No wonder voters are in despair about Federal politics. The Government passes its Minerals Resource Rent Tax, aka the Mining Super Profits Tax, and the Opposition, rather than concentrate on reselling the reasons for why this is a bad tax spends most of its time pursuing the government because […] Continue Reading…

Wikileaks might be threatening to go into hibernation because of lack of cash, but it seems that the Internet as a tool for dumping documents that are embarrassing to people in positions of power and influence is only just starting.

In fact Wikileaks, quite unfairly in my view, gained a lot […] Continue Reading…

According to Michael Kirby the Commonwealth of Nations faces an existential threat to its existence, which is the reason it needs to adopt the recommendations of its group of eminent persons, of which he is one.

I must admit that when I first heard of the proposal, amongst others, to […] Continue Reading…

Auntie ABC published this article today, wholly sourced apparently from Reuters. It says the IPCC says that extreme weather is set to increase because of global warming. It can’t be squared with this article from The Australian which says that extreme weather won’t be affected for decades, again using an […] Continue Reading…

Our travels are well behind us, and the busy and troubled world of Europe seems to far away, even though the news reminds us of it daily. Here on the southern NSW coast life and the weather have a different flow.

There is time to watch the kangaroos feeding with […] Continue Reading…

This time last week I received a bewildering email from the Chancellor of the University of Queensland (who I had a few days met for the first time at the launch of Queensland Speaks one of Peter Spearitt’s online history projects) telling me that the Vice-Chancellor was going to resign […] Continue Reading…

Today is the day for unique numbers.  It’s the only time all the ones will add up on the date, and it’s a new millenium for On Line Opinion as we post an article from the 4001st person to send us an article for publication. It is also what […] Continue Reading…

Julia Gillard sent me an email yesterday headed “The right side of history”. You may recall she recently accused Tony Abbott of being on the wrong side of history to which he responded that she was on the “wrong side of truth.

I haven’t heard Abbott use the phrase again, […] Continue Reading…

“If you ask me about the future of newspapers you have asked the wrong question” according to Greg Hywood, the Chief Executive and Managing Director of Fairfax Media.

Despite, that, the media release from Melbourne Uni that publicises his delivery next week of the A.N. Smith Lecture in Journalism at the University […] Continue Reading…

The Minerals Council of Australia released research today showing that the cost of the carbon tax would be six times what the government has claimed.

The difference from the government’s modelling is that the government assumes that by 2016 the world will have a synchronised response to global warming which […] Continue Reading…