October 2007

The Australian Department of Immigration (currently the Department of Immigration and Citizenship) has rightfully been condemned for some dreadful actions over the years - turning away boatloads of refugees, passing the buck (in more ways than one) to cash-strapped Pacific islands, redrawing Australia's boundaries for migration purposes... even deporting Australian citizens who just happened to have non-Anglo names. And in the past week they've made us a global laughingstock yet again with the ludicrous Citizenship Test.

Latest Youtuberium from the Australian Democrats:

[insert country name here] is close to its longest run of economic growth since the Second World War, with the economy 28.3 per cent larger in the year to June 2007, than it was ... in December 1999. Average [insert country name here] economic growth ... has been 3.4 per cent per annum ... Our unemployment has halved, and now sits at around the lowest levels reached in the OECD. Latest figures put the rate at 3.6 per cent, and that has been achieved at the bottom of the business cycle.

Australia criticised over Solomons role

Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare has criticised the Australian-led RAMSI (Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands), accusing the mission of representing too much of Canberra's interests and of failing to focus on its mandate to restore law and order in the South Pacific nation. More from Associated Press in Tuesday's Sydney Morning Herald.