The Queensland coast has had a period of relative cyclonic calm since the storms that brought the Brisbane floods of 1974, but is that about to change? Cyclone Ingrid, centred 330 kilometres off Cooktown has just intensified to category five. Perhaps the BOM is playing it down, or maybe journalists don’t think they have any […]

Some were well and truly banking on an interest rate rise this morning. Westpac was very fast out of the blocks with this email. Curious thing is that I’ve never received anything from them by email before, and as far as I know I’ve never opted in to any Westpac email list. Could it be […]

Today’s front page on The Australian illustrated the interest rates story with yarn about a poor Sydney woman who would now have to pay $160 more per month on her mortgage. The accompanying table showed that she must have had a mortgage of $1M! So that’s what it takes to be a battler in The […]

World, when are you going to start paying attention to the On Line Opinion election coverage? Name me one commentator(s) who’s correctly called the general result of all elections they’ve covered since 2001? Can’t? Well look no further than the team at www.ozelections.com. Forgive my angst and allow me to be self-satisfied for just a […]

An interview on ABC radio this morning said it all (no audio that I can find, so no link) – we all belong to families, apparently. Minister responsible for Family Impact Statements, Kay Patterson, was asked to define exactly what a family was. After not much rambling she revealed that even a person living alone […]

Budding match-maker Lawrence Springborg has been trying to force a shot-gun wedding on his shy bride, the Queensland Libs. I had always assumed he was the groom, or at least had an enduring power of attorney on the groom’s behalf. An opinion piece in today’s Courier Mail by Scott Driscoll, National Party Life Member, former […]

Associate Professor of English Wayne Sawyer appears to believe that English teachers have failed because some of their students voted for this Liberal government. If that is the case, then I must be one of the most spectacular illustrations of that failure. I was fortunate enough to have access to one of the best liberal […]

It might not be quite what he was intending to say, but Keith Suter appears to have found another use for Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand”. The invisible hand is Smith’s description of the phenomenon where, by pursuing self-interest, individuals actually work to the common good – “…by directing that industry in such a manner as […]

The Queensland Liberal Party has scanned the horizon, decided there are no elections in prospect for a year or two, and now they are moving on their long awaited expulsions. Well, at least one of them. This evening Margaret Krause has been served with a “writ” to attend a hearing of the Disciplinary Committee. A […]

In this postmodern world one human being’s lie is another’s truth. Knew it wouldn’t take some blow-hard long to claim that John Howard promised in the last election that interest rates would not rise under him. Of course, the claim was that interest rates would be higher under Labor – a claim about the degree […]