Fran Murray

If your country hasn’t issued a travel warning regarding visiting the US due to political violence by the government it’s doing you a disservice

The myth of 'social cohesion' - do as they say, not as they do - The Shot There’s an established principle in law: he who comes looking for equity must come with clean hands. The clean hands...

My latest article in The Shot

"The largest contributors to the breakdown of social cohesion in Australia are the governments of Australia, practising a privileged fuck-you version of democracy that makes its own rules & caters for those within the club"

#pffft
theshot.net.au/uncategorize...

Meanwhile, four decades ago....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErwS...

Last year, CNN ran a “fact check” of Kamala HQ that claimed we were lying for saying Trump’s plan is Project 2025.

Now Trump is outright admitting it’s his plan.

Legacy media failed the country.

An Englishman just abducted a human aid boat in International waters on behalf of a rogue administration led by a wanted war criminal to protect an illegal siege starving Gaza to death.

Mind-numbing sleep-woking The word 'woke' is tiresome. More though, it's a cliché that terminates our ability to debate. In Australian civic discourse, and internationally, the word is used to demarcate lines of battle. In 2025, Australian politicians are hoping it can turn a motley coalition of voters into the government's base. Lucy Hamilton Lucy Hamilton is a doctoral student at UTS and a writer who focuses on the impact of the international Right on Australian politics and society. This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. She works on Woi-wurrung and Wurundjeri lands. Woke emerged as a concept in US Black culture in the 1920s to signal people who were aware of how the system trapped them in disadvantage. Later, progressives borrowed (stole?) the label to celebrate that awareness more broadly, with regard to varied subjects like human rights for minorities, women, workers and refugees. By 2020, the term had become established as the right's latest slur for the 'politically correct. See linked essay for more…

Re Andrew Hastie
Since the creeps at Melbourne University are shutting down Meanjin, I am bringing my essay out from the paywall. It’s on how “Christian” is being used to bring together a ratty coalition against “woke” , here at ARC, Hastie on that Board. #auspol

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/l6oxr...

Sunlight doesn’t disinfect, because fascist ideology isn’t a mold, it’s a fire. You have to starve it of oxygen.

Two years later:
Everyone got off scot-free, no-one has taken responsibility (or been held responsible), Ashley Youth Detention Centre is still open and will be indefinitely, whistleblowers are still unsafe and ignored, and the TAS government is paying hundreds of millions in compensation for csa

I assume that we won't get Surgeon General reports about the epidemic of white men shooting people and sociological studies about where their fathers are?

The kiwis I bought are being marketed with “refreshing original taste” and now I’m left wondering if there was a New Coke type rollout for kiwis that I missed.

When you're watching The People vs Robodebt tonight, remember that this is not simply history - Labor is hunting welfare recipients for dodgy debts to this day.

And more than two years on from the Royal Commission, they've failed to implement key recommendations to prevent harm.

The US has now two parallel governing structures beginning to shape policy in fields that were once the competence of the US federal government.

Potentially the next tightening of tension in the America Crisis.

Yep - that's pretty much it...

Worth listening too 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

This hits pretty hard, from the chair of the UN commission on Gaza www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/o...

not an exaggeration to say I am WEEPING with laughter at this reply from someone who hadn't seen that Robert Redford died today

Apologies for not adding alt text to all these photos. My cat is screaming her head off and if I don't let her outside right this instance, where I have to accompany her, I might die.

Style lessons from Robert Redford, one of the most stylish men in the last century. 🧵

UPDATE: Our ad has been pulled. While the Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun talk about freedom of speech all the time, they've decided that they won't be proceeding with our ad tomorrow.

We still hope they will run our ad at a later date, because we need to broadcast the message, end the genocide!

Leaks show that the mega-rich War Memorial has reverse-engineered the criteria so a brave and relevant book by a seasoned author can't win. It can easily afford a best military history book award AND a best newcomer award. Kim Beazley, getting paid by us to faff PR cliches in our general direction.

A Gladiator Finds His Arena The ball soared over the towering fence and landed right in front of me as I walked down a pedestrian only cobblestone street in Abbesses. It was the size of a football (soccer, if you're basic) but ...

Absolutely fighting for my life outside a primary school in Paris trying to return a ball to the kids who kicked it over the Jurassic Park sized playground fence. Also: some shortlist admin and world is fuky. My newsletter this week. Sign up, si tu aimes. rick-morton.ghost.io/a-gladiator-...

Charlie Kirk died in the America he wanted I mourn the loss of human life. I feel compassion, empathy and grief at an inexcusable killing. But I find nothing to lionise in his legacy.

Given this is making some waves - here is the piece and you can judge for yourself.

(I'm fine, there are no issues - right wing ecosystem just doing what right wing ecosystem does).

Take care of you - it's rough out there! Ax

amyremeikis.substack.com/p/charlie-ki...

Reading an interview with a philosopher in which interviewer and -ee celebrate how the philosopher’s 2021 work inspired a new body of scholarship proposing the existence of non-western conceptions of technology — a field clearly unaware of archaeology, anthropology, + other things beyond itself!

Australian War Memorial changes book prize rules to reject Ben Roberts-Smith exposé When the judges announced acclaimed journalist Chris Masters as the winner, it proved a step too far for the institution.

Why do these losers think they won’t get found out? www.smh.com.au/culture/book...

A presentation by @elainejohnson.bsky.social yesterday pointed to the exact paragraph (427) in the ICJ Advisory Opinion that spells out how continued fossil fuel production gives rise to liability

The Albanese Labor govt has so far approved 32🤯 new/extensions of Coal & Gas projects #LaborValues

Regulator in gas leak 'scandal' had paid role with industry lobbyist The man in charge of the Northern Territory government's handling of a major methane leak at a Santos gas plant was working with a lobbyist for the project's co-owner.

Jesus Christ.

The Head of the EPA in the Northern Territory thinks it is totally fine to do consulting work for the industry he is supposed to be regulating on the side.

What an absolute scene!

A diagram titled "Ecological Network Optimisation" with attractive landscapes and networks and very clear AI-generation artifacts.

Check out the graphical abstract for a paper recently published in Ecological Modelling.

I have papers published in Ecological Modelling. Never again, I guess.

'Wrongful act': Vanuatu warns Australia may break international law if gas project proceeds

📢 Australia has been warned approving the contentious North West Shelf gas extension may break international law. The government could give the final tick to the West Australian fossil fuel project in as soon as tomorrow. But on the sidelines of the...
👉 Bot to check Bluesky account creation dates

Regulator in gas leak 'scandal' had paid role with industry lobbyist The man in charge of the Northern Territory government's handling of a major methane leak at a Santos gas plant was working with a lobbyist for the project's co-owner.

NT Environment Protection Authority chair Paul Vogel was involved in key decisions around the Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas plant (DLNG) without disclosing his paid role with the lobbying firm representing DLNG shareholder INPEX. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09....