Journalism and other writing
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”
“I would not be Treasurer for a hundred pounds, said Alice” – apologies to A. A. Milne.
TREASURIES, Treasurers and Finance Ministers almost routinely under-estimate the effect of economic swings on Government revenues and spending. Continue reading “Govts under-estimate revenue slides”
THIS week I was fortunate to be in a rainforest in Tropical North Queensland. (Incidentally, they prefer to call it that because the initials sound better than those of Far North Queensland.) Anyway, it started to rain, as it does in rainforests. Continue reading “New web to expunge tech needed by excluded”
THE rubbishy North Korean missile sent into the sky by a tin-pot dictatorship this week may not have been technically far off from having had a nuclear warhead. Continue reading “Bush v Obama: complexity beats simplicity”
THE stars a lining up for an increase in the membership of the Legislative Assembly. But there is a political and legal minefield ahead. Continue reading “Bigger Assembly faces hurdles”
How is it that governments can sometimes initiate great public inquiries into major policy questions with submissions being made public – even on the internet – and interim and final reports again being cast into the public arena for intemperate journalists and ill-tempered Opposition members to trawl their way through for their argumentative ammunition? Continue reading “Secrecy is governments’ enemy”
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer with a circulation similar to that of The Australian or the Adelaide Advertiser ceased publication this week. It is now a purely on-line publication.
Do not panic. It is not totally the case of the internet swallowing paper. There is another morning paper in Seattle, population 600,000, which will pick up the slack. Continue reading “Wither newspapers in internet world”
Twelve years ago The Daily Telegraph ran a Page one article under a banner headline: “The class we failed”. Under it was class photo Mount Druitt’s Year 12, no member of which achieved a tertiary entrance score above 50. Continue reading “Easy to join the class we failed”
This week the ACT settled on its feed-in electricity tariff for home-generated solar power. It is a beachhead in public policy.
Much will depend on the reaction of electricity consumers and therein lies its innovation. Continue reading “ACT’s power-ful new policy”
How is it that governments can sometimes initiate great public inquiries into major policy questions with submissions being made public – even on the internet – and interim and final reports again being cast into the public arena for intemperate journalists and ill-tempered Opposition members to trawl their way through for their argumentative ammunition? Continue reading “Secrecy not in governments’ interests”