Geoff Winestock | Journalist
Geoff Winestock
Phone: +61 2 9282 2682
Reviews
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25.01.2022 With a reference to "Friday on my mind" by The Easybeats.
25.01.2022 It will not necessarily undermine border policy if the government takes a nuanced approach to individual cases. Mr Dutton has used his ministerial discretion to free nannies from detention. The Sri Lankan family are equally deserving candidates for his consideration.
25.01.2022 How to sort out the sad conditions in aged care homes exposed by the pandemic? One issue we perhaps should have discussed more in this editorial is keeping people at home for longer with more support. While oviously we should do more I also sometimes worry that young people imagine there can be a painfree way of looking after old people. Having seen my uncle and grandmother spend a long time in a nice Jewish aged care home it seems to me that no matter how nice the facilities are, the end of most people's lives is not pleasant or dignified. https://www.smh.com.au//aged-care-funding-must-be-tied-to-
24.01.2022 The Herald cannot claim to be expert in immunology or epidemiology but we understand the communication business and the campaign the government has run so far is not cutting through.
23.01.2022 In the lead-up to the event there has been humbuggery about how appalling it is that children are slacking off and wagging school to attend this protest, when they should be learning.
23.01.2022 This editorial from 5 June caused some controversy because it included the misleading statement that "Australia did not have a legacy of slavery." I knew when I wrote the sentence that Australia had imported slaves from the South Pacific in the 19th century but I thought that was not relevant to the article which was in my mind about Indigenous Australians. I was however ignorant of the evidence about conditions tantamount to slavery imposed on indigenous people such as work ...without pay and sex slavery. More acurately I knew that those things occurred but had never thought of them in the same terms as US slavery. When the idea that this was slavery came up on social media a few days later I realised the editorial was misleading. I only asked to have the article corrected last Thursday however after the prime minister made the same misleading statement. We should have moved faster to do that. See more
22.01.2022 A fascinating debate. Why write friendly histories for spy agencies? It will never tell the whole truth on the other hand it will tell some of the truth. In a way it is the same as authorised biographies of businessmen or politicians. https://www.smh.com.au//why-universities-shouldn-t-write-o
22.01.2022 The US presidential election has ended in a cliffhanger, which could turn into a nightmare for the country's long-term political stability. https://www.smh.com.au//prolonged-fight-for-election-resul
21.01.2022 When Scott Morrison speaks about bills for religious freedom it is confusing to most people. It implies that Australia is rife with religious persecution. In fact, there is no need to give religion special status under workplace and discrimination law.
21.01.2022 Until the 1980s, Australia ignored the disappearance of the 250 languages spoken by Indigenous people at the time of European colonisation. Now Australias first Indigenous Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, has thrown his weight behind the movement to save the languages that remain.
21.01.2022 "Even though the US is Australias closest ally it is not clear what we can do to encourage Mr Trump to de-escalate tensions.Whatever Australia says, Mr Trump could capriciously interpret as a personal betrayal.""
20.01.2022 Prime Minister Scott Morrisons threat to outlaw certain forms of protest by environmentalists against coal and gas mining companies might be good short-term politics but it would be a dangerous move for Australian democracy.
19.01.2022 "The predicted influx of new boats from Indonesia or Sri Lanka does not appear to have eventuated. Medevac remains a reasonable compromise solution for a diabolical problem."
18.01.2022 The Heralds investigative team did a great job shining a light on the dark past of a new minister in the Thai government.
18.01.2022 "The protests highlight the need for a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice along the lines of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. If Indigenous people have a body in Canberra where they can express their views on matters that affect them directly, it will provide a far more democratic alternative to taking their anger onto the streets in violent protest."
17.01.2022 This is the time to wish people a Happy New Year but the unfolding tragedy of the bushfires makes it hard to feel cheerful.
16.01.2022 The coroner wants NSW Police to stop using sniffer dogs to catch people with drugs. She says they make people take their drugs in panic in even more dangerous ways, such as double dosing, pre-loading, swallowing drugs and insertion in a vaginal or anal cavity
15.01.2022 Particularly proud of this editorial since I was not actually living in Australia in 2000 and with young kids and a full-trime job I had almost no time to watch them. https://www.smh.com.au//sydney-must-rediscover-optimism-of
14.01.2022 One big takeaway from this FT story on heavy underreporting of Covid deaths worldwide is: do NOT compare across cherry-picked countries to support ideological debates about lockdown -- their circumstances are far too different.
13.01.2022 Former FM Bob Carr makes the case for engaging with China including on the investigation into the virus.
13.01.2022 "The event creates a worrying precedent. Excessive closeness with the government could compromise the RBAs hard won independence since the early 1990s to set monetary policy."
12.01.2022 As well as its insights into water policies, this ICAC report gives an insight into the thinking of one of NSW most important institutions. Here it has chosen not to hold public hearings. That contradicts the critics who say ICAC is reckless in smearing reputations. It is also interesting that although ICAC found the law had been broken it did not make corruption findings because it did not see a personal but rather a political motive. https://www.smh.com.au//premier-must-adopt-icac-plan-to-cl
12.01.2022 After Black Lives Matter there is more pressure to fix the decades of failure of Indigenous policy. The Herald has campaigned hard for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament entrenched in the Constitution but fixing Closing the Gap is also important. The new plan will set some goals on issues like processing Indigenous land rights claims and reducing the number of Indigenous people in prison.
12.01.2022 Australias prestige in our region rests not just on our aid or our military might but also, we hope, on our reputation for dealing fair and straight. That is why Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a serious mistake on a historic trip to East Timor last week by refusing to address the injustice Australia is committing against two of the tiny island nations best friends.
11.01.2022 While stronger measures increase the upfront cost of action, it increases the likelihood of a speedier move to a national social and economic recovery phase
11.01.2022 It will be very hard to target the payments in an efficient way to the most needy renters and kindest landlords but in this crisis the government should err on the side of generosity.l
11.01.2022 Whatever the WHOs failings, by the end of January it had issued a clear warning. Governments in the US and Europe must shoulder much of the blame for failing to take it seriously enough.
09.01.2022 Some in the media have been rushing to blame premier Dan Andrews for the breach of quarantine in Victoria or Scott Morrison for the deaths in aged care. I hope this piece set the right tone. It is a very difficult and new situation and there is nothing to be gained by nasty politics.
08.01.2022 I loved writing tasks at school as you can tell from the pretentious expressions I included in this editorial. https://www.smh.com.au//nsw-schools-are-failing-to-teach-w
08.01.2022 It is a huge task but teachers will have to start thinking now about the options for online teaching. Trying to save the HSC should be a priority.
08.01.2022 Justice Bergin should ask whether Crown and rival Star Entertainments heavy reliance on international high-rollers can ever be clean without meaningful changes to current rules.
07.01.2022 "For run-of-the mill cases, police are supposed to stick to an ordinary external search. Pushing someone up against a wall, making them spread their legs and patting them down is intrusive enough."
07.01.2022 Trumps request for an investigation is preposterous and even insulting to Australia as a loyal ally.
07.01.2022 I find editorials about China hard to write. I have a long history with the country and am depressed at the gulf between us and them. It is hard to strike the right balance between acknowledging Chinas achievements and criticising its failings.
06.01.2022 Privacy concerns are serious but they must be balanced against the potential benefits, of which there are many.
05.01.2022 It is International Womens Day on Sunday but Senator Warrens resignation shows the road ahead is still very long.
05.01.2022 "Charred koalas are filling up the television news."
05.01.2022 This take on Australia China relations might disappoint some hawks who believe we are inevitably heading for a Cold or even a hot war. "Australia should not view China primarily as a threat." https://www.smh.com.au//australia-must-reopen-lines-of-com
04.01.2022 Sometimes the secret of an editorial is picking the right moment. The Herald gave its backing to a permanent increase in the JobSeeker unemployment benefit after Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe called it a fairness issue. It was easier to argue for this long-term reform when his backing. https://www.smh.com.au//permanent-rise-in-jobseeker-will-h
04.01.2022 Just six years after the Sydney monorail was taken down and sold for scrap, a group of developers has suggested building another tourist gimmick that could be obsolete a decade after it opens.
04.01.2022 Writing concisely about scientific topics is a challenge which journalists all face these days. Australia is trying to work out a policy non vaccines but it is in a very different position to US and Europe because we have very few cases and the risks of getting a bad reaction from an untested vaccine in a mass immunistaion program are higher than the risks of contracting the disease. https://www.smh.com.au//vaccination-program-s-success-more
03.01.2022 She had to distance Australia from some of the almost unhinged Cold War rhetoric that has emerged from the mouth of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the heat of the US election campaign.
02.01.2022 "Some of the right wing people who will pay tribute to NASA for Apollo 11 will then turn around and embrace loopy, climate-denial conspiracy theories rather than NASAs current position that human activity is the major cause of dangerous climate change."
02.01.2022 An official history of Australias military intervention in East Timor in 1999 has been suppressed because it is too contraversial. That is a pity.
02.01.2022 https://www.smh.com.au//recession-is-a-bad-time-to-raise-s
02.01.2022 Judging by a lot of media coverage, Australia and the world are heading on a path to Orwellian dystopia, a new Cold War and climate change destruction. The Herald has no crystal ball to see how the world will look in 2030 but it is still optimistic
