Article written for The Canberra Times’s special edition on the 20th anniversary of self-government for the Australian Capital Territory.
THE House of Farce. The words stared out from the newsagents’ posters. Continue reading “House of farce no more”
Category: Uncategorized
Unelected judges the least of our worries
JUSTICE Lex Lasry, of the Victorian Supreme Court, had a great big slash at the media this week in the Blackburn Memorial Lecture in Canberra. Continue reading “Unelected judges the least of our worries”
A painless way for Treasurers to raise revenue
JOHN Dawkins, a Treasurer and Minister for Education in the Hawke Government, had a problem. How was he to reverse the extravagance of the Whitlam Government’s free tertiary education without causing a middle-class revolt against Labor. Continue reading “A painless way for Treasurers to raise revenue”
Military spends just adds to insecurity
THE Stockholm International Peace Research Institute presented the dismaying news this week that the world weapons trade has grown 20 per cent in the past five years.
The bulk of it went to the Middle East and the bulk of it came from the US. Continue reading “Military spends just adds to insecurity”
Govts under-estimate revenue slides
“I would not be Treasurer for a hundred pounds, said Alice” – apologies to A. A. Milne.
TREASURIES, Treasurers and Finance Ministers almost routinely under-estimate the effect of economic swings on Government revenues and spending. Continue reading “Govts under-estimate revenue slides”
New web to expunge tech needed by excluded
THIS week I was fortunate to be in a rainforest in Tropical North Queensland. (Incidentally, they prefer to call it that because the initials sound better than those of Far North Queensland.) Anyway, it started to rain, as it does in rainforests. Continue reading “New web to expunge tech needed by excluded”
Bush v Obama: complexity beats simplicity
THE rubbishy North Korean missile sent into the sky by a tin-pot dictatorship this week may not have been technically far off from having had a nuclear warhead. Continue reading “Bush v Obama: complexity beats simplicity”
Bigger Assembly faces hurdles
THE stars a lining up for an increase in the membership of the Legislative Assembly. But there is a political and legal minefield ahead. Continue reading “Bigger Assembly faces hurdles”
Secrecy is governments’ enemy
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 is governments’ enemy”
Wither newspapers in internet world
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer with a circulation similar to that of The Australian or the Adelaide Advertiser ceased publication this week. It is now a purely on-line publication.
Do not panic. It is not totally the case of the internet swallowing paper. There is another morning paper in Seattle, population 600,000, which will pick up the slack. Continue reading “Wither newspapers in internet world”