John Pilger: The Great Australian silence

"The Australian silence has unique features. It affects our national life, the way we see the world, and the way we are manipulated by great power which speaks through an invisible government of propaganda that subdues and limits our political imagination and ensures we are always at war - against our own first people and those seeking refuge, or in someone else's country". John Pilger

Here's the full text of John Pilger's speech in Sydney to mark his award of the Sydney Peace Prize.

Here's Pilger on the illusions and lies used to justify Australia's apparent love of fighting in other people's wars.

"Do the young people who wrap themselves in the flag at Gallipoli every April understand that only the lies have changed? Like Kevin Rudd's stage-managed press conferences outside his church, the symbols of Anzac are constantly manipulated in this way. Marches. Medals. Flags. The pain of a fallen soldier's family. Serving in the military, says the Prime Minister, is Australia's highest calling. The squalor of war, the killing of civilians, has no reference in this higher calling. What matters is the illusion. The aim is to ensure our silent complicity in a war of terror"