Crispin Hull

Don’t get caught up with detail

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney set the broad timeline for the referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament at the weekend.

There are two overwhelming reasons to vote Yes. The first is that after years of detailed consultation and deliberation this is what the vast majority of Indigenous Australians say they want. They want to be recognised and heard by having a Voice to the Parliament.

2022 – predictably unpredictable

Before asking what will 2023 bring, it is worth looking at what 2022 brought. Virtually no-one predicted the two most significant events of 2022. First, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Ukrainian response. And second, the rise of inflation and the interest-increasing response of central banks.

They have a common theme – the failure of intelligence agencies and economists to take account of some fairly constant human behaviour.

It’s a gas. Bluff called on gaming

The bluffs of two of the most powerful industries in Australia have been called – one each by each side of politics. Federal Labor has taken on the fossils of the fossil-fuel industry and the NSW Liberals have taken on the gaming industry.

It is a significant power shift.

Corrosive, centralised elitist power

Have you noticed the change in the way federal government policy is announced? When Scott Morrison was Prime Minister, he appeared with the relevant Minister at almost all policy announcements and usually dominated the media conference.

Now Anthony Albanese is Prime Minister, very often the Minister appears alone at the policy announcement. Several Minister stand out: Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, and a couple of others.

What of those who pay for their ‘voice’ to Parliament?

A miserable lot: the Nationals announce opposition to the Voice

The National Party’s hypocritical and evidence-lacking decision to oppose the Voice to Parliament exemplifies the political dilemma the Liberal Party has faced since 2007.

Does it side with the Nationals at the behest of its right-wing and at the cost of further alienating urban progressive voters, or does it ignore the Nationals and the right and adopt policies for the sensible centre?

Tick, tick, boom. Or drop the Nats

The rusted-ons are dying off. The Victorian election last Saturday confirmed the trend of the May 21 Federal election. It is a simmering and little-understood time bomb which will go off before too long.

The major-party vote continues to trickle away as mainly women and younger people take their vote elsewhere because their values have changed. Before long some major realignment seems inevitable.

Autocrats mix sport and politics, egregiously

I am not going to watch any soccer World Cup games. Even if the Socceroos are in the final.

Further, I am going to boycott all the products of all of the sponsors for at least the next four years. And I urge you to do the same. A list of sponsors is at the foot of this column.

Tragic. Republicans got what they wanted

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. So said Oscar Wilde.

Well, the Republicans in the US got what they wanted. They wanted to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Rove v Wade which stated that the 14 th amendment to the US Constitution (the right to privacy) nullified any legislative attempt by any of the states to restrict abortion.

Universities: who are the real cheats

Who was at the top of the university league tables for cheating – the business school.

As the University of Sydney and University of NSW wring their hands and bewail a massive documented doubling of cheating in the past couple of years we should not be surprised.

Diligence, not bread and circuses

This Budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was the Juvenal of Australian politics – deploring bread and circuses.

The Roman poet Juvenal deplored the handing out of wheat and the putting on of circuses to gain public approval rather than the hard work of good public policy.

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