http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/michael-danby/ Re-elected for the 4th time, Michael Danby is not a Minister, and no longer Chairs the Government’s Migration Committee or Whips for the Government. He is Special Advisor to the Treasurer on Corporate Philanthropy and the Not For Profit Sector. As a backbencher he is a little freer to express views. He is slated to takeover Parliament’s heavyweight Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence & Trade. On issues from China to the Middle East to the topic of where our diplomatic posts ought to be situated, his views will make an interesting juxtaposition with our legendary Foreign Minister. Last term he disagreed with Arts Minister Peter Garrett, over the proposed closure of the highly successful Australian National Academy of Music. His paper ‘Logrolling the ALP’ contributed to the rethink by the Government of a plan for taxpayers to exclusively fund all political parties. The Greens political party and Fairfax liked the plan, but Danby figured the punters would rather spend $500 million on hospitals, schools or the defence forces. He is very unpopular with the Malaysian Government as the initiator of a petition signed by 61 Australian MPs and Senators calling on them to drop the renewed charges against the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/these-people-want-our-foreign-policy-made-in-china/ So Julie Bishop has a Huawei-donated iPad. Dangerous. Dangerous for her and dangerous for Australia if she ever aspires to become Foreign Minister. The iPad alone is but one of the micro details to emerge from Ms Bishop’s visit to China as a guest of the Chinese telco. Some Liberals led by Julie Bishop together with vested mining interests questioned the Gillard Government’ accepting ASIO’s advice against letting Huawei bid for the National Broadband Network. But the bar on Huawei has wider significance because the controversy it has sparked illuminates the most vexing issue of Australian foreign policy - our relationship with China. This foreign policy challenge was again in sharp relief at the recent Boao Forum, on the luxury resort on Hainan Island, China’s version of Hawaii (they also have their most advanced naval base there). feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/these-people-want-our-foreign-policy-made-in-china/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/these-people-want-our-foreign-policy-made-in-china/#item8251 Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:55:16 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/reaching-out-to-syria-was-a-delusional-miscalculation/ In October 2010, Syria’s heavy-weight ambassador Tammam Sulaiman left Australia a disappointed man. He had failed to convince Australia to reopen our embassy in Damascus. In 2008-10 Syrians were very anxious that Australia bolster its credibility building exercise with the United States. Just before the beginning of the Arab Spring, President Obama had very unwisely reopened an American diplomatic post in Syria.  Looking back it’s hard to re-imagine the Middle East before the successful revolutions against authoritarian leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Then, the received wisdom in Western foreign policy circles was that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad was a “man we could do business with”. Democrats would now be horrified to recall the prevailing view in Western chanceries that this “London” ophthalmologist and his glamorous wife (who subsequently appeared in Vogue magazine) was a closet democrat. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/reaching-out-to-syria-was-a-delusional-miscalculation/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/reaching-out-to-syria-was-a-delusional-miscalculation/#item7904 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:35:49 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cautious-hope-for-the-worlds-newest-nation/ A little over two months ago, on 9 July 2011, the world celebrated in unison at the birth of the world’s newest nation, the Republic of South Sudan. As the Prime Minister’s Special Representative, I was privileged to represent Australia at the independence celebrations in Juba, South Sudan’s largest city and the capital of the newly independent country. It was an historic moment, and the elation was palpable and infectious. With an Australian Akubra hat protecting me from the hot African sun, I shared in the joy and celebrations of thousands of South Sudanese. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cautious-hope-for-the-worlds-newest-nation/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cautious-hope-for-the-worlds-newest-nation/#item6800 Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:35:41 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/whether-she-likes-it-or-nyet-lee-rhiannon-was-a-stalinist/ It is customary for new Members and Senators to use part of their first speech to give some account of their careers before their election. Despite my entreaties that new Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon address her past, she used the usual dodge of whinging that critics were reviving a ‘new McCarthyism’. Prior to her speech, there has been a battle going on at Wikipedia about her political history. Ever since April a number of people have been trying to write a full, honest and properly referenced account of Senator Rhiannon’s political career prior to 1990 when she joined the Greens. All those efforts have been thwarted by a person called Chris Maltby, who has systematically deleted her political history prior to 1990, by suppressing any version of the Wikipedia article which might be embarrassing to Senator Rhiannon. So what are the facts about Senator Rhiannon’s past that the NSW Greens and Mr Maltby are so keen to stop you reading? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/whether-she-likes-it-or-nyet-lee-rhiannon-was-a-stalinist/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/whether-she-likes-it-or-nyet-lee-rhiannon-was-a-stalinist/#item6581 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:30:04 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Syria-the-dictator-fights-back/ The Presidents of Tunisia and Egypt have gone, the President of Yemen is going. The dictator of Libya has lost control of half of his country and is being bombed out of the other half. But the revolutionary tidal wave of the Arab Spring has now come up against a tougher opponent – the 40-year-old dictatorship of the Assad family in Syria. It’s clear that President Bashar al-Assad and his security forces have no intention of giving up power, and are now engaged in a violent and bloody crackdown on dissent. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Syria-the-dictator-fights-back/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Syria-the-dictator-fights-back/#item5828 Fri, 13 May 2011 19:50:02 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julian-assange-lord-byron-of-the-internets/ Few people, apparently, support the jailing of Julian Assange - Australia’s very own electronic Lord Byron,  the “romantic” hero of the Internet generation - for his organisation’s use and misuse (and, presumably, sale) of stolen US diplomatic documents.  Fortunately, those rights he may have as an Australian citizen in a foreign country have been actively supported by the Australian Embassies in Britain and Sweden, as they should be.  Perhaps even more fortunately for Mr. Assange, the United States Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, has decried the exaggerated claims of ideologues in US media and politics. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julian-assange-lord-byron-of-the-internets/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julian-assange-lord-byron-of-the-internets/#item5295 Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:50:56 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christians-under-attack-in-the-middle-east-and-australia/ Clad in his spectacular Bishop’s regalia, Greek Orthodox Bishop Ezekiel throws a cross in the water at the annual “Thefeonia” at Station Pier. This Greek “Festival of the Waters” is held at Port Melbourne in early January every year, where I’ve represented Federal Labor to the sometimes 5 to 6 thousand members of the Greek Australian community.  Usually I’m there with an array of local State and Federal Greek Australian politicians, but, in my own mind, my presence is emblematic of the natural tolerance and pluralism of modern Australia.  All the politicians release doves and make brief speeches.  At the “Thefeonia” this year it seemed appropriate that I briefly expressed the nation’s solidarity with another ancient Christian community, Australia’s Copts, who are approximately 80,000 strong across Australia four of whose churches, in Australia were amongst the sixty four listed worldwide as targets by an Al Qaeda website. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christians-under-attack-in-the-middle-east-and-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christians-under-attack-in-the-middle-east-and-australia/#item4934 Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:49:49 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sanctions-the-best-way-to-crush-ahmedinijad-for-now/ We have all met “truthers”. You know, the kind of conspiracy theorist who believes that every evil event was concocted at a secret military facility in the basement at Fort Dix, Georgia, or some such place. Last week Iran’s President Ahmedinejad’s appeared before the UN General assembly. He told the assembled leaders that most of the world believed that the US government was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001. So now we have the phenomenon of a national leader as a “truther”. Ahmedinijad’s bizarre speech – the latest in a long series – gives an important insight into the nature of the regime in Tehran, a regime which may soon have its finger on the bomb. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sanctions-the-best-way-to-crush-ahmedinijad-for-now/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sanctions-the-best-way-to-crush-ahmedinijad-for-now/#item4222 Mon, 11 Oct 2010 19:40:15 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-tibet-theyd-die-for-a-hung-parliament/ While we in peaceful democratic Australia have been conducting our political battles at public meetings and settling our disputes at the ballot box, in less fortunate places politics is being conducted by other means. In Tibet, where the Chinese authorities have launched a new crackdown, these include arrests in the night, secret trials, long prison sentences on spurious charges, and beatings and other forms of violence. In early August He Guoqiang, a member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo and head of its Central Commission for Discipline, visited Tibet. Apparently he was not pleased by what he found, despite the intensive repression that has taken place in Tibet since the riots in 2008 in which at least 200 people were killed. He ordered a fresh crackdown on Tibetan “separatists” and intellectuals, particularly the Buddhist monks and nuns who have been at the forefront of the protests against Chinese rule over the past few years. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-tibet-theyd-die-for-a-hung-parliament/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-tibet-theyd-die-for-a-hung-parliament/#item3944 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:50:02 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-mps-protested-over-the-anwar-trial/ Last week saw an unusual event in Australian politics: backbench members of Parliament from both sides took a foreign affairs initiative, independent of their party leaderships. Sixty Members and Senators – Labor, Liberal, Green and independent – signed a letter which was presented to the Malaysian High Commissioner protesting against the current trial of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of “sodomy.” The letter was signed by, among others, Laurie Ferguson, Malcolm Turnbull, Greg Hunt, Bob Brown, Nick Xenophon, Duncan Kerr, Deputy Speaker Anna Burke, Jennie George, Gary Gray and Mark Dreyfus QC. It followed a speech which I gave in the House of Representatives on 3 February, in which I drew the House’s attention to the 2nd Sodomy trial in Kuala Lumpur of Anwar Ibrahim. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Michael Danby) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-mps-protested-over-the-anwar-trial/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/why-mps-protested-over-the-anwar-trial/#item2445 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:45:55 +0000 Michael Danby | Author bios | The Punch