John Jiggens

2 months ago | independentaustralia.net | John Jiggens

Over the past month, both Four Corners and 60 Minutes have done major investigations into Australia’s $5 billion tobacco black market and the criminal gangs who now dominate the industry. Nick McKenzie’s 60 Minutes report began by squarely laying the blame for the crisis on the Commonwealth Health Department’s tobacco policies. ‘Where there’s smoke, there’s firebombing,’ he began, describing the reality for tobacconists in Victoria and increasingly throughout Australia.

2 months ago | johnmenadue.com | John Jiggens

In an extraordinary editorial that was labelled as warmongering by former prime minister Paul Keating, the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) called for China to be labelled a clear and present threat, argued for the reintroduction of conscription and for long range missiles armed with nuclear weapons, and urged Australia to prepare for war with China in three years.

2 months ago | johnmenadue.com | John Jiggens

Kevin Rudd lives in New York these days, but on November 18, he returned to his former hometown of Brisbane to speak about his most recent book, The Avoidable War: the dangers of a catastrophic conflict between the US and Xi Jinpings China at Brisbanes City Hall. Australias 26th Prime Minister quit politics after losing the 2013 election, departing to Harvard University, from where he was recruited by the Asia Society, an American institution founded by the Rockefellers in the 1950s.

2 months ago | johnmenadue.com | John Jiggens

Just think of it. After years and years of assisting the Timorese resistance to have Witness K. come to my office and tell me something so marked with treachery, words still fail me. So immoral. So unethical. so counter to all of our national interests!In July 2022, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC discontinued the long running case against Canberra lawyer and former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery, a prosecution that threatened immense harm to Australias international reputation.

2 months ago | johnmenadue.com | John Jiggens

Demonised by governments, abandoned by his homeland, Julian Assange ends another year in captivity, a living rebuke to double standards in the media. The persecution of Julian Assange by the UK and the US governments is an issue I have reported on frequently over the past decade.