Month: May 2007

History may not repeat itself, but it throws up some uncannily similar events from time to time. The immutability of human nature almost dictates it.

This week it was difficult not to recall events of 13 and a half years ago.

Again it was a Senate Estimates Committee hearing. Again it was about the dining facilities of the Prime Minister. Again it was about the leader of a long-entrenched Government not understanding the difference between the trappings and traps of office.

Remember the $25,000 Thai dining table then Prime Minister Paul Keating installed at the Lodge? Remember how it was uncovered in Senate Estimates? Remember the $50,000 Keating spent on 15 Gould bird prints?
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 26 may 2007 keating”

Usually state and territory Governments are happy to subsidise, bribe, cajole and attract businesses. They cite the mantra of jobs, jobs, jobs.

But other times other mantras are more powerful, for example: water, water, water.

Stage 4 water restrictions are about to be imposed because the Government must be seen to be doing something, and, admittedly, Canberra’s water supply is under some strain.

Nurseries, car wash places and the swimming-pool industry are under threat.
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 19 may 2007 water”

Again this Budget, Treasurer Peter Costello has done nothing to cut the taxes for those on average incomes.

Yes, you read right. There are no tax cuts for those on average incomes. But as classic propaganda theory goes, the bigger the lie and the more often it is repeated the more likely it is to be believed.

Tax cuts for everyone, the headlines said. Nonsense.

Let us look at the person on average income from the year the GST came in through to the end of the 2008-2009 tax year. And let us compare that to someone on four times the average income in the same period.
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 12 may 2007 tax”

The scent of power is strong for Labor. So from Labor’s perspective why would you want to devalue the prize?

Why would you want to reduce the power of an in-coming Labor Government will a Bill of Rights or a Human Rights Act which could hinder its capacity to enact whatever laws it wanted?

It is not surprising that last weekend’s ALP National Conference voted against the idea.

The union movement and much of the Labor Party has no interest in a Bill of Rights because it might contain a clause enshrining freedom of association.
Continue reading “Forum for Saturday 5 may 2007 bill of rights”