There is much to be said about the Federal Government’s role, irrespective of one’s political party, about what it’s powers should be in disaster management. Democracy is slow, and so churning out an efficient scheme for the immediate aftermath of the bushfires this year was near impossible. As we reel from the consequences of this disaster, we must explore multiple avenues for us to better prepare for the next disaster.
July 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the most recent genocide in European history; the Srebrenica massacre of more than 8000 Bosniaks by Serbian forces. This massacre occurred despite the UN declaring Srebrenica a ‘safe area’ under UN protection by units of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR). By the end of July 1995, the commander of the Bosnian Serbs who committed the massacre, Ratko Mladić, was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for genocide, crimes against humanity, and numerous war crimes. After being on the run for 16 years, Mladić was arrested in 2011 and extradited to the Hague to face an ICTY war crimes trial. After a marathon 6 years, in November 2017 he was convicted of 10 of the 11 charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. The time between crime and conviction for Mladić was 22 years, but at least we can say that he faced justice. In 2020, there are ongoing ethnic cleansings and genocides worthy of the attention of organisations such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), however there are cases in some states that will never go to trial in the Hague. Why?
$852 billion in gross debt, a budget deficit of $280 billion, all by mid-next year.
Young Australians will be saddled with this debt and deficit for the next 30 years of our working lives.
Young Australians will be disproportionately affected by this economic crisis. This is already evident from the June youth unemployment rate of 16.4%.
Shakespeare provides us with the finest characterisation of mercy. That ‘it is twice blessed: it blesseth him that gives and him that takes.’ Whilst this makes for a memorable soliloquy, the Bard omits from his description how it is only the party which has been wronged-against that can enact mercy for it to be of any worth. What we see in Queensland is the State Government having weakened laws and reduced sentences under the false guise of being merciful to criminals despite it not being its place to do so, making the goal of justice more difficult to attain.