Mar 5, 2026 7 min read Politics/Activism

I'm back! Check out my latest articles and come to our new monthly event

Greens political strategy, urban planning, No Phones, No Phascists, and a rant about hospital policies

Sorry, this is the only baby photo the internet is getting for now

Dear friends (and subscribers who I haven't actually met yet but who would probably be my friends if we got to know each other),

Sorry it's been so long between updates. As mentioned in my last newsletter, I became a father last September!

This week, my son Sunny is six months old. Parenting has been a whimsical, joyful experience, but writing took a backseat for a while there. Going forward, I'm hoping to return to monthly updates with a few articles per month about radical politics, green urbanism and whatever else takes my fancy.

You can listen to and read some political reflections on my first months of parenting via this article...

Further below is a rundown of other articles I've churned out over the past month. I hope you enjoy catching up on some of what I've been thinking about.

First though, I wanted to invite you to a new, free, monthly event I'm helping organise, and which my hip-hop/folk band Rivermouth will also be playing at...

No Phones, No Phascists

Lately I've been feeling that Brisbane doesn't have enough free-entry, non-commercialised recurring community events where radical and counter-cultural folks can meet and connect. Lots of us seem to be craving opportunities to build face-to-face relationships that aren't mediated by social media platforms or by formal political organisations with prescriptive agendas. In a time of rising fascism, it's crucial we create and maintain free spaces where we can converge and build community.

So from 4pm to 8pm on Friday, 27 March, we're holding a free event called No Phones, No Phascists in a private backyard at 30 Joachim St, Holland Park West.

The 'no phones' theme isn't a hard-and-fast rule (it's ok to have a phone on you – just leave it in your pocket or bag), but we encourage everyone to be present in the space and resist getting sucked into your device. The 'no fascists' rule is a little stricter. This event is proudly anti-racist and queer-friendly. Everyone's welcome except TERFs/fascists/genocide-apologists.

Rough program:
4pm – open jam – musicians feel free to bring your instruments
5pm to 5:40ish – open mic for solo acts, duets, comedians and poets – maximum 5 minutes for spoken word and 8 minutes for musicians (including setup time) – capped list, so please arrive by 4:15 to guarantee a slot (poets if you haven't memorised your work, we encourage you to read out of a notebook rather than off your phone screen)
5:45pm community announcements – anyone can promote local community events/projects/protests
6pm – Baque Australis – Brazilian drumming group
6:20ish – Saro and Andrew (of Midnight Sound Machine) - funk/soul duo
7pm – Rivermouth – 4-piece hip-hop/folk band

This is an all-ages, family-friendly event held in a private backyard. We’ll be serving vegan soup for dinner from around 5:30pm (gold coin donation to cover costs, please BYO bowl and spoon if you can). We may run out of food – first come, first served.

Please note that street parking is very limited, so we encourage public/active transport if you can. The nearest bus stop is the Birdwood Rd Wellers Hill stop, just 300m walk through Joachim St Park (direct buses from the city during peak hour, plus the 179 runs regularly from Garden City and from UQ/Boggo Rd/Buranda). Or you can walk 700m to high-frequency bus stops on Logan Rd, or 1km to the Holland Park West busway station.

Cycling access is super safe and easy - you can ride all the way from the city/South Bank/Woolloongabba on fully separated bikeways via the Veloway without having to mix with traffic.

BYO food and drinks is fine, but no hard drugs or smoking on the property + please don’t overdo the alcohol – this is not a piss-up. Importantly, this is a zero-waste event – it would be great if you can take all your own rubbish home with you. Quiet, comfy spaces for breastfeeding available. Venue is partially wheelchair accessible (email me if you have questions about this).

If you'll be in Brisbane on the last Friday of the month, please come along and spread the word to friends. There's a Facebook event at this link.

Recent writing

If you don't have time to read everything I've written lately, I think this piece is perhaps the most important.

Many of you will have seen that while the UK Greens are surging in the polls and now represent one of the strongest opposing forces to far-right, xenophobic political parties, the Australian Greens have largely faded into the background. I don't want to pretend that this analysis is a complete picture of everything that's going on, but I think it highlights some relevant factors that Greens supporters should attend to...

And this piece should be of interest to anyone who likes thinking about the future of our cities and wants to see more sustainable, equitable alternatives to endless, car-dominated suburban sprawl.

It focuses mostly on Greater Brisbane, but the critique and alternative vision are equally relevant to other Australian cities and towns, and in fact to most other car-dominated cities around the world.

For those wanting some good news, this article might be a welcome counterweight to all the sadness and horror that's unfolding in the world right now.

I really enjoyed researching and writing this one, and I hope it encourages more people to pressure local and state governments to get serious about reforesting suburban Brisbane.

And here's one more article about a very niche, local concern around Woolloongabba/Buranda. If I'm honest, I don't think it'll be of much interest to people who don't live in the immediate vicinity, but it's a good case study into how the Liberal National Party are quietly removing parkland from Brisbane's city plan without anyone noticing...

Other worthwhile stuff

While you're here, for anyone who didn't see it at the time, I though I'd also reshare this article I published back in January 2025 explaining why some unhoused residents turn down private sector boarding house accommodation and continue sleeping rough. Recently, Brisbane City Council again forcibly moved on rough sleepers from Musgrave Park en masse without warning, and has been lying to the public by claiming that those people were offered suitable alternative accommodation options. Hopefully this piece helps contextualise what's going on.

Recently ABC Radio Brisbane interviewed me about my thoughts on the Australian Greens' political strategy and orientation. You can watch the discussion here...

I also wanted to remind Brisbane-based readers that if you want timely news of upcoming radical events, you might also like to subscribe to the Brisbane Radical Events Diary mailing list, which sends out a weekly round-up of what's happening in our city on the activism front.

And if, like me, you've lost trust in mainstream media altogether and have been looking for more alternative news sources that offer some critical analysis of what's going on in the world (and how it's being reported), I recommend checking out Lamestream – their twice-weekly podcast is well worth a listen.

Thanks for reading and thanks in particular to my paying subscribers. Your financial support gives me the time not only to think, research and write about important issues, but also to organise community events like No Phones, No Phascists. Hopefully I'll see you in the backyard on 27 March!

Warm regards,
Jonno