October 2015

Gough Whitlam: 40 years on, the Dismissal's bastardry still intrigues | Paul Daley

Had Twitter or mobile phones been around in 1975, Malcolm Fraser’s integral role in John Kerr’s dismissal of Whitlam would have been known much earlier

On the afternoon of 11 November 1975, the steps of Canberra’s old Parliament House became the stage for the most immortal of so very many Gough Whitlam-isms.

“Well may we say ‘God save the Queen’ – because nothing will save the governor general.”

When the UN used Uluru's sacred space as an advertising space | Paul Daley

Indigenous activists were outraged when the United Nations’ logo was projected on to the Aboriginal spiritual and cultural site

According to the Anangu, the traditional owners of Uluru in central Australia, it is not OK to climb the imposing red rock.

So why, then, was the United Nations permitted to illuminate what many Indigenous Australians – including the Anangu – rightly consider to be a most sacred Aboriginal spiritual and cultural site and to advertise its logo on its face?

From Butchers Creek to Berlin: did Douglas Grant see the body of an Indigenous relative in Germany?

Paul Daley examines new evidence tracing the shared history of Ngadjon man Narcha, and Douglas Grant, the black Australian soldier and first world war one hero, who were both survivors of a Queensland massacre

Butchers Creek isn’t flowing today despite the rain that whips across the cane fields in drenching horizontal sheets.

Asio chief defied Gough Whitlam's order to cut ties with the CIA in 1974

Latest volume of Asio’s official history sheds light on the lowest point of US-Australian relations in the turbulent years of the Whitlam government

The chief of Australia’s domestic spy agency, Asio, defied a direct order from then Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1974 to sever all ties with America’s Central Intelligence Agency.

Keeping place for stolen Indigenous remains should take priority over Anzac centre

It’s time to scrap plans for the Sir John Monash Centre and reallocate money earmarked for Anzac commemorations towards a proper Indigenous memorial

The federal government should ditch its plans for the $100m-plus Anzac Sir John Monash “interpretive centre” on the western front in Europe and redirect the money to a much-needed national keeping place for the stolen remains of Indigenous Australians.