Journalism and other writing
A CASE decided in the Family Court last week has revealed a quirk in Australia’s native title law and highlights once again some of the difficulties in native title. 
One of the biggest objections to native title in Australia is that it ties up the land.
The theory goes that Indigenous people cannot deal with their land. Native title vests in groups of people or trusts who hold it on their behalf. Continue reading “Native title — benefit or burden?”
YOU CAN see it any day at Canberra Airport – a great contest between the owners who want to gouge as much as they can get away with from anyone coming near the place and those determined not to pay one cent more than they absolutely must. Continue reading “Airport gouging and shock jocks”
SO, AFTER tomorrow we will see who is right: Aesop or Goebbels. 
Aesop wrote The Boy who Cried Wolf – the fable whose moral was that liars are not rewarded. If you try to trick people by crying wolf when there is not one, they will not believe you when you cry wolf and there really is one. Continue reading “Propaganda will continue despite no meltdown”
WE SEEM to have a two-stream commentary interpreting our two-speed economy. One expresses puzzlement that Australia’s comparatively stellar economic performance is yielding nothing but whingeing from the voters and undeserved poor marks for a good government. The other asserts the Government is bungling and if only it would move out of the way the private sector would bring prosperity to all. Continue reading “Two wrong commentary streams on Oz economy”
THERE is no god-given right for The Newcastle Herald, the Illawarra Mercury, or indeed The Canberra Times, to come out every day. Running a newspaper has to be a business, albeit a public-spirited one, not a charity. Continue reading “Newspapers’ painful transmogrification”
IF CANBERRA had a cohort of filthy rich, Treasurer Andrew Barr’s tax “reform” might make some sense. But it does not. Canberra’s top end in the income and wealth scale is nothing like that in other Australian cities – business people with serious wealth. Continue reading “Over-taxing the goose’s property”
ONLY two bitumen roads cross the 1862-kilometre border between Western Australia and its eastern neighbours – one close to the coast in the north and one close to the coast in the south. In between is seemingly endless desert. It could be one of the easiest borders in the world to secure, if it came to that. Continue reading “Miners are masterful propagandists”
MIDWAY through Craig Thomson’s address to the Parliament this week I was reminded of those half a dozen or so British police shows in which the arresting officer typically says: “I am arresting you for [insert charge]. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you say may be given in evidence.” Continue reading “Craig: You have the right not to put foot in mouth”
THINGS are getting more difficult for pollsters. Polling techniques and interpretation may be getting more sophisticated, but the critical base of all polling – the random sample – is getting harder to come by. Continue reading “Getting harder for pollsters to sample”
AT LAST, a tomahawk is being taken to the defence budget. Pity it wasn’t an axe. If we can save $1.3 billion by delaying the purchase of the joint strike fighter and a few other things, think how much more could be saved by not buying them at all. Continue reading “Military toys we do not need”