the Major Events Act 2009 details the exemption from paying compensation. According to the legislation, the State, local Councils and officers, employees or agents of the State or local council cannot be compelled to provide compensation regarding “an act or omission that is a major event-related matter, or that arises (directly or indirectly) from a major event related-matter.”

Criminal lawyer and investigative journalist Nick Hanna noted that this could

“significantly limit the claims for protestors injured by police.“

“This is one of the egregious examples of wanton police violence we’ve seen in a long time. There are countless people who would ordinarily have a strong basis to sue the police for assault, unlawful arrest and/or false imprisonment, but may now effectively be precluded from doing so as a result of the major event declaration,” Hanna said.

Hanna represented Palestine Action Group in their Supreme Court challenge against the major event declaration.

“Had the Supreme Court granted our application on behalf of PAG to declare the major event declaration invalid, these restrictions on the ability to recover damages from the police for their tortious conduct wouldn’t apply,” he said.

If PAG successfully appeals the Supreme Court’s decision, protesters may have more legal avenues.

“If PAG appeals the decision and is successful, this may have the effect of lifting the restrictions on people suing the state for the violence inflicted by the police,” Hanna said.

NSW Police response

MWM put the following questions to NSW Police:

  1. How many people were arrested at the protest? Of those, how many have been released and how many have been charged, and with what offences?
  2. There are numerous reports that NSW Police used excessive violence in response to the protest, including video footage of police officers assaulting individuals who were on the ground in prayer. How does NSW Police respond to these allegations?
  3. Aerial footage appears to show police forming multiple lines and barriers along George Street and surrounding exits, which protesters say prevented them from leaving the area (a tactic often described as “kettling”). What was the operational rationale underpinning this policing decision?

A NSW Police spokesperson provided the response below:

“NSW Police will review all officially reported complaints from the Town Hall event. If a complaint is made through official channels police will investigate appropriately. During the event at Town Hall on Monday (9 February 2026), police gave multiple opportunities for attendees to leave the area safely. Police deployed multiple crowd management techniques during the event to maintain public security. Attendees were at no point forced to remain in the area and were always afforded the opportunity to leave the event.”

February 13, 2026 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

Our Leaders Couldn’t Fix Our Problems If They Wanted To (And They Don’t Want To)

Caitlin Johnstone, Feb 11, 2026, https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/our-leaders-couldnt-fix-our-problems?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=187582757&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Our leaders are not going to fix the worst problems in our world. They couldn’t if they wanted to. And they don’t want to.

Our leaders are not wise or insightful. They’re not even particularly intelligent. Our society is led by plutocrats who only know how to make more money, by unelected empire managers who only know how to dominate and control, and by elected politicians who only know how to say the right words and make the right bargains in order to get themselves elected.

These people are not capable of curing our civilization of its dysfunction. They don’t have the necessary skills or attributes. Even if they weren’t a bunch of evil sociopaths who are only in the positions they’re in because of their willingness to collaborate with the agendas of oligarchy, war, militarism, imperialism, ecocide, exploitation, oppression and planetary domination, they don’t even have the personal characteristics necessary to do things like end poverty, rescue our biosphere, bring about world peace or give rise to human thriving. They’d have no idea where to star

I say this because as I watch Americans and Australians falling all over themselves to justify the recent police brutality in our respective nations, I am struck by how many people still believe our society is run by leaders who more or less know what they are doing and will guide us to more or less where we need to be. They view their government as a wise and beneficent father who knows what’s best for all of us, and they believe anyone who disagrees with Daddy is being naughty.

That’s really all it is. They’ll make up all sorts of justifications and excuses, but ultimately their police apologia arises from an infantile worldview which believes the authorities are right for no other reason than because they are in authority. They begin with their tongue on the boot of power, and then they make up reasons for why their tongue needs to be there.

That’s the worldview that gets a lot of people through their day. Believing our society is basically just and decent, and that we don’t need to concern ourselves with the world’s problems because we’ve got highly qualified leaders working hard at fixing them.

Believing our society is just and decent allows one to relax under the assumption that they deserve all the comforts they have in life and that the system will never turn against them. If someone is killed by police, or is impoverished or imprisoned or homeless, then it’s because they did something wrong and immoral, and all you need to do to avoid the same fate is follow the rules and make ethical choices. Under a just and decent system, good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, so all you need to do is be good and you’ll be fine, and if things are going badly for you it’s because you deserve it.

Believing we’ve got highly qualified leaders working on our world’s problems allows one to relax under the assumption that everything’s taken care of. There’s no need to concern ourselves with all the information which tells us we’re plunging deeper and deeper into tyrannical dystopia on a collision course with environmental catastrophe under a globe-spanning empire that is fueled by human blood, because Daddy’s got it all taken care of.

Really these are just juvenile fairy tales designed to help us psychologically compartmentalize away from uncomfortable realities; no grown adult has any business believing them. But a lot of people would do anything to avoid internal discomfort. Entire psychological universes are constructed around the unconscious agenda of not feeling unpleasant feelings.

Daddy’s not gonna save us, kiddos. Daddy’s a serial killer with dead bodies in the attic, and many important parts of his brain are missing. Our problems aren’t going to get fixed until we get rid of Daddy. Getting rid of Daddy means forcibly getting rid of the entire system under which we live and replacing it with something that serves the interests of ordinary human beings.

Bootlickers hate revolutionary politics, because it is diametrically opposed to their infantile worldview of paternalistic government deities. But things aren’t going to get better until we find a way to get the steering wheel of our world out of the hands of the people who are currently in charge. Until then, everything’s just going to keep getting worse.

February 13, 2026 Posted by | politics | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries