Category: Uncategorized

New NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is ignoring the two elephants in the housing-affordability argument. Ordinary people should be able to buy in Sydney, she said this week. Housing affordability was her number-one priority as Premier, she assured us. Continue reading “Doing the obvious on housing ‘affordability’”

I USED to think that excess weight was caused by eating too much and/or not exercising enough. “There was no-one overweight on the Burma Railway,” I’d quip. Not any more. Continue reading “The weighty matter of sugar and diabetes”

THE death of Michael Chamberlain makes me recall sitting in the High Court on the day that the decision on Lindy Chamberlain’s appeal against her conviction of the murder of her baby daughter Azaria came down. It was 22 February 1984. All five judges who heard the case were there so they stated their reasons one by one. Continue reading “Chamberlain: when the jury got it wrong”

THE republic debate has been trickling along at the same time as dissatisfaction with democracy and political elites grows and voters show a predilection for outsiders. Along with marriage equality, it is another example of political paralysis. A majority of people and parliamentarians favour both, but our politicians seems incapable of delivering either. Continue reading “Republican paralysis with a solution”

THE last Newspoll for 2016 reinforced the basic political conundrum of this decade: Voters crying: “Me; me; me,” But also demanding governments make sure they address all of the important national-interest matters: budget deficit, economic growth, education, health care and infrastructure. Continue reading “Doing nothing pays. Paralysis sets in”

LIBERAL democracy and the rules-based international order received the biggest set-back in 2016 in any year since before the Berlin Wall came down. The only year that comes close is 2003, the year of the illegal invasion of Iraq based on concocted intelligence. Continue reading “International disorder and dashed democracy”

WHEN I attempted to transfer everything from my iPhone 6 to my new iPhone 7 this week, and what is supposed to be the gold standard software for music and media management – iTunes – deleted nearly all my music, and then the back-up external hard drive also failed, a bucketload of Anglo-Saxon nouns and adjectives emanated from the home office. Continue reading “The inagile emptiness of our Prime Minister”

IN THE wake of Brexit, One Nation, Trump and the general alienation of those who have lost their jobs, wages growth and sense of purpose to globalisation, Australia should join Finland in considering a minimum-payment scheme. Continue reading “$15,000 a year a fair payment for everyone, especially the disaffected”

IN 1964, Hans Pearson – an Aboriginal man with a wife, Anna, and eight children – was granted an exemption from the legislative scheme under which wages earned by Indigenous people (mainly stockmen) in Queensland were paid into a state-run fund. Continue reading “Court document shows how Qld stole $500m in Indigenous wages”

THE dysfunction in our democracy has been no better exemplified than this week’s publication of two very sound tax policies by the independent public-interest organisation the Grattan Institute. They were on the case for a tax on sugary drinks and an end to tax concessions for people over 65. They come after a Grattan reports earlier this year on capital-gains tax, negative gearing and superannuation. Continue reading “When think tanks shine over democracy”