In 2009, Swedish documentary filmmaker Fredrik Gertten released his film "Bananas!*", telling the story of a lawsuit brought by 12 Nicaraguans against the multinational Dole Food Company.

But before it was due to premiere at a Los Angeles film festival, the company filed a lawsuit against Gertten and his company for defamation.

Our glorious site yourdemocracy.net.au has been a bit sick for a couple of days. It seems the gods of the internauts are possibly angry. My guess is that some doozy from the Metadata collection pressed the wrong button and mucked up. Or it could be just an accident of a provider going plonk.

Trying to get anything other than the GST onto Malcolm’s ever shrinking tiny table is nigh-on impossible, but if we could, what’s wrong with introducing a financial transactions tax (FTT) to meet our growing financial requirement?

The Turnbull government minister in charge of scrapping generous travel entitlements for former MPs was himself a major beneficiary of the scheme, racking up almost $90,000 in taxpayer-funded flights.

An international expert on planning healthy cities has warned Sydney against following the Asian model of concentrating high rise around train stations to house a booming population.

Yesterday, 5 November 2015, Andrew Bolt told us a few fantasies but then what's new?... Without flinching, he reports on a CSIRO poll about global warming: "It's a miracle." he blurts without exclamation marks because Bolt is quite reserved in his appreciation of "facts". "most Australians are now global warming sceptics, despite years of being misled by the media." No exclamation marks here either. Humbly reserved.

Bolt continues: "a CSIRO survey of more than 5000 people has confirmed it, even though warmist reporters tried to spin it.

On Tuesday, in a press conference with Malcolm Turnbull to announce his appointment, the new chief scientist of Australia, Alan Finkel, said something very interesting.

Attorney-General George Brandis has hit out at criticism of Tony Abbott's religious beliefs, describing the "ridicule" to which the former prime minister was subjected as "bigotry at its most shameless".

The incessant sneering and ridiculing...[Tony] Abbott on account of his religious faith was bigotry at its most shameless. 

Senator Brandis, who last year defended people's "right to be bigots" amid debate over proposed changes to the Racial Discrimination Act, has told a roundtable meeting of religious and non-religious representatives that "religious freedom is every bit as important as political freedom".

If everything is on the table, rather than raising the GST to 15% and further increasing inequality, Malcolm Turnbull has a range of other options to help resolve Australia's current fiscal imbalance, writes John Passant.

‘Special intelligence operations’ grant ASIO officers immunity from prosecution if they break the law; they are also protected by an impenetrable wall of secrecy.