Journalism and other writing
A WONDERFUL Yes Minister skit has Minister Jim Hacker putting on his best Churchillian voice to Sir Humphrey and likening the economy to a runaway bus.
“It is time for someone to get into the driver’s seat, Humphrey, and put his foot on the er, er, er.” Continue reading “State abolition efficient but not democratic”
THE Feds are at it again – another unprincipled, ill-thought-out interference with the affairs of the people of the ACT. Continue reading “ACT’s democratic deficit”
Article written for The Canberra Times’s special edition on the 20th anniversary of self-government for the Australian Capital Territory.
IF THE ACT were split in 17 single-member electorates, the ALP would have won all 17 of them at the last election – on just 37.5 per cent of the vote. Continue reading “Evolution of electoral system”
Article written for The Canberra Times’s special edition on the 20th anniversary of self-government for the Australian Capital Territory.
THE House of Farce. The words stared out from the newsagents’ posters. Continue reading “House of farce no more”
JUSTICE Lex Lasry, of the Victorian Supreme Court, had a great big slash at the media this week in the Blackburn Memorial Lecture in Canberra. Continue reading “Unelected judges the least of our worries”
JOHN Dawkins, a Treasurer and Minister for Education in the Hawke Government, had a problem. How was he to reverse the extravagance of the Whitlam Government’s free tertiary education without causing a middle-class revolt against Labor. Continue reading “A painless way for Treasurers to raise revenue”
THE Stockholm International Peace Research Institute presented the dismaying news this week that the world weapons trade has grown 20 per cent in the past five years.
The bulk of it went to the Middle East and the bulk of it came from the US. Continue reading “Military spends just adds to insecurity”