DEPUTY ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has asked rhetorically, “Is it really necessary for the government to maintain a register of real estate agents?” Well yes, and I’ll tell you why it is, Mr Barr. It is because ACT real estate agents handle an enormous amount of the public’s money in the form of deposits on houses pending settlement. Continue reading “Watch estate agents, for charity’s sake”
Genealogy becomes an internet industry
(This article did not make it to the web sitr when it was published in The Canberra Times last January)
I HAVE just finished reading Our Father, my sister’s wonderful biography of our father, Robert Edward Davison Hull, who was, among other things Anglican Rector of Beechworth, Victoria, from 1959 to 1977 — our formative years. Continue reading “Genealogy becomes an internet industry”
Read all about it — going tabloid
UNTIL the late 19th century, pharmacists made up their own medicines – in powders with pestle and mortar and with liquids. Then an invention to compress graphite to make better pencils was applied to medicines and little pills resulted. Pharmacists called them tabloids. Continue reading “Read all about it — going tabloid”
As you spend so shall you reap
ARE the fat cats lining themselves up a final plate of cream before the Abbott axe falls in September? A look at the most recent ABS average weekly earnings figures suggests so. Continue reading “As you spend so shall you reap”
Tolerating intolerance better than bans
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”
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”