DUTCH politician Geert Wilders has certainly offended and insulted a few people this week on his short visit to Australia. And in doing so has unwittingly done us all a favour. Continue reading “Tolerating intolerance better than bans”
Category: Uncategorized
Shrapnel candidates to muddy Senate vote
LAST week I mentioned Victorian Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan. He won his Victorian Senate in 2010 seat purely on the freak distribution of preferences after his party obtained just 2.3 per cent of the primary vote. Two elections previously, Victorian Family First Senator Steve Fielding similarly won on 2 per cent of the primary vote. Continue reading “Shrapnel candidates to muddy Senate vote”
ACT Libs rolling on logs
In 2002, a Liberal insider told me that the ACT Liberal Party “is rolling on logs at the moment and someone is bound to fall in the water”. 
It was Keatingesque in its pictorial accuracy and a decade later the ACT party is in the same position. Continue reading “ACT Libs rolling on logs”
On electoral and climate change
FRIENDS and acquaintances have been citing Dorothea Mackellar and Hanrahan in recent days, as fires, droughts and flooding rains sweep the continent from one far horizon to the other. Continue reading “On electoral and climate change”
Fast lane in slow manana land
Old stuff scanned and put on the web. This one from 1997.
AT FIRST I thought it was a paradox. Travel in Mexico is either dogged by the manana mentality with endless delay or it is done at break-neck speed risking life and limb. Continue reading “Fast lane in slow manana land”
Electoral advantage — they’ll vote for that
ON ONE, ideology goes out the window. Principle is of no moment. Political foes become expedient friends. That matter is the electoral process. As a rule, political parties will ask only one question about changes to the electoral law: will this benefit or hurt my party. Nothing else matters. Continue reading “Electoral advantage — they’ll vote for that”
Entitlement mentality leads to paralysis
COULD you imagine Paul Keating or Malcolm Fraser making the following the core of their New Year speech (take a deep breath and wade through to the end of the three paragraphs please): Continue reading “Entitlement mentality leads to paralysis”
Gunning for donation reform
THE hogwash delivered last week by the US National Rifle Association in response to the Connecticut shootings can be fairly quickly dismissed by a comparison with Australia. Continue reading “Gunning for donation reform”
Court’s drowsy procrastination goes on
A LARGE sign spelling AON atop a 12-storey office block glares over the ACT Supreme Court building on the other side of London Circuit. 
It should act as a reminder and warning. But the lesson has been forgotten and the warning ignored. Continue reading “Court’s drowsy procrastination goes on”
Seven-year wait for justice
SEVEN years after the loss at sea of two Australian immigration officers and three others, the search for accountability for the families appears to be whimpering to an end after a Court of Appeal decision last week. Continue reading “Seven-year wait for justice”