Professor Petra Tschakert at the University of Western Australia is halfway through a project to “locate loss from climate change in everyday places”. These places include my very own Perth stamping ground of Willagee. Heavens, my parents moved to Willagee in late 1953, when it was raw sand. Willagee featured the Housing Commission’s half-finished jerry-built … Continue reading →

At Melbourne University only 18 academics signed the manifesto of Extinction Rebellion last September, including six at professor/associate rank. But academics at RMIT University next door  eclipsed that effort thrice over with a thumping 63 signatories, including 15 professors and associate professors. The national roll-call of the XR-petitioning professorial ranks – and remember this is … Continue reading →

The symposium was called ‘Hacking the Anthropocene’ and was no less goofy than its title suggests. A small sample concerned the mysterious topic of ‘bttming’, whose ‘methodology emerged out of a drifting conversation about glow worms, mushrooms and queer ecologies, tree hugging/humping, resting, composting and excretion, toilets and cruising’. There, now you know! Picture a … Continue reading →

An anti-Trump media item from Arizona last month wasn’t just deranged, it was imbecilic. Even The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s  Washington team wouldn’t recycle it. But it made the grade for the RMIT (University)-ABC’s shameless Fact Check Unit, run by Russell Skelton. Tony Thomas Above: Fact Check boss Russell Skelton and his ABC celebrity spouse Virginia … Continue reading →

The taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Commission led the witch-hunt against Papal advisor, conservative and climate sceptic Cardinal Pell. Here’s how the ABC dealt with its own disgrace 9th April 2020 Comments (3) Tony Thomas Does the ABC have a conscience or does it merely have expertise in what the vulgar call “arse-covering”? Witness the ABC-TV’s handling … Continue reading →

The Perth of my youth was a friendly West Australian town, half asleep by the bays and reaches of the Swan. We called ourselves the “Wildflower State”. Perhaps the “Flogging and Hanging State” would be more apt. First, I’ll reminisce about the hangings, then the floggings. In 1964 when I was a reporter and part-time … Continue reading →

Tony Thomas How nice of the Sydney Peace Prize people to award its Gold Medal for Human Rights this month to Christiana Figueres, top negotiator of the toothless 2015 Paris climate accord. The Sydney Peace Foundation, backed by the City of Sydney and Sydney University, somewhat incoherently cited the good lady’s ‘relentless drive to ensure … Continue reading →