Opinion on politics and social policy
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Anthony Albanese didn’t need to make the claim that eight out of the top ten airlines in the world are majority government-owned to make his case out. But he did, and if he was properly briefed he must have known that claim was wrong.
Now he must certainly know that […] Continue Reading…
Queensland’s Integrity Commissioner David Solomon has been on the gravy train most of his life – a state he defines as “nepotism” – but now in his twilight years with a non-Labor government in charge, he’s decided the Queensland government has a nepotism crisis, and the ALP state leader […] Continue Reading…
The Redcliffe byelection provides the Newman government with an opportunity.
Like most oppositions who win government, particularly with a large majority, they have been having trouble justifying themselves.
At the last election electors’ preoccupation was with ridding themselves of the Bligh government. They didn’t give a lot of thought to what […] Continue Reading…
“If the ‘end of the age of entitlement’ has come, why does the mining industry get so much assistance?” is a question I’ve seen raised lately by activists. It’s a curious question, because as the Productivity Commission shows, mining receives virtually no assistance at all, as you can see […] Continue Reading…
I said in some recent analysis that the Labor campaign in Griffith had been dishonest. Yesterday I received an email from the winner, Terri Butler, which is exhibit “A”.
Her opening statement was:
We’ve sent a strong message to Tony Abbott that Australians won’t stand for his cuts to healthcare, his […] Continue Reading…
The ABC’s role is to fill the gap where commercial news providers falter, and there is no bigger gap than that for good news.
“If it bleeds it leads” has long been a maxim for newspaper editors. So most of the news that we get is about famine, flood, fire, […] Continue Reading…
Germany’s wind and solar power generation came to a standstill in late 2013. More than 23,000 wind turbines ran out of wind and most of the one million photovoltaic systems ran out of sunlight. For a whole week, coal nuclear and gas-powered plants generated an estimated 95 percent of […] Continue Reading…
Yesterday the Australian Human Rights Commission has announced the second inquiry into the human rights of children in immigration detention. See: www.humanrights.gov.au/national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014
Between 2002 and 2004 I as the Australian Human Rights Commissioner have conducted the first inquiry that resulted in a report ‘A Last Resort? National Inquiry into Children […] Continue Reading…
According to his own account (published in On Line Opinion this morning), Bernard Gaynor’s commission as a major in the Australian Army Reserve is to be terminated because of his conservative Roman Catholic views on homosexuality and Islam.
If his account is correct, and we’re happy to publish an Army […] Continue Reading…
I don’t like his chances, but for an Independent Travis Windsor looks to be making a reasonable fist of his run for Griffith.
This includes focussing on the one issue that ought to concern most Australians, but generally seems to get lost in debate – unemployment.
Travis has a list of […] Continue Reading…