THE Government should abandon its referendum to recognise local government. It should learn the lessons of history. This week, it failed to get unqualified support from the Opposition, so the proposition is doomed. [click to continue…]
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AUSTRALIAN elections are always close run things. But September’s election could easily be one of the very unusual outriders. In the 24 elections since Menzies came to power in 1949 in only two was the two-party-preferred split greater than 45-55. 
Those were in 1966 — the All the Way with LBJ victory of Harold Holt — and the 1975 post-dismissal victory of Malcolm Fraser. (Cycle helmets stuff is below.) [click to continue…]
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NEARLY all major reforms in Australia are done by Labor Governments. From aged and widows pensions and the PBS in the 1940s, through to Medicare and racial-discrimination laws in the 1970s, economic liberalisation and universal superannuation in the 1980s and now the National Disability Insurance Scheme. [click to continue…]
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This article was published in the CT in March and did not make the web page till now.
I AM a Tony Abbott groupie. I love the Liberal Party. Economically, I think everyone should be allowed to do what they like – to be rich and stay rich. Socially, I think women should be barefoot and pregnant and do what they are told. And refos and gays should be put in their place and George Pell should be Pope. [click to continue…]
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THE Grattan Institute is the latest in a long line of conservative or independent think tanks to warble on about public debt. Well, yes, it is higher than it has been for a while. But government debt (federal, state and local) is historically low at the moment. Private debt is historically high. [click to continue…]
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AUSTRALIA’S madly over-priced housing market seems to be holding up despite various economists’ analyses that dwellings in Australia are 30 to 40 per cent over-priced. [click to continue…]
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THERE is more than a technological difference between the Coalition’s new broadband policy and Labor’s National Broadband Network.
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STEPHEN Conroy and Malcolm Turnbull have something in common. The Communications Minister and his Opposition counterpart are each responsible for destroying worthwhile changes in Australian society by adopting the crash-or-crash through approach. [click to continue…]
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MAJOR Ting Li has created a disturbance. Well, that is at least according to three of five Federal Court judges. [click to continue…]
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DEPUTY ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has asked rhetorically, “Is it really necessary for the government to maintain a register of real estate agents?” Well yes, and I’ll tell you why it is, Mr Barr. It is because ACT real estate agents handle an enormous amount of the public’s money in the form of deposits on houses pending settlement. [click to continue…]
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