The Wire

The Dalai Lama is back in Australia for the sixth time, ostensibly for meditation workshops but with a good dose of politics as well. Simon Bradshaw from the Australia-Tibet Council says it is disappointing that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is away and that His Holiness will only be able to meet with the Foreign Minister, but given the Olympic torch protests and Australia’s trade relationship with Australia it isn’t really surprising that the Prime Minister would prefer to avoid a meeting. Former Federal Greens MP Michael Organ was at a meeting with the Dalai Lama today and says the crowd was keen to discuss human rights issues in Tibet.