Most Australians completely despise their leaders, but not South Australians. They mightn’t love them, but they’ll give them a pat in passing. Rann and Kerin are two blokes who are seen as decent, even honest. One is a capable leader, while the other is just too “nice”. As a result, if nothing changes between now […]

Originally posted with apologies to Banjo Paterson and courtesy of that great contributor to traditional poetry – Anon. But see comment below. Attribution and copyright apparently belong to Mike Carlton. I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I met him at the wheat board, years […]

Four days ago I was critical of a Saulwick poll which had been interpreted by the SMH to suggest that we’ve become a meaner society under John Howard. Today there are two reports of polls which put a different light on this interpretation. The first is also reported in the SMH under the headline “Open […]

Well, maybe it’s not the Saulwick poll that commits the error, but the SMH analysis of it. A classic error in opinion polling is to ask subjects what they think other people are thinking. This is “classic” because the reason for doing opinion polling is so you don’t have to rely on what people think […]

Danna Vale thinks Muslims are out-breeding us all (whoever “us” are) and Australia will end up being a Muslim country. We’ve published Kevin Donnelly a lot. His theme is that the education system has deteriorated over the last 30 or more years. It’s a thesis to which I’m sympathetic, but then you get statements like […]

The Queensland Liberals have been thinking that Dr Death’s final fatality will be Premier Peter Beattie and that government and dominance over the National Party will just fall into their hands in the next state election. Latest research by the Whatthepeoplewant project suggests they might just be hallucinating. The reason is that while voters think […]

According to the first electorate-based national index of well-being, compiled by Deakin University, Wide-Bay, one of the poorest electorates is also the happiest, whilst one of the richest, Sydney, is the unhappiest. In quotes from the researchers in The Australian‘s report it is put down to population density, but has anyone else noticed another possible […]

Here’s a twist in the tail for all those who think John Howard having control of the Senate is a bad thing. According to Keryn Phelps on RN’s Breakfast program on Friday, the power of the Health Minister to veto RU486 was given to him courtesy of a deal with Senator Brian Harradine for the […]

With the exception of one Queensland state election – that in 1995 – three-cornered contests have been an issue for the National and Liberal Parties in Queensland as long as I can remember. They needn’t have been, and if the Coalition parties want to win the next State election, they won’t be in 2007. In […]

The Honourable Sir Reginald William Colin Swartz, who died last week at the grand age of 94 was perhaps the last link with the Liberal Ministers of the Menzies Government – 1949 to 1966. I knew Sir Reginald Swartz from my first year of high school. He was our local Federal Member (Darling Downs, 1949-1972). […]