Curr: How ASIO destroys livesAdverse security assessments by ASIO can shatter asylum seekers’ lives — yet no one is even allowed to know how these assessments are made, writes the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s Pamela Curr.
January, 2010
Big Apple sets a salt standard for Australia to follow
After laying down the law on trans-fats and requiring restaurant chains to publish calorie counts on menus, New York is now sizing up to big salt — and Australia could learn a thing or two, says Jacqui Webster
Is Coles trying to kill newspapers?
Coles has now relegated newspapers to the corners of their stores and made it a massive pain-in-the-arse to buy them in the new-fangled “self-service” checkouts? Is the supermarket chain secretly trying to speed up the demise of printed news? asks Tim Burrows.
Economy gets a free kick by not holding the bull
It has been a very good year to be a bull, with share markets across the world rebounding with incredible haste. The US market is all the more astonishing when compared to 1982, the last significant economic slump.
Will Aussies pay for Murdoch’s news?
It’s going to be the media issue of the new decade: whether or not Rupert Murdoch can succeed in his plans to persuade newspaper readers to pay for content online. New research doesn’t look promising.
Video of the Day: French Star Wars
Quelle horreur.
Absurd weasel words from Oneworld about Japan Airlines
It is a dismal reflection on the media when an imprecisely defined package of benefits to the fiscal basket case that is Japan Airlines is headlined as a $US 2 billion rescue package with a significant Qantas contribution, writes Ben Sandilands.
Meet the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela”
Israel is willing to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for the return of kidnapped Israeli sodiler soldier Gilad Shalit, but there’s one they won’t give up: Marwan Barghouti, the man many Palestinians see him as the leader who can finally reunite them.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: An ideological rather than scientific objection to climate change
Crikey readers weigh in on Clive Hamilton versus Viscount Monckton and his over-egged CV, plus the Taliban in Pakistan and being unAustralian.
Young rich-listers’ fashion label bites the dust
The owners of struggling fashion label Ksubi say they remain committed to helping the administrator restructure the business. What went wrong?
Talking the Town: Talking the Town: Pilger’s wrong to bag The West
Those expecting a fierce attack on media moguls from Australian ex-pat journalist John Pilger would have been disappointed at his Q&A session in Perth yesterday, writes Lawrence Apps.
Media briefs: Google ditches China … Cowell ditches Idol … mag ditches hilarious name
Google is threatening to pull out of China after a massive cyber attack, Simon Cowell has voted himself off the Idol island, saucy stuff for fans of 3D alien tentacle sex, and more news from the mediasphere.
Political snippets: There’s something in the warm water
It might be abnormally cold on land in much of the northern hemisphere at the moment but it’s a warm old time in the world’s oceans, writes Richard Farmer.
Politicians behaving badly: all the juicy news from Game Change
Washington has been in a frenzy all week as sordid political rumours spill forth from the new book on the US ‘08 presidential campaign, Game Change. From affairs to racist remarks, what were the spiciest revelations?
Dear Tony: despite the rain, farmers still need your help
Crikey reader and farmer Rob Lennon pens another open letter to Agriculture Minister Tony Burke: even with the rain, farms and farmers still need urgent assistance.
Government ads: a case of self-promotion because they can
Outrage over government-funded political advertising has been going on for years, yet all governments — state and federal, Labor and Coalition alike — keep doing it, and voters rarely make them pay any price for it.
The Media Monitors' Top 20: Gillard’s time to shine
Julia Gillard has taken the media spotlight as the PM takes a break. Apart from that, it’s been all about the whales in the first Media Monitors’ Top 20 list of 2010.
Crikey Clarifier: All roads lead to Yemen
Yemen has been big new lately, since alleged Christmas Day bomber, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, admitted to terrorist training in the country and put it firmly back on the map. But what do we actually know about Yemen? Crikey gets a background briefing.
Big Apple sets a salt standard for us to follow
Australia is dragging the chain when it comes to salt reduction efforts, writes Jacqui Webster, from The George Institute for International Health.
ASIO, not the government, calling the shots on refugees
ASIO says that five refugees from Oceanic Viking constitute a threat to national security. How can this be a healthy democratic country when a secret agency plays such a major role in a political debate, without even making its sources available?
Golf courses just waiting for residential development
Christopher Joye tees off with a novel approach to possible new housing venues. Why not convert public golfcourses into public parkland and use a section of the park for housing?
CASA slammed on Norfolk plane crash
An interim report into the escape of six people aboard a flooded Pel-Air jet in the sea off Norfolk Island in November last year hangs air safety regulator CASA out to dry.
