In the only speech I’ve heard Latham give in person (before he was ALP leader), he compared Labor’s position with that of the ALP under Gough Whitlam before the 1972 election. He said that the ALP had to do what Whitlam did, and present a genuine alternative to the conservatives. Whitlam of course did this, […]

Gary Morgan complains with some justification that this week’s Newspoll figures and last week’s AC Neilsen ones showing Labor in the lead are not new news at all. His figures were showing it as early as December. In my view Morgan has been unfairly criticized for being the least accurate of the pollsters. He uses […]

A week ago Teresa Mullan media adviser to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs lost her job. My post of three days ago has the details. I’ve checked the Premier’s press releases and no direct reason is given for the sacking. The release on her sacking is oblique. It might be because she broke the law. […]

Well, I hesitate to enter the highly contested field of military procurement, but there was a sense of inevitability about the choice of the Abrams battle tank for the Oz army. Increasingly the Oz military looks like the regional task force for the US military. I just can’t see how a tank designed decades ago […]

According to British Labour’s leader of the Commons Peter Hain, New Labour is “overcentralised, undemocratic and closed to new ideas”. I don’t honestly know how true this is of New Labour, but it certainly describes the ALP very well indeed. Despite reforms by Simon Crean following the Hawke-Wrann report, the ALP remains essentially a club […]

This blog has been considering a few religious issues lately, including Mel Gibson’s new film. While we are on this religious theme, I would suggest that there are some interesting parallels between Christ’s death and the current situation in Iraq. A very hot issue for two millennia has been: who was really responsible for Christ’s […]

That is the question that came home with my girls from Sunday School the other day branded across a couple of book marks. The Oxford Diocese of the Anglican Church seems to have asked themselves the same question and come up with the answer “Get on the net!” As a result, and after three years […]

In my last blog entry I mentioned a Pentagon report on global warming. This was taken from the Guardian website and some have claimed the story misrepresented the actuality. Thanks to a lead from a reader I’ve got more info on the story. I don’t intend going into this in depth, but I will make […]

On the basis of its last two election results, the most competent political administration in the country is the Beattie government. So why is it in so much trouble over a ten dollar bottle of wine? The story so far, for those not in Queensland, is that Teresa Mullan press advisor to the new Minister […]

President Bush must be getting sick of the Pentagon criticising him. Recently a Pentagon report argued that the War on Iraq would only expand global terrorism and create a quagmire the Americans might be stuck in for years. And now a Pentagon report has said Bush is dead wrong on global warming and must take […]