Manifesto for the Living

There will be moments, perhaps many, when the fight feels hopeless. The machine of power is vast, faceless, and loud. You will feel small. You may be alone. And the scale of what you’re facing will try to convince you that resistance is meaningless.

However, understand this: the desire to be free is not something that can be taught. It is not a theory or a program. It rises naturally. Like breath. Like the tide. People across this planet, in places you may never hear about, are pushing back in ways both quiet and thunderous. These moments, scattered and spontaneous, are not isolated. They are evidence of something larger: the system is cracking.

Freedom does not need permission to exist. It emerges in the defiance of a teacher refusing to lie to her students. In a protestor holding the line against riot shields. In a worker walking out of a factory. In art. In truth. In refusal. Every act of rebellion, no matter how minor it may seem, strengthens the cause. Every challenge to injustice sends a signal: we are still here.

The revolution does not begin in capitals. It starts in conversations. In conviction. In courage. It does not need headquarters or hierarchies. It lives in gestures - small, persistent, unyielding.

Every system of control is built on fear: not our fear, but theirs. Those who grasp for power without consent, who surveil, imprison, silence, do so because they are terrified of what happens when people stop obeying. Tyranny does not sustain itself. It requires vigilance, endless energy, constant suppression. And in that effort, it reveals its weakness.

What you are up against is unnatural. It is rigid. It leaks. It breaks. It cannot hold back the future forever.

There will come a moment - maybe in your lifetime, maybe beyond it - when all the pressure, all the resistance, all the flickers of dissent will combine into something unstoppable. The tide will rise above the dam. And all it will take is one spark too many. One refusal. One truth too loud to ignore.

That moment is only possible because of every act that comes before it.

So, here's what you must do: try.

Not because you are guaranteed to win. Not because the path is clear. But because refusing to try is surrender, and surrender is the dream of the oppressor.

Try, because others are watching. Try, because you may light a fire you never see. Try, because justice is not built in comfort, but in effort.

Try... and know you are not alone.

Israel-Iran and the Paradox of Threshold War: When Nuclear Deterrence Backfires

The recent escalation between Israel and Iran signals not just another flare-up in a long-standing rivalry, but the unveiling of a new phase in international conflict, the rise of Threshold War. This mode of warfare, defined by its strategic ambiguity and refusal to cross the line into declared war, now intersects with the global architecture of nuclear technology control regimes, presenting a paradox with long-term consequences.

Undeclared Powers and Declared Intentions

One of the central ironies of the Israel-Iran conflict lies in their respective nuclear positions. Israel is widely acknowledged to be a non-declared nuclear power, maintaining a policy of ambiguity that has shielded it from international scrutiny. Iran, on the other hand, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), despite persistent Western concerns over its uranium enrichment activities.

The paradox is stark: a state with nuclear weapons and outside the NPT launches preventative strikes to prevent a signatory state (ostensibly complying with the treaty) from acquiring the technological capacity that could, theoretically, lead to a bomb. These strikes, while framed as deterrence, actually validate the strategic logic of acquiring nuclear weapons for the targeted state. If nothing else, they confirm that a state remains vulnerable without a credible nuclear deterrent.

Threshold War and the Illusion of Control

The concept of threshold warfare is designed to avoid the costs and visibility of total war, operating just below the line of open interstate conflict. In practice, this has led to a slow-motion normalisation of hostilities: cyberattacks, proxy warfare, assassinations, and missile strikes conducted with strategic deniability.

But these shadow wars have undermined the stability technology control regimes were meant to enforce. There is no legal barrier in the NPT against a state developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes, including uranium enrichment. Yet once a country crosses a certain technical threshold, it is subject to coercion or attack ... even if it remains within the boundaries of international law.

Thus, the pursuit of nuclear capability becomes a rational survival strategy, especially when preemptive (or preventative) strikes become a routine occurrence. This is not just a failure of diplomacy; it’s a failure of the architecture designed to contain nuclear risks.

The Strategic Backfire

Each preventative strike carries an unintended strategic message: only full nuclear deterrence can guarantee safety. The logic of nonproliferation is turned on its head when countries that forgo weaponisation are punished while nuclear-armed states are shielded from consequence.

Iran's position is illustrative. Its technological advances in enrichment, combined with its ambiguous posture on weaponisation, place it in a “nuclear latency” state. Israel’s preemptive operations, whether through airstrikes or cyber sabotage, are meant to prevent weaponisation. But the deeper consequence is that they make achieving a credible deterrent appear more urgent to Iranian strategists.

Reimagining Control in a Gray-Zone Era

What this crisis reveals is that current technology control regimes are not equipped for threshold warfare. They rely on binaries - weaponised or not, compliant or not - while modern conflict operates in shades of ambiguity. The tools of cyberwar, deniable sabotage, and indirect strikes do not fall neatly into treaty frameworks.

A new strategic doctrine must emerge; one that recognises the paradox of deterrence, and that accountability must apply even to undeclared powers. Without that, the message to the world remains: develop nuclear weapons quietly, or risk annihilation.

Conclusion

The Israel-Iran confrontation is not just a regional affair. It is a warning sign of systemic instability, driven by the mismatch between old doctrines and new realities. In an age where preemptive strikes risk justifying the very threats they aim to eliminate, the path forward must involve renewed commitment to equitable enforcement of treaties and a recognition that the future of global security lies in resolving paradoxes, not exploiting them.

Holding Dutton Back? Let’s Name the Real Problem: A Broken System That Keeps Producing Him

Holding Peter Dutton Back - Every Seat Matters

If you're worried about Peter Dutton becoming Prime Minister, you should be. But not just because of him. Dutton is not an anomaly. He is a symptom - an unfiltered manifestation of a political system that runs on fear, corporate obedience, and manufactured ignorance.

Yes, he walked out on the National Apology, demonised refugees, backed indefinite detention, and voted against marriage equality. Yes, he is shilling for coal and nuclear while the planet burns. But let’s not pretend he emerged from nowhere.

He’s a product of a political class that, for decades, has treated cruelty as strength and climate denial as strategy. Dutton is what happens when you take everything ugly in Australian politics, scrape off the polish, and leave it to fester in the open.

The Myth of Opposition: Labor Without Pressure Is Just a Slower Decline

The idea that Peter Dutton must be “held back” by electing a Labor majority is a fantasy peddled by those who benefit from a two-party duopoly that exists to serve capital, not citizens.

Labor, we’re told, is the antidote to the right. But under Albanese, new coal and gas projects keep getting rubber-stamped. The housing crisis deepens while supermarket giants post record profits. Labor won’t even touch the grotesque tax cuts for the wealthy, but they’ll nickel-and-dime dental care.

Labor’s role isn’t to transform. It’s to manage decline. Smooth the rough edges. Tinker with symptoms. But never challenge power at the root.

This isn’t about incompetence. It’s about intent.

The Greens: An Inconvenient Force for the Status Quo

Unlike the major parties, the Greens aren’t playing to donors. That’s why their presence is so irritating to the establishment. It’s not that their ideas are radical - it’s that they threaten to make politics functional.

When Greens enter Parliament, two things happen:

1. Labor is forced to stop triangulating and start legislating.
2. The Liberals are denied the unchallenged space to radicalise.

Don’t ask what the Greens might do. Look at what they already have:

• Forced Labor to actually cap emissions and block some fossil fuel expansions.
• Secured billions for public housing and clean energy.
• Exposed the bipartisan rorts, the defence boondoggles, the corporate handouts.
• Pushed for truth in political ads and real-time donation transparency.

This isn’t idealism. It’s structural pressure. And it works.

“Safe” Seats Are a Lie. Every Vote Builds the Alternative

The fiction of “safe” seats is one of the system’s most effective sedatives. It tells people their vote doesn’t matter - when in reality, every Greens vote is a strike against complacency. Against the illusion of choice between two parties funded by the same corporations.

In the Senate, every Greens vote can decide whether a seat is held by a climate denier or someone who understands science.

In the House, every Greens swing sends a message: the public is watching, and we’re done waiting politely while the planet cooks and inequality spirals.

What’s at Stake? Only the Future

We are living through cascading crises - ecological, economic, democratic. And what do we get in response?

From Dutton: culture war, surveillance, fossil fuels, and punitive politics for the poor.

From Labor: incrementalism, fossil fuel appeasement, and a strategy of saying the right things while doing the opposite.

We’ve seen this movie before. It ends with disaster.

However, there is another script: people-powered politics. The kind that redistributes wealth and power, the kind that challenges entrenched interests instead of managing them.

Your Vote Is a Weapon. Use It Wisely.

Vote to keep Dutton out of power - not just symbolically, but systemically.

Vote to pressure Labor where it counts: on climate, housing, inequality, and truth.

Vote to end corporate rule, one seat at a time.

This isn’t about holding anyone back.

It’s about breaking the machine that keeps pushing people like Peter Dutton forward.

Propping Up Plutocracy: Australia's Hollow Democracy and the Corporate Boot on the Throat of the Public

"Democracy™": How Australia Became a Corporate Playground Disguised as a Nation-State

You don’t need to read between the lines anymore. The lines themselves scream it: this system is not broken—it’s working exactly as designed.

You know something is wrong. You feel it when a scandal breaks and not a single head rolls. When the politician who once regulated a sector is suddenly employed by it. When multimillion-dollar contracts land in the laps of political donors while hospitals are understaffed, schools crumble, and services in your community are slashed.

Australians have come to a bitter realisation from coast to coast: it doesn’t matter who you vote for if both major parties are taking money from the same corporate interests. Democracy has become an empty ritual. Elections are held, yes - but their outcomes are predetermined by the machinery of money, power, and influence.

This isn’t a conspiracy. It’s the architecture of Australian politics.

Bipartisanship at Its Ugliest: Corporate Capture

The ALP and the Liberal Party are adversaries only in name. Behind the scenes, their campaigns are fuelled by the same toxic cash. Since 1999, the two have jointly accepted nearly $300 million from fossil fuel companies, the Big Four banks, supermarket monopolies, defense contractors, and consulting behemoths like PwC and KPMG.

These aren't donations. They're investments - with expectations.

And what do these donors get in return? Billions in fossil fuel subsidies while Australia burns. Entire public policy sectors outsourced to private consultants. No climate plan. No anti-corruption watchdog with teeth. And no consequences.

Meanwhile, the revolving door spins ever faster: politicians slide seamlessly into cushy corporate gigs when they leave office. The public interest? It’s not even a footnote.

The Illusion of Reform: How "Integrity" Became a Punchline

Public trust in politics is in free fall - and for good reason. Integrity is spoken of like a quaint relic. We get headlines, inquiries, reports, and promises. But never justice. Never real reform.

And when the system is criticised, the defenders of the status quo clutch their pearls: “You’re undermining faith in democracy!”

But faith in democracy is being systematically exterminated by the very people who claim to defend it. Each scandal they ignore. Each lobbyist-written bill they pass. Each backroom deal they cut.

This is not dysfunction. This is doctrine.

The Greens: Actually Doing What the Others Pretend To

Enter the Greens - the only party in federal Parliament that refuses corporate donations. Not just a symbolic gesture. A structural line in the sand.

This isn’t about political purity. It’s about power. The Greens can challenge the corporate stranglehold on our politics precisely because they’re not owned by it. That makes them dangerous - not to the public, but to the powerful.

Their platform isn’t radical. It’s what a functioning democracy should look like:

• Ban corporate donations from fossil fuels, gambling, alcohol, arms, and banking.
• Cap all political donations and enforce real-time transparency.
• Extend lobbying bans on ex-ministers from 18 months to five years.
• Publish all ministerial diaries.
• Make lying in political ads illegal - with penalties.
• Boost the power and independence of public watchdogs.
• Fund participatory democracy initiatives to give people - not just corporations - a seat at the table.

If that sounds extreme, ask yourself: Who benefits from the current system? Who would lose if politics were actually accountable?

Why the Status Quo Fears Democracy

The most dangerous idea in any elite-controlled society is that ordinary people should govern themselves.

And the most feared thing in Canberra isn’t extremism. It’s hope. It’s the idea that the public might start demanding not just representation but power, that we might tear down the revolving door, break the donor-politician feedback loop, and reclaim democracy from the corporatocracy.

That’s what the Greens represent. Not just a policy agenda. A threat to business as usual.

It’s Not Enough to Change the Players. We Have to Change the Game.

Labor won’t clean up politics. They rely on the same donors as the Liberals. The Liberals fear integrity like it’s a contagion. Both parties will tinker around the edges while the machine keeps running.

The Greens want to tear out the rot at the roots.

This election isn’t just about booting out one lousy government. It’s about whether you believe democracy should serve people - or profit.

Vote to ban corporate donations. To jail corrupt politicians. To make the powerful accountable - for once.

Because democracy doesn’t die in darkness.

It dies in broad daylight - when people stop believing it can still be theirs.

Affordable Insurance in a Changing Climate: A Fair Go in Hard Times

The Bill Comes First, the Fire Later: How Climate Policy Got Turned Into a Shakedown

In Australia, we like to talk about “a fair go.” But try telling that to the family in Dickson whose insurance just tripled, or to the pensioner deciding whether to cover their home or keep the heater on. Because while climate-fuelled disasters rip through Queensland year after year, one thing comes without fail - your bill. Before the storm, before the fire, the invoice has already arrived.

Bushfires, floods, mega-storms - they’re no longer rare events. They’re routine. And for most Australians, especially in working-class suburbs, the question isn’t if the next disaster will hit—it’s whether they can afford to be insured when it does.

Spoiler: many can’t. But that’s not an accident. That’s policy.

Why Are Insurance Premiums Exploding? Simple. Fossil Fuels Still Run the Show

Let’s not pretend this is complicated. The reason insurance premiums are skyrocketing is because disasters are. And disasters are skyrocketing because fossil fuel corporations are being allowed - encouraged, even - to keep torching the planet like it’s shareholder bonfire night.

Labor knows this. The Liberals know this. But instead of stopping it, they’ve pulled out the red carpet. Over 25 new coal and gas projects green-lit. $11 billion a year in subsidies handed straight to the same corporations setting the planet on fire.

And then, in a dazzling feat of political theatre, they look shocked when the cost of recovery lands on the public instead of the polluters.

Peter Dutton’s contribution? Deny the problem, blame the Greens, and dangle the keys to a nuclear utopia that won’t show up until the year 2045, if at all. It’s not policy - it’s climate cosplay.

This Isn’t Incompetence. It’s Protection Racket Politics

The government isn’t failing to respond to the insurance crisis. It’s facilitating it. It protects fossil fuel profits, hands them billions, and leaves everyday people to foot the bill - twice. Once through taxes and subsidies. Then again through skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket disaster costs.

That’s not a policy gap. That’s a business model.

The Greens: Making the Polluters Pay, Not You

The Greens are the only party refusing to play along with this racket. They’re not pretending the market’s going to save you from the next firestorm. They’re not waiting for a magical future reactor. They’re offering something shockingly rare: a plan rooted in cause and effect.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Expand the government’s reinsurance pool to cover all climate disasters - not just cyclones. Yes, floods, fires, storms. All of it.
• Make fossil fuel corporations pay into that pool. They broke it. They can help fund the mop-up.
• Give the ACCC real teeth to monitor insurance prices and demand clear explanations for premium hikes. If you’re getting gouged, you’ll know - and they’ll answer for it.
• Create a national disaster risk map that the public can actually see. Because you deserve more than vague warnings and a shrugged shoulder.
• Cut regressive stamp duties that inflate insurance costs for no good reason.
• Build a national Climate Response Service - because if disaster’s coming, you need more than empty slogans. You need sandbags, warning systems, and someone on the ground who gives a damn.

This isn’t just fair. It’s functional. For once.

Because Right Now, Security Is for the Rich. Everyone Else? Best of Luck

Try buying a home in a high-risk area and getting affordable insurance. You won’t. And that’s by design. As the climate gets worse, security becomes a luxury good - only available to those who can pay. That’s not just immoral. It’s medieval.

It’s the opposite of resilience. It’s abandonment with a policy number.

Working people didn’t cause this crisis. Pensioners didn’t profit off gas exports. Renters didn’t pour billions into coal expansion. But they’re the ones being hit hardest - again.

The Greens have a simple principle: recovery shouldn’t depend on your bank balance.

This Election: Call Time on the Fossil-Backed Insurance Cartel

Labor will keep dancing around the fire they helped light. The Liberals will keep pretending there’s nothing burning. The Greens are the only ones pointing at the arsonists and demanding they pay for the damage.

Vote to make insurance affordable, and disaster protection real.

Vote to end handouts for polluters and hold them accountable.

Vote to push Labor to stop protecting profits over people - and keep Dutton in the bunker where he belongs.

Because in a climate crisis, honesty isn’t radical. It’s necessary. And someone’s got to say it.

Bring Down Your Power Bills: Climate Action That Saves You Money

High Power Bills Aren’t a Bug—They’re the Business Model

Every month, Australians are hit with another energy bill that looks more like a punishment than a charge for service. You use less, but pay more. You switch off the lights, unplug appliances, cut back on comfort - and still, you fall further behind.

This isn’t bad luck or poor planning. It’s design. The Australian energy system is built not to serve households, but to extract from them.

Fossil Fuels: High Prices by Political Design

Why are your bills rising? Simple. Because coal and gas are still at the center of our power grid, not because of necessity, but because of obedience - to corporate donors, fossil fuel lobbies, and the politicians who serve them.

Labor has approved over 25 new coal and gas projects since taking office. At the same time, they hand out $11 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel corporations - while telling families they can’t afford a proper heater in winter.

Peter Dutton’s answer? Fantasyland nuclear plants, decades away and hundreds of billions over budget. In reality, it’s a stalling tactic, engineered to protect the fossil fuel status quo while deflecting from solutions that already exist.

Meanwhile, households pay the price. The economy of fossil fuels is volatile by nature. Prices are determined not by what we need but by what markets and monopolies demand. And Australia, one of the most sun-drenched nations on Earth, remains tethered to 19th-century fuels because both major parties have decided that profit for a few trumps affordability for all.

Labor and the Liberals: Two Faces of Corporate Capture

What unites both Labor and the Liberals is their refusal to sever ties with the industries driving up costs and driving the climate crisis. The public picks up the tab - through bills, subsidies, and disaster recovery. Fossil fuel corporations keep the profits. That’s not oversight. That’s collusion.

The Greens: Disrupting the Energy Cartel

The Greens are the only force willing to name the enemy: an energy system run by profiteers, propped up by politicians, and insulated by media silence.

Their plan?

• Direct investment in household and community energy - solar panels, batteries, and efficiency upgrades that actually reduce bills and give people energy independence.
• Electrification grants and loans - not as charity, but as a public right to live in homes that aren’t energy traps.
• Expansion of publicly owned renewable energy - not to enrich shareholders, but to return profits to communities.
• A Climate Response Service - paid for by ending fossil fuel subsidies - to prepare for and recover from climate-driven disasters.
• Making fossil fuel corporations pay for the damage they cause - through levies that fund recovery, not dividends.
• Coordinating with states to cut insurance costs, enforce resilient building codes, and stop price-gouging.

In short: clean energy, in public hands, with the costs and benefits shared fairly. It’s not radical. It’s what a functioning democracy would do if it wasn’t compromised by fossil capital.

Energy Is a Right, Not a Commodity

When pensioners sit in the dark to save money, when renters pay outrageous bills for drafty, uninsulated homes, while CEOs of fossil fuel companies post record profits - this is not a policy failure. It is a moral failure. And a political one.

The idea that the market will solve this crisis is a myth maintained for the benefit of the few. What’s needed isn’t more competition - it’s confrontation.

This Election: Break the Cycle

Labor props up fossil fuels. The Liberals offer nuclear distractions and climate denial. Only the Greens are fighting to dismantle the energy racket and deliver clean, affordable power for all.

Vote to make energy efficient, clean, and public.

Vote to tax fossil fuel giants and fund real climate resilience.

Vote to end corporate control over your power bill - and your future.

Because the cost-of-living crisis and the climate crisis are not separate battles. They have the same culprits. And it’s time we stopped paying them.

The Climate Crisis Is No Longer a Warning—It’s Here

The Climate Crisis Isn’t an Emergency—It’s Policy

You don’t have to be a scientist to understand what’s happening in Dickson, or anywhere else in Australia. The evidence is written across our skies and landscapes - searing heat, violent storms, unaffordable insurance, floods that turn communities into disaster zones. This isn’t climate “change.” It’s collapse. And it isn’t just happening. It’s being engineered - approved, subsidised, and expanded by the people who claim to be fixing it.

For all the hand-wringing in Canberra, one truth is deliberately avoided: the climate crisis is not a natural disaster. It is a business model.

Bipartisan Destruction Disguised as Pragmatism

Labor came to power on a platform of climate “action.” They then approved over two dozen new coal and gas projects. Not in defiance of their agenda, but in fulfillment of it. This is not a failure of implementation. It is the policy.

At the same time, they hand billions in taxpayer money - $11 billion annually - to fossil fuel corporations. They give the green light to destruction in the Beetaloo Basin, Scarborough, Pilliga Forest, and then offer up soundbites about renewables as if that offsets geological catastrophe.

And the Liberals? Their answer is a nuclear fantasy that won’t arrive for 20 years and will cost hundreds of billions - if it ever arrives. But that’s not the point. The goal isn’t solutions. It’s delay. It’s cover. It’s to protect fossil fuel profits at the expense of human futures.

Both parties have taken millions in donations from the coal, oil, and gas industries. That’s not incidental. That’s the operating system.

Fossil Fuel Expansion Isn’t a Bug—It’s a Feature

Australia’s emissions are rising under Labor. The media treats it as a minor contradiction. In reality, it’s the outcome of a system designed not to solve the crisis but to manage its optics. A solar panel on every roof won’t save us if the government keeps opening methane-leaking gas fields and digging more coal. That’s not a transition - it’s greenwashing at planetary scale.

The Greens: Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud

The Greens are treated as outliers, not because they’re unrealistic, but because they are the only political force willing to state the obvious: we cannot end the climate crisis while expanding the industries causing it.

Their plan aligns with the science:

• No new coal, oil, or gas projects - ever.
• End public subsidies for corporations fueling planetary collapse.
• A fair, managed transition for existing fossil fuel workers - because justice includes the people who’ve been exploited by this system too.
• Publicly owned renewable energy - where profits don’t vanish into offshore accounts but return to communities.
• Real investment in solar, electrification, home upgrades, and climate resilience - cutting emissions and bills simultaneously.
• Tens of thousands of new jobs in the only industries with a future.
• A climate strategy rooted in ecosystems, not quarterly profits.

And it will be paid for the only moral way: by taxing the ultra-rich and dismantling corporate welfare for industries that have made climate collapse their business model.

Delay Is a Decision

Every coal mine approval, every gas expansion, is not just inaction - it’s complicity. It is a decision to sacrifice lives for short-term profits. It is the state choosing the economy of death over the possibility of survival.

Imagine instead a country powered by the sun, where jobs are built on creation, not extraction. Where our children inherit a livable world, not an open-cut grave.

That future is possible. But it will not be granted. It must be demanded.

This Election: The Last Illusion Dies

Labor offers contradictions. The Liberals offer denial. The Greens offer reality.

In just one term, Greens MPs have blocked new fossil fuel projects, secured caps on emissions, and forced billions into clean energy.

But time is not on our side.

Vote to stop the destruction.

Vote for a livable climate, sustainable jobs, and systemic honesty.

Vote to challenge a political class that profits from collapse.

Because if this decade is not the turning point - it will be the tipping point.