PRIME Minister Michael Rimmer, in The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, overcame one of the main objections to consulting the masses on political questions – cost – by installing in every home a Yes and No button above the television set. Continue reading “You can’t vote for everything”
Month: June 2011
The Constitution. Rights, what rights.
SO OFTEN when some injustice or unfairness arises, the aggrieved parties imagine the High Court and the Constitution will step in to save them. Most recently it was by Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest the head of the mining company Fortescue Metals. Continue reading “The Constitution. Rights, what rights.”
Danger of government by media reaction
CORPORATE managers in Australia should now get out their risk lists and add a new heading: a media blitz. In just a few days, a media blitz following one Four Corners program has put in jeopardy a $320 million-a-year industry – the live cattle trade with Indonesia. Continue reading “Danger of government by media reaction”
Carbon tax OK even if no climate change
NEW taxes, like the carbon tax, naturally alarm people. In the mid-1690s, for example, the revenue in England was being depleted by, among other things, people clipping coinage. A mooted income tax was decried as an impossible invasion of privacy. Instead a window tax was introduced in 1696. You paid tax if you had more than 10 windows. Continue reading “Carbon tax OK even if no climate change”