It’s a million degrees here in Perth, absurdly hot for this time of year, so naturally my fan decided to pack up on me. It was one of those cheap ones from Target and I’d had it a couple of years. The new one is a different brand, but still made in China. It came with all this packaging, mostly made of oil-based foam and cardboard. Hmm, oil and wood, I thought they were both running out…
This is globalisation in action. Ridiculously cheap goods that are shipped round the world gobbling up increasingly valuable natural resources for packaging and transport. They are cheap, but they just do not last.
My mother had this clunky, ugly metal fan than probably cost a bit when new that went for forty years and never missed a beat. I won’t say anything about the irony of buying a fan that is so cheap because the production system that makes it cheap is warming the planet.

Well, a satisfactory ending to this excellent ABC program, ‘Marking Time’, and so what was John Doyle saying?
The town of Brackley is of course both a town and Australia in microcosm. As a small country town, Doyle shows how it is sociality or community or social capital that keeps it livable. Even the whackos have a proper place in it. Lesson 1.
And young Hal grows up, makes a decision and accepts personal responsibility, even though it means hardship. He heads off into the big, wide world with head held high and on a mission. This is what Doyle wants Australia to do. To stop being so fucking scaredy, grow up, and act like an adult. And get out from under Dad’s (Howard’s? America’s?) wing. Lesson 2.
Nice work, Mr Doyle, but I still think the whole Olympics thing is part of the problem, not the solution.

We recently lost one Australia’s most idealistic and decent politicians, a man described by his old boss and rival Gough Whitlam as ‘noble’. Jim Cairns was not perfect, and his imperfections included a capacity to lie in public, as the Junie Morosi saga showed, but for a politician he was incredibly straight.
It seems to me that Cairn’s most outstanding attribute was an ability to accept personal responsibility. This clearly caused him great trouble in politics, notoriously a profession more suited to dissembling liars with their fingers up to test the wind.
Cairns was one of the last generation of politicians to lead a full life before entering politics. After a hard childhood, he had been a clerk and policeman before serving as a soldier in WWII. He then got a PhD in economic history and became a university lecturer. He then went into national politics as a leftwing Labor MP.
This sort of life experience is rare in modern pollies, a real cause of their lack of principle. Real commitment to principle, and an acceptance of its costs, usually only comes from the tough lessons learned from hard experience.
In 1969 Cairns and his family were physically attacked in their own home, most likely over Cairns’ opposition to the White Australia policy.
Yes, it always seems to be racism that brings aout the worst in Australians. Bashing for political reasons seems to have died out in Oz, so we are apparently making some progress. I must confess to sometimes wanting to snot some egregious public liar (like John Howard as he tells yet another outrageous blowie about WMD or boatpeople or non-core promises), but I know that things have to be talked out no matter how much certain people lie and dissemble.
But I digress, and back to the attack on Cairns – apparently, one of his attackers said to him, “Who do you think you are – God?”
This was an extraordinary question, and goes to the heart of the whole question of social responsibility and rational politics.
I don’t know how Cairns replied to this, but he could have said, “No, but we all have to behave as if we were God.” In other words, we must all take responsibility for our own actions, otherwise it is a slippery slope down to Dachau and all the other hideous atrocities of history. We must all behave as if we do have the power to make decisions, and not accede to authority or force out of fear.
Fortunately, the thugs that attacked Cairns were to be inundated by the tide of history, and their views are discredited.
But Cairns’ example of standing up for what he believed to be right, as opposed to what was convenient, remains as relevant as ever.
Vale Jim Cairns.

As Graham points out, politics is everywhere, even on reality TV. However, the politics of reality TV goes far beyond who’ll win Oz Idol or who gets kicked out of Big Brother.
The politics of reality TV is mostly about what the politics of TV and more broadly the mass media has always been about – mass distraction, mass consumption.
People have only so much time: most is taken up by work and sleep, but there are still about eight hours (thanks mainly to militant union action in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) to kill. When people worked physically hard, much of this was needed for rest. But given time and energy, people get up to all sorts of things. In particular, they organise themselves to influence their own lives in all sorts of ways, usually involving sociality, information exchange and arising out of this, solidarity. This is also what some people call social capital, a horrible term that indicates just how far economics dominates over other social concepts these days.
Social solidarity is a problem for the new capitaslim, which is far more totalitarian in intention than poor old communism could ever manage. It intends nothing less than the reconstuction of increasingly individuated lives with a view to maximising consumption. How this is being done is analysed very effectively in Naomi Klein’s book, ‘No Logo’.
Reality TV, with its vicarious ‘peak experiences’ and blanket coverage, is just the latest attempt to suck us into the increasingly electronically-mediated vortex of unreal life that is the media (and this includes video games, videos, etc). The point is to flog an ideology of unqualified individualism, materialism and consumption, and as the cigarette companies knew full well, if you can get them when they’re young, all the better.
So, the politics of reality TV is ultimately about undermining traditional democratic politics which relies on an informed electorate conscious of the need to act collectively, and to to subordinate individual needs at times to the overall social or environmental good to ensure long term needs. With no real political opposition, the way is then clear for a society organised along neo-liberal (economic rationalist) ideas.
The mass media has always been primarily used to pursue the interests of big capital, who own the mass media. Sometimes in doing this they also provide a little content. Reality TV is just the latest stage, although I’m hardpressed to see how it can get any more vacuous than this.

One reason why I think the global warming theorists are probably right is the way weather patterns are changing here in Perth. Here it is, still only early November, and it is going to be 39 today and forecast 40 for tomorrow. 40 would be a new record.
We know that rain fall is declining in WA, precipitating (if you’ll excuse the pun) a chronic water shortage problem. There is also much anecdotal evidence that plant growing patterns are changing. So we have an observed phenomenon (local climate change) and a strongly supported theory to account for it (global warming). No, this does not mean global warming is a fact, but it is a real and growing probability. And as the statisticians remind us, life is about probabilities.

Just this morning the Courier Mail reveals that Pauline Hanson befriended prison inmate Fay Cramb and helped her with her parole application. Cramb notoriously tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered 12 year-old Sunshine Coast school girl, Sian Kingi. That’s right, Hanson has gone from advocating mandatory detention for aboriginal kids who commit theft to early release for murderous sexual predators – a clear case of “who you know”.
The Courier Mail plays this story appropriately, placing it prominently, but not too prominently, in the extreme right hand column with only a black and white photo of the little girl over it. It’s a statement of fact, not an attempted king hit. Hopefully issues like this and the other complications and stupidities that always seem to follow in Pauline’s train will make electors rethink their surge of enthusiasm for her. As Peter Costello said the other day – the only way to beat One Nation is by arguing policies, not personalities. He might have also added “and talking about the facts”.
If the One Nation resurgence continues until the next state election it will be a huge problem for the Opposition. Peter Beattie will have only one simple message that he needs to sell – “The choice is between a Labor Party, which can govern, or a cobbled together alliance made up of One Nation, the Nationals and the Liberals which can’t.”
So what does Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg decide to do today? Does he allow the public the cogitate on the revelations of Hanson naivety and duplicity while her vote ebbs away thus improving his election chances? No, you guessed it – he calls for a Royal Commission into the conviction and jailing of Hanson and Ettridge. If Pauline Hanson doesn’t know how to maintain her martyr status, Lawrence is going to help her along.
Some people just don’t have the instincts for politics. On this issue, one who does is Ron Boswell. The Opposition needs to have a One Nation exermination squad in its campaign strategy, and I can’t think of a better person than “Bos” to head it up.

Politics is everywhere, and politics is entertainment, especially on reality TV. Take Australian Idol. The lobbying has begun in such earnest that even the On Line Opinions email forum has been subjected to spam soliciting a vote for Shannon Noll. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, check Idol here, Noll there, and while you’re at it, click on Guy Sebastian, otherwise the rest of this entry won’t make much sense. You also need to get your mind around the “guided democracy” model which is Australian Idol.
Each week contestants appear in elimination rounds – they started out with hundreds. After performing, critiques (using the word loosely) of the performances are delivered by a panel of three judges – Mark Holden, Marcia Hines and Ian Dickson. But in a twist that differentiates this from every other talent show, viewers get to vote by phone and sms for their favourite performer and it is this vote, not what the judges think, that determines who progresses.
I’ve only watched the show a couple of times, but Guy Sebastian is out there on his own. He has an aura about him which is not just due to the studio lights picking up highlights in his afro but which just seems to flow from some internal manifestation of innocence. I’m tempted to call it Karma, especially as with his Malaysian heritage, chubby cheeks and a Ghandi like habit of saying thank-you by bowing with his hands in a waist high prayer position, he looks like a garden gnome Buddha. Whatever it is, he’s got it, as they say. Which is his greatest risk in the competition and the reason I am going to do something which I would normally find embarrassing. Yes, I am going to improve the Telstra bottom line, and the show’s economics by SMSing “GUY” to 1889966, and urging you to do the same. Here’s why.
Both of these finalists are (or appear to be, this is TV…) nice guys, and one is so clearly better than the other that some viewers (who are apparently predominantly teenage girls) may well feel sympathy (and/or lust) for the also ran. While that won’t improve his voice, which is scratchy and with a limited range, it might lead a large number of viewers to vote for him. On the other hand, those people like me, who are reticent to participate in a teen music orgy and begrudge Telstra the extra dosh may well say, “Well, he’s clearly the best so he doesn’t need my vote to win.” A post hoc rationalisation for inertia, but one of the most potent forces in Australian politics today. The potential result is that second best wins. I hate injustice, particularly accidental injustice, so I’m going to vote.
This is the reason that John Howard consistently asserts that the next election is going to be tough, and would have been happy to see recent polling putting the ALP ahead. Not that there is much chance of Howard morphing into Guy Sebastian – John’s more your standard garden gnome. Perhaps when Howard retires he could take over running campaigns for reality TV contestants. He mightn’t like the music, but he’d understand the dynamics better than most. Wonder how Paul Keating would go – he used to manage rock bands didn’t he…?

Right-wing populist parties have grown up all over the developed world, supposedly a response to the social and political upheaval generated by globalisation. However, although they usually embody anti-imigration and sometimes outright racist attitudes as well as many of the typical trappings of far right politics (pro-nationalism and militarism, authoritarian on social problems), they also express the inchoate frustration of the lower working class who are hard hit by globalisation. These people are not really right wing, because they are too poor and vulnerable, but they lack a champion.
One Nation shares some of these characteristics, complicated by the added issue of regional decay in this country, another problem exacerbated by globalisation.
Labor has never properly exploited its rural roots, and globalisation has stymied it because it closes down Labor’s traditional nation-building approach. Howard, on the other hand, as well as being in sync with the basic neo-liberal agenda behind globalisation, has effectively exploited the divisions generated by it.
But Hanson herself throws some different elements into the mix. First, there is the fickle media support. Second, there is the way Hanson represents explicit gender issues. Her willingness to play on her sexuality has clearly differentiated her from the usual political landscape, and the media love it. But it also constrains how materially right-wing she can become. Typical far right politics is overtly patriarchal.
All this, along with the possibility that Hanson has developed more of a social conscience in jail, makes me think it would be difficult for her to pick up her previous role as head of One Nation. She could reinvent herself politically, or she could take the easy road to mass media celebrity and fortune.

I watched the new ABC social comedy ‘Marking Time’ last night. I was just going to watch a few minutes and then change over to view the awfully slick Indiana Jones movie again, but I got caught up in it and watched the whole show. Normally, coming of age in a country town and overcoming cultural boundaries are not themes that excite me, but the show was so uniformly good that I really enjoyed it.
We are seeing the rise of two genuine talents in Oz TV – John Doyle and Geof Morrell. Doyle is taking on some of those issues mainstream Oz, and it chorus leader, John Howard, would rather forget about. His Roy Slaven persona shows just how easy it is to be a ‘normal’ Aussie bloke – just talk loud and tough all the time. In his writing Doyle shows what a fraud this attitude really is. Geof Morrell is showng what the Aussie bloke should be like – smart, sensitive and articulate, and decent, even when, like the Mayor in ‘Grass Roots’, he doesn’t particularly want to be.
When the political culture stagnates – like ours has – popular culture has to help keep our consciences active, so it’s great to see such excellent material.

I know that this isn’t the common view (and it is certainly not the view of On Line Opinion’s newest – and only – virtual columnist Henry Thornton for whose persona and creators I have the greatest of respect) but John Howard ought to be pummeling Ian MacFarlane for raising interest rates. There was no need and it will make things worse for Howard at the end of next year at just the time when he was going to an election.
Rates should hardly ever be raised to kill off an isolated boom. The current real estate boom is partly a result of a more or less rational response to cheaper interest rates combined with competition for properties – more buyers per property plus increased servicing capacity equals higher prices. Increases in prices lead to expectations of further increases and the herd is off.
Historically, central bankers in Australia first try to talk the market down. Then when that doesn’t work, they put interest rates up. The problem is that by the time they have put interest rates up they have lost a certain amount of credibility with the herd because while they were spruiking one thing, the market was doing the opposite. So speculators ignore the interest rate signal at first. In fact, it is a moot point whether interest rates really do kill off most real estate markets, or whether they die because the players (or their bankers) realise, faced with a lack of new tenants and buyers, that supply exceeds demand. That, and the reality that the higher rates end up euthanasing the entire economy rather than just lancing the specific boil.
Certainly my straws in the wind suggest that there are no capacity constraints in the economy which signal widespread inflation. And with a floating dollar and low trade barriers, it is not so easy to cavalierly increase domestic prices, even in the white-collar industries. I was talking to a civil engineer the other day who tells me that a number of firms in his industry have their drafting done overnight in Indonesia – email the specs at 5:00 p.m. one day and collect the drawings from your email in-tray at 9:00 a.m. the next. The innovation of the Internet means that in a lot of areas that previously had natural barriers to entry Australia can actually tap into parts of the world where capacity utilization is a lot lower than here, which anti-inflationary for us.
The problem for Howard is this. On past history rates will take at least a year to have an effect on the housing industry. When they do, they will have an effect on everything. Ian MacFarlane has to keep ramping interest rates up until housing (and the economy) slows, or he will have even less credibility with the herd than he does now. So somewhere about September or October next year the hangovers will be starting to come out and woe-betide anyone running to an election. John Howard’s not a mug. If the real estate market is still roaring by March next year, expect an election while the party is still on. That way Howard can claim that higher interest rates are a sign of his success with the economy, and voters will believe him.