Julia Gillard’s federal cabinet reshuffle — promoting Bill Shorten and Mark Arbib while sacking good ministers — again demonstrates her lack of judgment and fragility.
Robert McClelland
Follow Crikey’s latest coverage of Robert McClelland. Crikey’s Robert McClelland coverage includes independent news, blogs and commentary.
Crikey Says: Attorney-General Roxon’s to-do list
Nicola Roxon’s appointment as Australia’s first female Attorney-General presents several opportunities to address issues handled poorly by Robert McClelland.
Transparency please! Why the tax breaks for pokies clubs?
Has there ever been a more self-serving public campaign than the one being mounted by Clubs Australia? It’s time for a closer look at the alleged benefits of clubs to the Australian community.
Cybercrime bill not due yet, but ISPs are still worried
Why are ISPs so concerned about the cybercrime bill? It appears to create significant new capacity and equipment requirements for them.
DFAT’s new passport regs a win for trans and inters-x people
Transs-xual and inters-x Australians will now only have to provide a medical certificate from their regular physician in order to change the s-x on their passport, writes Kate Doak, a writer and postgraduate student
WikiLeaks and disclosing classified
information
Julian Assange may face prosecution for revealing the identity of an ASIO officer. But governments disclose secret things all the time.
Mysterious anti-piracy report to be released ‘this week’
An anti-piracy lobby group has bowed to pressure and released a controversial report on the impact of internet piracy on the Australian economy, following howls of protest over its existence and veracity.
The multimillion dollar corporate plan to destroy WikiLeaks
Anonymous’s attack on an American cyber-security company was for the lulz, until it revealed a multimillion dollar plan to attack WikiLeaks.
Wikileaks The political problem of WikiLeaks
A backbench revolt over the stance on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange’s imprisonment is one thing. Julia Gillard’s government has a bigger problem with simple competence.
Guy Rundle: Bob Brown supports WikiLeaks, is Phillip Adams in the frame?
Should the government decide that it wants to pursue action around the ‘Cablegate’ material, other Australians involved with WikiLeaks may well be liable for prosecution. The most prominent of these is the broadcaster Phillip Adams who is, or was until recently, a member of the advisory board of WikiLeaks.
Crikey Says: McClelland’s sensitive information debate, circa 1985
If McClelland thinks there is a debate to be had over media handling of national security information, he should throw it open to the media most likely to offer the sort of coverage he appears concerned about.
Missing the point on WikiLeaks
The WikiLeaks cables — far more significant than anyone has acknowledged — will change governments. But both the mainstream media and the federal government appear to be completely oblivious to the fact.
Frank Brennan: Why human rights need to be our agenda
Australia doesn’t need a human rights charter, the government has decided. Fine, says Frank Brennan, that wasn’t the main point anyway. Hopefully the government won’t ignore the 87% of respondents who want a human rights act.
McClelland, Macklin get an “F” on indigenous housing reforms
Jenny Macklin’s FaHCSIA staff have faced an absolute grilling over a new Bill that was supposed to improve housing in Indigenous communities, but fails to deliver any of the “vital” reforms it was created to address, reports Bob Gosford.
Human rights: what is Rudd waiting for?
Is the government backing away from introducing a bill of rights? In the absence of any serious negatives, we should expect a human rights act within this parliamentary term, writes Susan Ryan, chair of the Australian Human Rights Group.
Charter of rights is “stone cold dead”
It now seems the Brennan committee report will not recommend an Australian bill of rights. How did such a good idea get bogged down in the fallacy that judges would abuse their power? asks Richard Ackland.
Justice in the balance … bank balance, that is
Despite decades of lip service from governments and the legal community, the price of justice is still prohibitively expensive for most Australians.
National Security Legislation: worst discussion paper ever.
The National Security Legislation Discussion Paper was released last week. And it may be one of the worst discussion papers ever, with no structure, barebones commentary and lots of blank pages.
Political snippets: The mystery of brussel sprouts solved
Richard Farmer explores why some people hate brussel sprouts, AG Robert McClelland’s proposed security laws and the fight against free speech at Yale University Press.
Guy Rundle: McClelland’s new terror bill is soft totalitarian nonsense
Robert McClelland’s new terror bill is based on the notion that people are simply psychological crash-test dummies, rather than robust and resilient citizens in a free society.
The terror raid leak was serious. We must find the source
Thanks to the leaking of the terror raids in Melbourne by The Oz
Targeting the terrorist teachers
As part of its terrorism law review, the Rudd government wants to include the offence of inciting violence on the basis of race, religion or nationality, focusing in particular on those who encourage others.
New dirty words: war on terror
Nearly eight years on from the 9/11 attacks, the Federal Government is launching a review of the official language used to discuss terrorism, and terms like ‘jihadist’ are within their sights.
