Jo
@jo8may.bsky.social
I am an Australian, a retired academic and historian.
Read this alongside the soft portrait of Wilson given in The Age 1/8/2026. Charisma is not Character; Artifice is not Accounting. Actions speak much louder about him than Tim Wilson’s words. open.substack.com/pub/suebarre...
The Addendum: What the Age's Tim Wilson Profile Left Out
The Age Gave Him Five Thousand Words, and Space for Winnie the Pooh and Blue Socks. The Record Deserved a Few Hundred More. Colour Is Not Character, and Charisma Is Not Accountability.
open.substack.com
An insightful conversation between historians: “If the Russians end the war, if the Russians stop fighting, the war is over. If the Ukrainians stop fighting, Ukraine is over. Ukraine doesn’t exist anymore. ... So they have no choice but to fight.” open.substack.com/pub/lucid/p/...
My Convo with Anne Applebaum on Russia and Ukraine
When propaganda stops working, drone warfare, and the secret to Ukraine's resilience and ingenuity
open.substack.com
www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw... Public money should be publicly disclosed, not hidden by a cloak of religiosity, whatever the stripe.
Time for Catholics to be transparent about their use of other people’s money
The freewheeling days when NSW Catholic schools did not have to account for how they spent taxpayers funds must end.
smh.com.au
JUST GREAT WRITING THROUGHOUT eg “Your money is never evidence of class interest; it is proof of character. Other people’s money is privilege. Your money is aspiration.” How to become a right-wing grifter www.crikey.com.au/2026/07/03/k...
How to become a right-wing grifter
A practical guide for Australia’s brave elite battlers.
crikey.com.au
ETHICAL INTERNET USE This is yet another reason to NOT use Facebook and other “Meta” products. Ethical internet use demands we de-platform unscrupulous anti democratic providers. This includes governments, corporations, companies and individuals who want to have our attention.
2-way protected bike lane enthusiast@seachanger.bsky.social · last wk.what’s twice as Nazi as fox and powering the information environment of 3 billion people
Beautiful Fraser Park Beach in the Munmorah State Recreation Area this fine winter’s afternoon. Perfect for a stroll in the sun. Isn’t this one of essences of Australia: thousands of kilometres of free sandy beaches all around our magnificent coastline?
open.substack.com/pub/callumsc... Arrernte Traditional Owners and over 500 activists have led the way - again - with the largest demonstration since the 1980s, demanding the removal of Pine Gap. So grateful for their sanity, heart and strength.
Reconciling our nuclear past
A review of Contaminated Country by Jessica Urwin
open.substack.com
open.substack.com/pub/historyn... Truly frightening to the United States as a leading democracy, and to those of us who have always regarded the US as a touchstone for political freedom. To all US defenders of Democracy, please come out and vote in November against the tyrant Trump.
Project 2026: Donald Trump's assault on democracy
A field guide to the multi-pronged attack
open.substack.com
A message from the past: Don’t mess with nuclear weapons ☢️ As a child of the 1950s, I have wondered about the effects of nuclear fallout from blast clouds in Australia and the Pacific. We may never know of course because the Brits won’t release the files. theconversation.com/the-biggest-...
The biggest atomic blast in Australia happened 70 years ago – mysteries about its impact linger
The bomb tested on WA’s Montebello Islands was at least four times as big as the Hiroshima blast. Yet key facts about this test remain shrouded in secrecy.
theconversation.com
Bianca Nogrady on how the Pharmacy Guild of Australia – one of the country's most extravagant lobbyists – works to exclude patients and pharmacists from their $3.8 billion agreement with the government. trib.al/T4wFeR7
How the Pharmacy Guild got so powerful
The peak body for pharmacy owners outspends the Minerals Council of Australia on political donations. It has amassed significant power over the industry, and policy, with little transparency for practitioners or customers.
trib.al
It will be “constructive unity, solidarity, progressive patriotism” at the ALP National Conference.🤬 Prearranged outcomes expose the dominance of conservatism, militarism, neoliberalism and compliance in the ALP. Abandoning sovereignty and appeasing the USA comes at great cost!
Loved this! open.substack.com/pub/suebarre...
What My 88-Year-Old Mother and My Gen Z Sons Actually Agree On
Common ground was never about sameness. It's about noticing which floor is actually cracking, and which one never was. Part Nine: One Nation Is The Wrong Answer To The Right Question.
open.substack.com
censusnotreligious.org.au The assumption in the census question is that the respondent has a religion to report. This is not an open question. People with no religion should be able to report their status freely and accurately.
Not Religious? Mark 'No Religion' | 2026 Australian Census
Help bring greater integrity to the Australian 2026 Census by reflecting your authentic self when answering the religion question.
censusnotreligious.org.au
c.org/KR2GtDM9XQ I signed this - robust data is better for future planning than faulty data continued because that’s what we’ve always done!
Sign the Petition
Fix the Census question on religion so we can all rely on accurate data
c.org
Don’t miss this great piece on “nostalgic deprivation” and GenX … I’m a boomer but I always despised the galloping neoliberalism that created the huge wealth disparity and imaginative poverty of politics that left some many GenX without hope on a burning earth. open.substack.com/pub/aliensid...
Gen X and the Repossession Fantasy
I remember exactly where I was when I first picked up a copy of Douglas Coupland’s Generation X. In the offices of The Independent Monthly, a magazine I wrote for, now gone, like most magazines.
open.substack.com
So sad to see this beautiful human has left the room. His light will continue to shine through his magnificent body of work. Farewell Sam Neill: a great New Zealander.
Greg Jericho@grogsgamut.bsky.social · 3w agoAhh crap. This is a sad one. Brilliant actor, good bloke. 7news.com.au/entertainmen...
On Pharmacy: “ No other Australian health industry group gets to negotiate its own funding behind closed doors, with no public evidence to justify the decisions. These opaque negotiations should be replaced with independent, transparent, policy decisions ...” theconversation.com/unfair-fees-...
Unfair fees and low competition: why the pharmacy sector needs a shake up
No other Australian health industry group gets to negotiate its own funding behind closed doors, with no public evidence to justify the decisions.
theconversation.com
Great panel on ABC Insiders, great to see Sarah Martin after the abuse hurled at her by ON leader at the National Press Club. And Andrew Probyn also makes a welcome return to the ABC.
From my window yesterday. Nature effortlessly offers us beauty if only we look up and out from our worldly cares. This is not an idle thought, it is also deeply political. Why would we harm our environment if we truly appreciated its glory?
Hands off the ABC & SBS! Okay, they are not perfect but someone speaking to all of us as authoritatively and thoughtfully as possible is much needed right now. Segal wants to destroy our public broadcasters’ autonomy and that’s not on. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
ABC and SBS coverage of the Middle East isn’t perfect – but the proposed solutions are ill-conceived and dangerous
After 40 years at the public broadcasters I know they must be accountable to all of the public and for editorial decisions they make, not ones imposed on them
theguardian.com
Watching for whales today at Norah Head as they make their mighty migration up the east coast of Australia. The view was embellished by an approaching rainbow bringing light rain with it.
Many moons ago I visited Salinas & the brilliant museum there dedicated to Steinbeck. As we drove into this welcoming town, the sun shone on the fertile river valley & it was easy to see how mythic themes might have arisen there in the mind of the young artist. theconversation.com/guide-to-the...
Guide to the classics: John Steinbeck’s East of Eden has always been controversial
East of Eden offers a melodramatic conflict between good and evil, but more remarkable is its sense of human relations evolving, shaped by destiny and choice.
theconversation.com
Antony Green is retiring – sign his retirement card! getup.to/B3ad7fqCq9lt7 I signed, maybe you will too?
Thank you Antony Green!
Antony Green is retiring from the ABC – sign his thank you card!
getup.to
Around 500,000 children are estimated to have died after the aid cuts pushed by DOGE. Half a million dead kids. That's Elon Musk's legacy. Genius my arse.
A Problem Solved - Australia was UNSETTLED by the British, thank you authors of this excellent book. For years I have grappled with the use of seemingly gentle terms such as settled, settlers & settlement for the horrors of colonisation. Unsettled is far more accurate! doi.org/https://doi....
Six Peaks Speak: Unsettling Legacies in Southern Dja Dja Wurrung Country
Mountains can tell us much about our past. Six iconic peaks in Central Victoria, Australia, Mounts Kooroocheang, Beckworth, Greenock, Tarrengower, Alexander, and Franklin, tower above the rich volcani...
doi.org
open.substack.com/pub/callumsc... I loved this book review on the Prime Ministers of the 21stC by Paul Strangio.
Kindness is not enough
A review of "The Alchemy of Leadership" by Paul Strangio
open.substack.com
