Radio Adelaide's home of international news and current affairs analysis
Archive for the ‘Australia’ Category.
Inka Stafrace is the director of Hope in a Slingshot, a documentary film about the realities of the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank.
Inka is touring Australia promoting screenings of the film after the ABC controversially cancelled plans to broadcast it.
The film is being screened in Adelaide at the Mercury Cinema on Wednesday the 11th of August at 6pm.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 28th of July.
Gemma Weedall is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the seat of Adelaide while Renfrey Clark is on the Socialist Alliance South Australian Senate ticket.
With the upcoming Australian Federal Election, Back Story took the opportunity to speak with the two candidates about issues including environmental, refugee, aboriginal intervention and industrial relations policy.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 28th of July.
In September 1999 the Howard government initiated a military intervention in East Timor as the province was emerging from under Indonesian occupation.
Sam Pietsch is the author of a PhD on Australia’s military intervention in East Timor. An article based on his research recently appeared in Marxist Interventions.
Back Story spoke to Sam about the political background of the intervention and the way in which it characterised a new direction in Australian foreign policy.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 14th of July.
The actions that governments have been taking in response to the ongoing global economic crisis during the last three years have culminated in the decisions coming out of the G20 summit held in Toronto at the end of last month.
The powerful European states are calling for the implementation of harsh austerity measures to curb government debt after many governments outlaid huge amounts of capital to prop up financial institutions. These policies are characterised by the recent British budget and those imposed in Greece which mean sharp decreases in government social spending programs and other social safety nets traditionally associated with liberal democratic industrial societies. The importance of such moves was highlighted by a London Treasury Official quoted in the Financial Times as saying “Anyone who thinks the spending review is just about saving money is missing the point, this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the way that government works.”
Back Story spoke to Ben Hillier, a contributor to Socialist Alternative about the state of the world economic system and the move towards economic austerity.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 7th of July.
Jewish people throughout the world have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel’s “Law of Return”. In light of more than seven million Palestinian refugees being denied any right of return to Israel the law is being questioned by prominent Australian Jews.
Antony Loewenstein is a journalist and author of My Israel Question. Antony has recently been involved in the formation of a petition asking Australian Jews to rescind their Right of Return to Israel. He is cofounder of Australian Independent Jewish Voice and you can view his personal website here.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 10th of March.
This interview was conducted by Catherine Zengerer for Your Rights at Night, the SA Unions access program that focuses on activist media, work rights and social justice issues and is broadcast 6pm Thursdays on Radio Adelaide.
Catherine spoke to author and historian Humphrey McQueen who was in Adelaide to run a seminar at the Australian Education Union called “Australian Worker’s Paradise: Does it Exist?” on October 29th 2009. You can see his personal website here. Catherine started by asking Humphrey whether an Australian worker’s paradise ever existed.
This interview was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 9th of December.
As the world struggles with both the global financial crisis and the looming climate crisis, a new sense of urgency has entered the talks between the leaders of our main economies and the leaders of developing nations in the lead up to the Copenhagen Climate talks scheduled for early December.
But while our heads of state have managed to co-operate on an unprecedented scale to address our economic problems, the same can’t be said for our environment.
Tony Kevin is a former Australian Ambassador to Poland and Cambodia and author of a new book Crunch Time – using and abusing Keynes to fight the twin crises of our era.
This interview was conducted by Catherine Zengerer for The Wire, our news and current affairs program here at Radio Adelaide. A shorter version was broadcast on The Wire on the 24th of September. We bring you the extend interview from that session with thanks to Catherine Zengerer.
Catherine started by asking Tony about whether he thinks there is a chance that we will be able to make the necessary changes in time.
This talk was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 14th of October.
This year Climate camps are happening all across the country and next month will see South Australians taking mass action at the destination of the world’s largest coal train: Port Augusta.
The Climate Camp is designed to engage anyone interested is the issues of climate change in acts of education, direct action, sustainable living and building a people’s movement to effectively tackle climate change.
Julia spoke to Brendan De Paor-Moore and Riley Ashton, two of the organisers of te Climate Camp. You can see the Climate Camp website here.
This talk was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 26th of August.
Recently a discussion has surfaced about whether population control schemes could feature in the policy aims of the Australian Climate Change movement.
Simon Butler is an analyst and contributor to Green Left Weekly who argues that the proponents of population control schemes completely miss the underlying causes of climate change.
Julia started by asking Simon about the history of such schemes and the lessons we can learn about their previous implementations.
This talk was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 10th of June.
Michael Tubbs is a former lawyer and organiser for the Communist Party of Australia who has recently self published “ASIO: The Enemy Within”. During his professional and personal life, Michael has repeatedly come into contact with ASIO. He has broad familiarity with its operations and the infamous “ASIO file”, having one himself as well as legally representing defendants in the ASIO Appeals Tribunals.Tubbs brings 30 years of research and experience to his analysis of our own secret police force.
This wealth of information available to Tubbs puts him in the unique position to assess ASIO, he uses a large cross section of ASIO files kept on his friends and associates to clearly demonstrate the scope of ASIO’s intrusive and extensive spying program. Rather than focussing on threats to Australia’s “national security”, ASIO has been focussed on domestic spying of what it considers to be anyone from the “centre-left” politically, making it no more than an extreme ideological police force.
Tubbs’ book charts the growth of ASIO and its authority, especially recent increases to its power, under the rubric of the “War on Terror”, which has placed ASIO dangerously beyond political and judicial control.
Copies of his book are available from
Search Foundation
Level 3, Suite 3B
110 Kippax St, Surry Hills 2010
Ph 9211 4164, Fax 9211 1407
Julia started by asking Michael about the known extent of the size of ASIO’s operations.
This talk was broadcast on Radio Adelaide on the 27th of May.
