Category: Uncategorized

THE High Court has cleared the way for a federal law on same-sex marriage, even though it struck down the ACT law providing for them. The critical point was that the court held that the word “marriage” in the Constitution means the union of any natural persons. It was not restricted to unions between a man and a woman, and polygamous or polyandrous marriages. Continue reading “High Court case to help marriage equality”

THERE was a time young Americans would stitch a Canadian flag on their backpacks and pretend to be Canadian so they would not be blamed for the awful things being done by their government. It may now be time for Australian travellers to pretend to be New Zealanders, though the flag trick would probably not work. Continue reading “Brand Australia — flawed fellow, my country”

THE marriages of those gay couples who marry in the ACT this weekend will be null and void if the High Court strikes down the ACT’s same sex marriage law. It will be as if they had not married at all. But the symbolism will have been important. Continue reading “Gay marrigage: symbolism greater than legality”

OH NO, not the family home. How can the Grattan Institute even dare to mention the sacrosanct family home in the same sentence as tax or means testing? Don’t these people understand anything about Australian “battling” and “doing-it-tough” families? Continue reading “Battlers doing it tough stymie tax reform”

THE text message from the cat breeder to my wife read: “Little Trim is doing well. She wade 1.3kg . . . “. Should we get apoplectic? The breeder is making a living. Her meaning was clear. She wrote the word “weighed” exactly as it sounded. If English spelling was reformed so words were spelt as they were sounded and the great works of literature were read aloud, nothing would be lost. Continue reading “Do we have to spell it out? — Yes”

FIFTY years ago this week, Prime Minister Robert Menzies set in train a policy which still stirs up controversy and division – the clash between private and public education. Menzies did it in his classic understated and politically artful way. The policy was stated in just 78 words, more than 5000 words in to his 7000-word election manifesto for the election to be held on 30 November 1963. Continue reading “Menzies began half a century of educational inequality”

I HAVE enlisted the help of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and the various economists who crafted cost-benefit analysis to help decide what to do about climate change. I hope that you, too, can do the same thing. Kant took a universalist approach. The test for morally commendable action was: what would happen if everyone did this? Mill’s test was the greatest good for the greatest number — utilitarianism. Continue reading “Philosophic approach to solar panel cost-benefit”

A SPLENDID thing is emerging from the US Budget crisis. It is indirectly and slowly forcing the US military to adopt more sensible policy. Instead of being “the policeman of the world” – which only gets everyone’s back up, it is being forced to concentrate on core US interests. Continue reading “US military: Republicans do right deed for wrong reason”

THE passage of the ACT Marriage Equality Same Sex invites some reflections on the law and politics of marriage and the Australian Constitution. Continue reading “Howard messed up blocking gay marriage”

FIRST to Andrew Forrest’s $65 million gift to the University of Western Australia, then to Queensland’s bikies law. Forrest has said that he and his family had agreed that they had more than enough to live on in whatever style they wanted, so they should give the surplus to good causes. It means he is sacrificing exactly nothing with this gift. It is easier than giving away unwanted second-hand clothes for him. He does not even have to drive to the Salvos bin. Continue reading “Charity starts and ends with sacrifice, not money”