THE scene is Bethlehem 1AD. A Roman soldier, Perspicuus, is muttering: “Almost there. MMMDCCLVII, MMMDCCLVIII.” Then loudly to assembled motely mass of Palestinians: “Alright, you lot, you can clear off home now.” He turns to another soldier, Errorpronius, and says, “Ok, add this to the MMDCLVI you got at Nazereth and take away one for the bloke you crucified for mutinously suggesting there was an easier way of counting. [click to continue…]
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USUALLY the Murdoch press and the shock jocks will seize upon any opportunity to beat up on the Gillard Government. The slightest thing that goes wrong or the slightest failure to live up to a pre-election announcement and they pounce like a cat upon a mouse. [click to continue…]
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IF ONLY. If only President George W. Bush had responded to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001 in the same way that the Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and his Foreign Minister Gahr Stre has responded to the terrorist attack a week ago in their country. [click to continue…]
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YES, we inherited the rule of law and parliamentary democracy from Britain. But we did not inherit its newspaper culture. So when politicians call for new rights to privacy and inquiries into the media based upon what has happened in Britain, we should be wary. [click to continue…]
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A LESS-OBVIOUS evil and danger lies behind the News of the World’s hacking of the phones of the missing 13-year-old Milly Dowler and the victims of terrorism. And the closing of the paper and the inquiries that ensue will not address it. [click to continue…]
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THE people of the ACT are being duped by the Territory and Federal Governments over the Majura Parkway. The case is another example of a poor thinking in Australia’s transport system. [click to continue…]
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MORE evidence is in that there is no such thing as a “rusted-on” Labor vote in Australia. In the 1990s chunks of the formerly supposed rusted-on blue-collar Labor vote fell away when Pauline Hanson and John Howard applied the WD40. Xenophobes and “battlers” deserted the Labor Party. [click to continue…]
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PRIME Minister Michael Rimmer, in The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, overcame one of the main objections to consulting the masses on political questions – cost – by installing in every home a Yes and No button above the television set. [click to continue…]
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SO OFTEN when some injustice or unfairness arises, the aggrieved parties imagine the High Court and the Constitution will step in to save them. Most recently it was by Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest the head of the mining company Fortescue Metals. [click to continue…]
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CORPORATE managers in Australia should now get out their risk lists and add a new heading: a media blitz. In just a few days, a media blitz following one Four Corners program has put in jeopardy a $320 million-a-year industry – the live cattle trade with Indonesia. [click to continue…]
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