Opinion on politics and social policy
from
across the board
The whole idea of retirement is a new-fangled invention, and not one that I think has been for the good. When it comes to work, I’m with Marx – it is what defines us. A life without work is a life without definition.
Before the 20th century there was no […] Continue Reading…
These are some thoughts from Valerie Yule, a regular OLO author.
Hockey could cut
* middle class welfare e.g. parental payments at the rate of usual income, even if high. All payments at the lowest rate.
*negative gearing
*payments for buyers of first housing as that only makes housing prices higher, and rewards […] Continue Reading…
As a Tasmanian who has endured a destroyed budget in recent years, it frustrates me no end to see the same issues played out nationally, and be completely missed by the media.
99% of media focus on gov’t spending / taxation – nothing about how our economy grows and contracts.
In other […] Continue Reading…
The Queensland government has a debt problem and it’s asking for your help to solve it, or at least that is the pitch for Strong Choices, a website which gives you some say in the process by allowing you to decide how to repay debt using actual figures.
It’s an […] Continue Reading…
It’s one of my few appearances on The Drum, but it’s got to be some of my most prescient writing – when Julia Gillard appointed Bob Carr as foreign minister, it was hailed by most commentators as a masterstroke, but I was among the few honourable dissenters.
Labor is seen […] Continue Reading…
A new British report pings the British education system for indoctrinating students on questions of climate change and sustainability. In this, Australia is no better.
Climate Control: Brainwashing in schools lays out in detail instances not just of bias, but active coercion, at a number of levels from core curriculum down […] Continue Reading…
Wind farms blight the landscape where they are erected, but apart from that, I was unsure whether they posed any real environmental, as opposed to economic, threats.
That includes environmental threats to humans.
Yet there has been a sustained campaign against wind turbines on the basis that they represent a threat […] Continue Reading…
Bill Shorten will claim today that the budget situation is not as bad as the government says, and will accuse them of “deception” according to the SMH. If he doesn’t spell out which promises Labor made before the last election he would jettison, then he is the one being […] Continue Reading…
The Twitterverse, and the ALP, are afire as George Brandis proclaims that it is a human right to be a bigot, as though this was some novel proclamation from a fascist government when it is in fact a well-accepted principle of human rights. If you don’t believe me check […] Continue Reading…
It seems that the Queensland government and the Senior Medical Officers at state government hospitals are still at loggerheads over pay and conditions with the Courier Mail reporting that over a 1,000 of them voted against the contracts at a meeting last night. This was after significant concessions by […] Continue Reading…