Opinion on politics and social policy
from
across the board
Yesterday saw the introduction into federal parliament of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax bills. This marks another retreat from Australia’s position as possibly the best country in the world (see Peter Hartcher’s new book Sweet Spot) along the path that leads to Argentina, or something like it.
The MRRT is […] Continue Reading…
While there is no doubt that global temperature has been rising for more than a hundred years there have been issues with the accuracy of the temperature measurements. In particular the siting of weather stations in areas subject to urban heat, choice of sites represented in the data, and […] Continue Reading…
If the NBN is going to make money then it needs a lot of customers taking the high speed packages, but how likely is that to happen?
I was canvassed earlier this week by TPG who offering me a 10 mbs broadband upload and download package for $199 per month. […] Continue Reading…
I’ve recently returned from an Asia Pacific Climate Change Congress in Melbourne. This was a gathering of climate change presenters trained by the Australian Conservation Foundation and Al Gore, where people told their stories and their experiences of climate change around the Pacific nations. Brave and innovative people from […] Continue Reading…
If a field full of Irishmen is called a Paddy field, what do you call a field full of Australians? A vacant lot. Boom boom. It’s an old joke and it’s what comes to mind when I see reporting of Occupy Melbourne, or Occupy Sydney, or Occupy Wherever.
They’ve had […] Continue Reading…
Does anyone else feel the way that I do about candidates standing at the side of the road waving at traffic? To me it looks to be about the dopiest thing you could do in a day.
I know politicians are expected to do some things to get elected that […] Continue Reading…
The most surprising thing about the LNP’s so-called dirt file is that they had to pay an outsider $3,075 to compile it. If their parliamentarians weren’t aware of just about all that was in the files then they aren’t doing their jobs properly.
They could have set-up an inhouse wiki […] Continue Reading…
The Graham Perrett threat to quit parliament if Julia Gillard is rolled probably makes only a miniscule difference to whether we will get an early election, but it does strengthen the hand of Kevin Rudd in the tussle for the ALP leadership.
It’s really a non-story. and is only a […] Continue Reading…
Australian motorists have had a charmed ride compared to those overseas because of the bouyancy of the Australian dollar. That ride seems to have come to an end with news reports that the price of fuel is set to hit a 3 year high.
PETROL prices are on the rise […] Continue Reading…
Those in doubt that the Andrew Bolt case is about free speech need only think about the contortions of logic necessary to dismissing the proposition that it is about free speech.
On his blog, my friend Mark Bahnisch says that “free speech is not at issue here” before observing that […] Continue Reading…