Crispin Hull

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”

We can say this much for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: he has at least stopped the march of Howardism. But he has done precious little to wind it back.

He has tinkered a bit with better treatment for asylum seekers. He has engaged in a bit of symbolism with Kyoto and Sorry. But most of everything else has been either left in place or shuffled off to inquiries and in the meantime still left in place. Continue reading “Howardism stopped but not reversed”

* Sydney Morning Herald
* February 25, 2009
Article on SMH site

It is three months since the Wood Special Commission of Inquiry into Child Protection Services in NSW handed its report to the NSW Government. At the time, the Premier, Nathan Rees, promised a response by March and said there would have to be compelling reasons not to accept its recommendations. Continue reading “Charities are ready to help swamped DOCS”

W INSTON Churchill thought political loyalty was an enormous virtue. The leader must be supported and the leader must support the front bench. But only up to a point.

“If a leader trips, he must be sustained,” Churchill wrote. “If he makes mistakes, they must be covered. If he sleeps, he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good, he must be pole-axed.” Continue reading “Banquo (Costello) waits for 2013”

CANBERRANS, your property (and some other rights) are now safe from the hitherto all-powerful Commonwealth Government and Parliament.

The media noise over the Indigenous invasion of the High Court building and the retirement of Justice Michael Kirby last week meant that an important decision regarding the Territories, particularly the ACT and the Northern Territory, went virtually under the radar. Continue reading “Canberrans’ property rights upheld”

AS a species verges on extinction, conservationist take note of the estimated number of breeding pairs, for without them the species is doomed.

Well very few breeding pairs can be seen around the mainstream Christian churches these days. The adherents to these faiths are dying out. Continue reading “Religion slowly dying out”

NOW we are nearly all safely home after the holidays, it is a good time to look at what might be done to make next holidays safer.

I wrote “nearly all” because 2000 people did not get back home safely – they were seriously injured in traffic crashes, or did not arrive home at all. Continue reading “A new attitude to speeding needed”

DID you notice the autocue? Well, never mind you were not supposed to. The autocues at Barack Obama’s inauguration were the two A3 size smoked-glass panels to his front left and right at 45 degrees to the horizontal.

The words of Obama’s flawlessly delivered speech rolled on each smoked panel reflected to the only the speaker’s eyes. It was smoke and mirrors. The two million members of the crowd and vast television audience were oblivious. Continue reading “Obama right on autocue”

ON Tuesday Barack Obama will take over the White House in similar (if somewhat worse) conditions as the previous time a Democrat took over the White House after a long time of Republican rule.

Sure, then the war in Iraq had been only partially botched and the economy, national debt and the Budget were in poor condition rather than desperate. And terrorism and the weakness of public infrastructure exposed by Hurricane Katrina were less manifest. Nonetheless the similarities are there. The Middle East seemed as intractable then as now. Continue reading “Obama’s big test is health”