THE numbers tell the story. 
I know numbers are a big turn off, but bear with me because the story is important, and precisely because numbers are a turn-off, the clubs have been able to dismiss problem gambling as a minor matter not affecting many people. [click to continue…]
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IS IT defamatory to say of someone that they are a Baptist? 
A ding-dong over a blogger’s post about an anti-pornography campaigner raised this question this week causing a stir in the social and traditional media. [click to continue…]
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JEROME K Jerome wrote in 1889: “I love work. It fascinates me. I could sit and watch it for hours.” 
Pollster Gary Morgan could have said the same thing. He has been watching work for decades. [click to continue…]
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YOU need just the right amount of inequality in a society. Too much results in resentment, crime and even revolution. Too little results in destruction of wealth-generating prosperity.
Tax, of course, is the main way to change equality. [click to continue…]
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I, CRISPIN Richard Hull, hereby resolve that in 2012 I will eat more green vegetables; never drink more than four standard drinks in a day; do at least 45 minutes of exercise a day and not watch any rubbish on television or waste any time playing Sudoku. [click to continue…]
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IT WAS a violent attack with a Swiss Army knife. It was contrary to major cultural and moral precepts of my upbringing which I have kept for nearly all my adult life. 
Nonetheless, I did it. [click to continue…]
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CRACKS are beginning to appear in the mutual acceptance of the Coalition’s big corporate funding and Labor’s big union funding.
Federally, in the wake of last week’s report of the joint parliamentary committee on electoral matters reported on electoral funding, Labor and the Greens have the numbers to make it much harder for the corporate dollar to find its way into Coalition coffers. [click to continue…]
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FEW issues are so uniting as politicians’ pay. MPs on both sides unite in favour of pay rises and voters of all persuasions unite against. 
The most recent Remuneration Tribunal ruling, as its happens, came as the Labor Party agreed on a conscience vote for gay marriage and as Liberal Party MP Peter Slipper deserted his party to take up the lucrative position of Speaker. [click to continue…]
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WE HAVE had a bucketful of budgetary numbers in the past week. But both Opposition and Government have put quantity before quality. 
The Opposition’s mantra is to cut government spending. The Government’s mantra is that the Budget will move to surplus come next financial year. [click to continue…]
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WE CAN regulate unsatisfactory professional conduct of chiropodists, dentists, chiropractors, doctors and lawyers. “So why should journalists be exempt from that?” Stuart Littlemore asked the federal inquiry into media independence. [click to continue…]
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