Human Rights

At a recent protest outside the electoral office of Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said Australia was mishandling the refugee issue, and it was the “lack of a humanitarian approach and failure to abide by international obligations” that was causing problems.

Another refugee advocate at the protest said, “You don’t have to be an Australian to have human rights.”

Human rights should be the lens through which we consider the economic, cultural and geographic implications of increasing our intake of refugees and asylum seekers. It is about enacting people’s basic rights to freedom, choice and safety.

Continue reading "It wouldn’t kill us to save more lives" »

The Queensland Government absolutely abhors any attack on a person based on their sexual preference and, to be absolutely clear, does not believe that anyone should be able to plead a non-violent homosexual advance as a partial defence for murder.

On this, we agree with Father Paul Kelly, who wrote the piece on The Punch on Wednesday, “An archaic defence that belongs in the dark ages”. However, it is important that we take expert advice. The legal reality is that the Criminal Code has to be drafted carefully.

It must be drafted on what will work to the letter of the law or else other people will seek to exploit it in unforseen circumstances where society would not support it.

Continue reading "We need to be careful so all are equal under the law" »

Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, a column that looks at all kinds of myths and mistruths, at falsehoods, fiction and fabrications. This week we look at whether gamers are breaching international conventions when they loot, pillage, or kill.

I’m no war criminal. Not even a virtual one. That’s because I’ve never played a violent video game – or indeed any video game since Donkey Kong. The original version.

But if the Red Cross has their way, it raises the question of whether I could be up on some kind of charge for (ahem) enjoying The Human Centipede.

Continue reading "ICB: Are there 600 million virtual war criminals?" »

On the northern tip of Queensland, a young woman from the Philippines worked up to 18 hours a day for a married couple. She looked after their three small children, cleaned their house at night, and worked in their store in the day.

The woman, known in court as Ms G, was repeatedly raped by the husband, threatened, abused and exploited. After numerous appeals, in February 2010 the husband was jailed for slavery offences. The wife was also convicted, although she has since lodged another appeal.

These workers are Jills of all trades: cooking, cleaning, caring for kids, the elderly and the sick. Domestic workers – nannies, maids, au pairs, “the help” - make the lives of Australian families easier. But sometimes the lives of these workers are unbearably hard.

Continue reading "Slavery is alive and well in our own backyard" »

It’s hard to pick the most disturbing moment. Is it when the van hits two-year-old Yueyue, pauses, then drives off? Is it the mother and small child who detour around her prone body? Or is it the sheer number of people who clearly see her and do nothing?

Warning: Disturbing footage

The video of the Chinese toddler, who wandered away from her mother and into trouble, makes you heartsick. It makes you question humanity. It makes you want to shake those people - shake them until their teeth rattle.

And of course, even as Yueyue lies in hospital with critical head injuries, it makes you wonder whether a similar evil negligence could happen here, or whether life is cheaper in places where it’s so much more abundant.

Continue reading "What kind of person ignores a dying two-year-old girl?" »

This week’s Q and A program featured Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, who has been an instrumental figure in drawing attention to the federal and Northern Territory Governments policies which are effectively stripping traditional Indigenous communities - ‘homelands’ - of funds.

Aboriginal peoples’ rights to traditional lands, culture, informed consent and adequate housing are being undermined.

Last week, Salil Shetty, the Secretary General of Amnesty International and I had the honour and privilege of spending time with Rosalie and the people of the Utopia Homelands on a fact finding mission. This was the first time I had travelled to Utopia in two years. I was struck by the fact that very little had changed.

Continue reading "Utopia and a Third World in the First World" »

Sentenced to 90 lashes and a year in prison.

That’s was the verdict Marzieh Vafamehr received. Her crime? Acting in a film about an actress whose work is banned by Iranian authorities. No prizes for spotting the irony there.

Public whippings should outrage and anger us. Yet compared to a year in jail, these 90 lashings will most likely be the humane aspect of the sentence.

Continue reading "Cruelty just a part of everyday life in today’s Iran" »

Remove romantic love from the concept of marriage and what are you left with? A partnership, long-term companionship, shared living and financial arrangements, the promise of a family - or a domestic horror story? 

For the 16-year-old Lebanese Australian girl who successfully took her parents to court last month to protect herself from a forced marriage, it’s definitely the latter. The Sydney judge presiding over her case agreed, and praised her bravery in defying her parents’ decision.

Unfortunately this story is not uncommon. Forced or servile marriage arrangements have reared their ugly heads in many Australian communities of late. Take the last year. A 14 year old Melbourne girl and a 17 year old Sydney girl. Both contacted the AFP in desperation, fearing their family’s plans to force then into marriage overseas.

Continue reading "You’ll marry who I tell you to marry, young lady!" »

Should we ban the live export of asylum seekers?

In a compelling majority, the High Court seemed to think so, issuing a permanent injunction against the Commonwealth Government, barring them from pursuing the current proposal to trade asylum seekers with Malaysia.

Despite numerous changes to the Migration Act over the decade to expand administrative power, the Act could not be used to justify the transaction of asylum seekers as if they were export goods.

Continue reading "Facing terror, violence and fear? Join the queue" »

More than 20,000 people pledged to join a Ban the Burqa protest yesterday by donning balaclavas and trenchcoats to show that… people shouldn’t wear balaclavas and trenchcoats. Or something like that. 

Those who want the burqa banned are facing some pretty big hurdles. Sure, there’s all the civil liberties guff, but they also have a big public relations problem because their side of the debate seems to get regularly hijacked by illiterate, hate-filled, intolerant, violence-prone, ignorant bigots.

So here’s some advice to the burqa banners as to how to keep ‘on message’:

Continue reading "PR 101: Helping burqa banners stay on message" »

The government’s failure to “stop the boats” is an albatross around its neck and the issue is driving the political agenda. Their asylum seeker problem is two-fold. Scores are dying trying to reach Australia by boat and the government is losing support by its failure to stop those who don’t. However, the solution to both problems is simple - a blanket ban on accepting boat people as refugees.

Australia and Malaysia have tentatively agreed to exchange 800 boat people for 4000 confirmed refugees. The underlying assumption is that asylum seekers will be deterred from making to voyage to Australia by the prospect of ending up in Malaysia. Although the Greens have spit the dummy over Malaysia’s human rights record, the inhospitality of partner countries is the very reason these agreements may deter some boat people from coming.

Yet the Malaysian agreement doesn’t go far enough to fully deter asylum seekers and entering Australia will be a lottery with enticing odds. You don’t need to have an abacus to calculate that if arrival trends continue - 6535 people having arrived in Australia by boat last year - the vast majority will have an opportunity to stay in Australia. 

Continue reading "Stop groupthink: A blanket ban will stop the boats" »

I’ve always half-liked the Labor Government’s Malaysian solution on asylum seekers. I like the half that involves bringing an additional 4000 refugees from Malaysia to Australia. It’s a small additional burden that our rich little country is very capable of bearing.

It’s quite a clever strategy, too, in light of new research showing humanitarian arrivals are generally younger and more likely to live in regional areas, thereby helping to counter our rapidly ageing, urbanised population.

But I abhor the other half of the equation – the part that involves sending 800 asylum seekers to Kuala Lumpur, where 90,000 mostly Burmese are already rotting in a refugee quagmire in the hope of a better life they’ll never get.

Continue reading "Malaysia’s no dumping ground for our refugees" »

When it’s this cold many of us think of escaping to a warm island paradise, but when it comes to Fiji the postcard images of warm water lapping pristine beaches mask an uglier picture.

Many travellers have been able to ignore the fact that Fiji is under a military dictatorship, but when the government is using their absolute power to stifle free speech and attack the rights of the workers who are serving you, it’s time to ask some serious questions.

The problem is what do we do?  Making calls on how we treat developing nations, especially our neighbours, is always tough. Tourism keeps the Fiji economy afloat and is vital to the living standards of all its people. Fiji is far from being North Korea with palm trees – there is still some civil society and freedom left.

Continue reading "Fiji: Franksta’s paradise hides a dark side" »

Look, I didn’t want to interfere but it seems the Government just can’t do it without me, so here it is. Please pass on to your local spin doctor.

1. Stick to your guns

Honestly kids, I just can’t say this enough: People would much prefer an honest person saying something they disagree with than a liar telling them what they want to hear. The ALP’s policy is for a more humane approach to asylum seekers and abiding by our international obligations under the UN charter.

Continue reading "Solving the asylum seeker problem in three easy steps" »

Talkback radio, that eternally squawking companion, last week carried the more disturbing sound of a grown man weeping.

As the gruff voice melted into tears, I imagined he must be talking about the poor cows we’d seen on Four Corners, half beheaded and in infinite pain. Or the uncertain fate of the asylum seeker children.

Nup. He was upset about Port Adelaide. SA’s poor, crippled football team. It seems we all only have a finite amount of caring in us; we have to limit how much we care and what for, or we would fall apart. Some of us pour all our caring into sport, or plants, or train timetables, and have nothing left afterwards.

Continue reading "Who ate all the compassion pie?" »

Human rights abuses happen everywhere, including Australia. Amnesty International has today released a report on human rights, which is critical of Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers and Aboriginal people. Claire Mallinson discusses the report’s findings and takes a look at the effect of digital media on the fight for human rights.

When Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released after 15 years under house arrest late last year, one of the first things she commented on was how she had missed the digital revolution.

That may be so, but the digital revolution did not miss her. When she stepped out on to the balcony of her home she was greeted by a sea of supporters, mobiles phones held aloft and eager thumbs pressing buttons. Within seconds her picture could be seen on web sites, the internet and 24-hour news channels around the world.

Continue reading "Human rights at home and away" »

When announcing Osama bin Laden’s death, US President Barack Obama declared it was about “liberty and justice for all”.  The Punch asked RMIT’s Adjunct Professor Peter Norden, a law, crime and justice expert, what that means.

What was your immediate response to the announcement of bin Laden’s death?
Certainly a sense of surprise that it happened without warning.  But then I reacted to the words used by the US President and Australian Prime Minister that “justice had been done”. My understanding of justice being done is when an accused person is taken into custody, tried and receives the verdict of the court. 

Continue reading "Punch Q & A: Just what is justice?" »

“Homosexual tendencies (are) one of many conditions that beset fallen humanity.”

According to Exodus International’s policy statements, those who embrace “homosexual behaviours” have lives that are “sinful” and “destructive”.

Rather than simply condemn non-heterosexual desire, Exodus International (A Christian organisation that condemns homosexuality) adopts what they refer to as a ‘redemptive’ approach – seeking to ‘reorient’ the ‘fallen’.

Continue reading "‘Pray away the gay’ app a sign of deeper bigotry" »

I appreciate the high standard of human rights we enjoy in Australia just as much as the next person. But when it comes to the possession of illegal substances, I think it’s better to be presumed guilty rather than innocent, even if it intrudes on our basic right to a fair trial.

In 2008, solicitor Vera Momcilovic was convicted of trafficking ice found in her apartment, despite her claims that the drugs were her boyfriend’s and she knew nothing about it.

Now she’s challenging the legitimacy of the state’s drug laws in the High Court, claiming the Victorian Charter of Human Rights effectively invalidates them because they remove the presumption of innocence.

Continue reading "On drugs: Suspend rights and consider them guilty" »

Australians are bombarded with advertising and initiatives from governments educating the public about health risks. Smoking kills. Occupational health and safety regulations are law.  “Is gambling a problem for you?”

It makes sense, educating the public on health issues saves money in the long run, is preventative and reduces risks.  And yet one of the most pervasive, damaging and normalised threats to public health remains taboo and largely unaddressed.

Violence against women is a critical human rights and public health issue. One in three women will experience violence in her lifetime. It is normalised, domesticated and prevalent.

Continue reading "Ignoring violence against women costs their dignity" »

“We want what they’ve got” is not a valid argument for gay marriage.

I have to agree with Professor Kerryn Phelps that the quality of debate over same-sex marriage is depressingly tepid.

But to be fair, it’s not just the defenders of traditional marriage who exhibit a lack of intellectual rigour in mounting their case.

Continue reading "Marriage: Not for gays, and maybe not for anyone?" »

Watching the debate over the merits of gay marriage, I feel like I am watching a scene from the movie “The Castle” where the totally underprepared solicitor for the plaintiff gives as his sole argument: “It’s the vibe”. 

That pretty much sums up the quality of the arguments being put forward by those opposing marriage equality. While supporters of gay marriage have abundant and cogent arguments about why it is right and fair, its opponents have nothing more to offer than “I don’t like it” or “that’s what the Marriage Act says”. They put forward no justification because there is no justification.

The Marriage Act says that marriage is between a man and a woman because John Howard changed the wording as recently as 2004.

Continue reading "“It’s the vibe” is not a valid argument against gay rights" »

NSW is on the brink of introducing ethics teaching into classrooms across the country, but no-one, not even the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, has any notion as to what we will be teaching our children.

The problem with modern day ethics is the lack of unified standards for deciding what is right or wrong.

Worse than this, many educators seek to frame the debate in terms of relativism, which provides the perfect platform for communities and countries to sacrifice basic human rights in the name of concepts such as religion, culture and philosophy.

Continue reading "If we’re going to teach ethics in schools, let’s do it properly" »

On Wednesday Bob Brown said two odd things that either proved he is some kind of political genius, or was the kind of rhetoric that sets the Greens up for a big fall in the future. My guess is it’s the former now but will be the latter later.

The first was his apparent objection to the proposed merger of the Australian Stock Exchange with the Singaporean Exchange.

The crux of his opposition was that Singapore had executed the young Australian Van Nguyen for drug trafficking in 2005, and this was a militaristic non-democratic state that we should be careful about handing over our stock exchange to.

Continue reading "If the Greens want to play the majors they need to grow up" »

While you’re watching the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony tonight, take a moment to look at the VIP box.

The first guest of honour in New Delhi is Britain’s Prince Edward, there representing his mother, the Queen, in her capacity of Head of the Commonwealth. Nothing unusual about that. But alongside him in the guest of honour spot will be Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka.

The Games are these days the most visible expression of the Commonwealth itself – an organisation which aims to promote democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, egalitarianism, free trade, multilateralism and world peace.

Continue reading "When quiet diplomacy equals silence on human rights" »

I’m relatively proud of what I’ve achieved professionally and personally. I wrote a letter of complaint that got me a new washing machine and a new career; I got the word ‘existential’ on the letters pages of The Daily Telegraph, got to ride in the Queensland and Federal Governments jets and I saved the government $10million in one afternoon.

This was all before I discovered nominative determinism. Today’s name is Gai Lemon, a woman featured in an article in the Q Weekend in The Courier Mail about 20 years of Gay Rights in Queensland.

Which brings me to my point. There is one thing I’m not so proud of and that is my part in the amendments to the Marriage Act.

Continue reading "It’s understandable Gillard doesn’t get it on gay marriage" »

I know many of you would assume after my glowing endorsement of Ms Gillard and the opportunity she represents to shape a more inclusive socio-political culture that I’d be the first to denounce her opposition to gay marriage. Well, you’d be wrong.

In fact, I don’t consider the ‘right’ to marry part of any socially progressive agenda and so I say Julia is correct on this issue, but for the wrong reasons.

I guess I’ve always had a romantic, almost Wildean view of homosexuals as somehow more evolved than the rest of us. We all know deep down that stereotypes are true. So you know I’m right when I say that most gays are inherently more civilized and cultured, and are generally superior citizens than the rest of us.

Continue reading "The PM shouldn’t back gay (or any) marriage" »

Last week I gave birth to my second child – another beautiful daughter.  Like most new mothers, in between the very physical challenge of adjusting back to sleepless nights and the many other wonderful changes wreaked upon the body, I was during a quiet moment filled with a sense of great hope and optimism for her future.

I am thrilled that the opportunities that lie available to my daughters (and I am also blessed to have 2 step-daughters) are vastly more varied than the choices their grandmothers had.  The world has evolved so much, in terms of what women can achieve – even just in the past 40 years.

Yet for all the advancement of women in our nation, the same week that I gave birth, there were calls to allow Australian doctors to perform a form of female genital mutilation (FGM), citing “cultural reasons” as a mantra for tolerating this barbaric practice.

Continue reading "Cultural tolerance is no excuse for harming kids" »

Each year Amnesty International releases an assessment of the human rights realities in the majority of countries around the world, and each year it is a sobering reminder of how governments are failing to deliver on their human rights promises.

Our 2010 report shows that torture or other ill-treatment were practised last year in at least 111 countries, there were unfair trials in at least 55 countries, restrictions on free speech in at least 96 countries and prisoners of conscience imprisoned in at least 48 countries. 18 countries executed their own citizens. And the list goes on.

The achievement of universal human rights relies on the world’s governments being held accountable for their actions. It relies on the international community enforcing international law and seeking justice for the victims of human rights violations.  All too often, however, powerful governments stand above the law on human rights and act only when it is politically expedient. 

Continue reading "Australia cannot claim leadership on human rights" »

The decision by a Shanghai court to sentence Stern Hu to ten years should teach us a lesson about the future of our relationship with China: Australia cannot expect to continue to reap the benefits of Chinese cash without periodically accepting some of its pernicious qualities.

Following the Hu sentence there will no doubt be a temptation to invoke what could be called the “Corby Protocol”, which assumes that whenever an Australian is arrested in a non-Western country they are ipso facto innocent and victims of a corrupt and dictatorial regime.

But in this case it would probably be in our interest to understand that while Hu has become a victim of the workings of the Chinese state and business, he was also very much a product of it. This was a position that up until this point had made him, and by extension Australia, very wealthy.

Continue reading "With China it’s not all beer and dim sum" »

The American architect, Philip Johnson, once said “all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.”

A trip to the State Library in Melbourne bears testament to that. The glorious reading room, which at the time of its construction boasted one of the largest domes in Christendom, manages to exalt the entranced tourist while cuddle the engrossed researcher all at once.

Yet it is hard to feel cuddled by a building if you cannot get into it. And for millions of Australians with a disability the state of our public built environment prevents them entering or using the bathroom let alone feel stimulated or exalted by the wonder of the architecture.

Continue reading "Why great buildings need ways in and out for everyone" »

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.

Continue reading "Why MPs protested over the Anwar trial" »

Are there any men out there who feel genuinely aggrieved at the idea that a travel company might offer packages specifically for women?

And no, I’m not talking about those of you who wish you could significantly increase your strike rate by being the only bloke on the Contiki bus. I mean men who really feel your human rights are violated by a group of women planning a chicks-only trip.

In general most people are in favour of legal protection against discrimination - if it’s the kind of discrimination that prevents someone having the same opportunities as everyone else because of some arbitrary barrier such as sex, race, or a disability. But sometimes the application of that principle is more arbitrary than the discrimination it’s trying to address.

Continue reading "Sometimes principle is just stupid" »

We forget to consult history at our peril. 

It is very relevant to the Rudd Government’s latest assault on the sovereignty of the people – that is the proposal of its hand picked committee, headed by Father Frank Brennan, to impose upon them a charter of rights masquerading under the title of a Human Rights Act.

The last time Labor tried for a bill of rights it was by way of a Constitutional amendment to insert a mini bill of rights with the aim of continual enlargement.

Continue reading "Bill of rights is a dangerous lawyers’ picnic" »

Amnesty International flatly rejects the assertion that recent changes to Government policy have led to an increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat.

Despite much sensationalist reporting on the issue of boat arrivals, the fact remains that only a tiny percentage of the millions of people seeking asylum choose to seek that protection on Australia’s shores.

Statistics published in June by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the international body responsible for addressing refugee issues worldwide, show that at the end of 2008 there were 827,323 pending asylum seeker cases worldwide. Australia was handling 2159 of these – which is substantially less than one per cent.

Continue reading "All sides of politics ignore facts of asylum arrivals" »

The Pacific Solution has been replaced by the Indian Ocean non-solution.

In the ABC documentary The Howard Years those responsible for the Pacific Solution said that the mandatory detention camps they inherited from Labor were almost bursting, due to the influx of boats.

We face the same situation with the Christmas Island Detention Centre rapidly filling up as the boats keep coming.

Continue reading "Increase in asylum seekers is a problem of Rudd’s making" »

People are dying on the streets of Iran, which isn’t surprising. Iran seems to have ended up as both a theocracy and a military dictatorship, and neither forms of government are known for their permissiveness to public disorder.
So why are rioters still bothering? Even if you dislodge the latter, you won’t get rid of the former.  And lets keep in mind that Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s reformist colleague and friend Mohammad Khatami had two terms as president and the mullahs- the real power in Iran- let him reform but very and little.

Khatami even found that while he held the highest elected office in the land, governmental agents were still murdering other reformists. And even after he found out about it, he couldn’t stop it. So I ask again, why bother? And why now? I think the answer is maturation and technology, but also pride.

Continue reading "The bruised pride driving the Iranian protesters" »

UPDATE June 25: The Twitter user quoted at length in this column reappeared after three days of silence, saying he was stiff, sore and bruised, and now outside Tehran, but still alive.

It seems to me that many people are still trying to find out as much as they can about the situation in the Islamic Republic, even though a week-and-a-half has gone by since the election.

Journalists tend to treat stories like, literally, ‘nine-day wonders’, because few, anywhere, about anything, stay on the front page for much longer.

Yet at least on Twitter, as I write, among the top ten trending topics are ‘Iran elections’, ‘Iran’, ‘Tehran’, ‘Mousavi’, and ‘Neda’. Neda, by the way, was the name of the young woman shot dead by paramilitary forces at the weekend.

If you haven’t seen the footage or the still picture of her lifeless, bleeding face already, it’s probably because you can’t face it. I sympathise; yet Neda’s may yet become the face of events as they unfold in Iran. Whether it’s a revolution or a counter-revolution, and whether or not it succeeds, it will make martyrs, and martyrs are central to Iranian culture.

Continue reading "The death of Neda: Iran’s potent history of martyrdom" »

The images we’ve been seeing of rioting and bloodshed in Tehran take me back almost three decades, to the northern spring of 1980, and the weeks of living dangerously in what was then still a revolutionary situation in Iran.

It was May the first of 1980 when I learned that my translator had been murdered. His name was Bahram Dehqani-Tafti. He was a poet in his mid twenties, a graduate in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford, bilingual from birth because his mother was English and his father was the Anglican bishop of Esfahan.

Bahram himself showed no signs of following in his father’s footsteps; he was a secular, literary, somewhat westernised character, and I am often reminded of him by the cosmopolitan, western-oriented youth who blog in such numbers from Iran today.

Continue reading "Iranian bloodshed harks back to an earlier atrocity" »

Follow this person on twitter right now: http://twitter.com/Change_for_Iran

He or she is an unknown Iranian student who is giving a live first-hand account via twitter of the repression that is unfolding at the University of Tehran. Despite the attempts by the Iranian regime to disable facebook and twitter this student has sent 34 tweets so far in the past five hours.

“I’m dizzy but ok. some people are getting shelter in the nearby unfinished bank building. police arresting a middle aged man.” - two hours ago.

“my eyes are burning hard to keep them open #iranelection” - two hours ago

Continue reading "My eyes are burning: gassed Iranian student’s twitter feed" »

It is 20 years to the day that the student protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square were put down with brutal force by the Chinese Government.

This calculated act of state-sponsored violence was the most audacious expression of the Chinese dictatorship’s disregard for human rights. In full view of the world, with the above video still standing as a defining moment in history, China cemented its standing as a rogue state.

The face of modern Australia was also changed by Tiananmen. Our then prime minister Bob Hawke famously broke down on television, announcing that all 20,000 Chinese students then resident in our country could stay permanently. Today, Bob Hawke is a lobbyist with an office in Shanghai, and has spent much of the past week ducking requests for interviews.

Continue reading "Tiananmen: Never forget, unless you’re Bob Hawke" »