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Mining, taxation and the National Interest
The Gillard’s Government’s mining tax, or more correctly the Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT), has been in the news a bit lately. This week, the High Court of Australia has been hearing a case that...
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Stop the boats. Seriously.
The sun rose over the eastern expanse of the Indian Ocean at 5.31am on December 15th, 2010 but not much of its light reached the decks of the 15 metre long wooden fishing boat, the Maju Jaya, as it...
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A Conroy of No Confidence
I’ve been referring to the Daily Telegraph as the “Daily TerrorGraph” for quite a while now. I don’t remember who I picked the expression up from, but it fits just so neatly with the reporting style of...
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Rupert Murdoch is basically Pinochet…
…under Senator Conroy’s proposed media regulations, I can still say that. Whatever the case, there are two key elements central to media regulation, when you peel back the details; two ‘problems’ that...
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NBN isn’t magic fairy dust
The more and more we descend in to election hyperbole the more amazing the NBN thing seems to become. But I’m sorry to say that as great as broadband is, and the faster the better, it simply isn’t...
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The State (Territory) of Play – ACT
Canberra celebrates its centenary this month; the hot air balloons are sailing above Lake Burley Griffin, there’s been festivals and light shows and while the rest of the country has been trudging on...
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No Bloody Notion
Last week, Kath wrote on these very pages an excellent piece on the NBN, and if I may attempt to distill it to its central thesis, her argument was thus; investing in broadband infrastructure is...
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Lots of good reasons to talk about hospitals
While wandering around the internetz last night, as one does, I stumbled upon this story from the Examiner in Tassie about elective surgery waiting times being at a pretty scary level in the island...
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Silencing Critics
Any of you who follow me on twitter or read my blog will by now have had enough of me talking about the right to silence changes in NSW. There is much more to say about that, and I have said those...
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Planning our water future
You may have missed it this week with all the nonsense going on in Canberra, but the Murray Darling Basin Plan to manage our biggest waterway got locked in this week. This. Is. Huge. This is 3200...
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The other families orphaned by a tsunami of leadership bullshit
The great unreported story of last week (and there were a few) was our nation’s apology to the victims of our shameful forced adoption policy. In fact, so swamped by the abortive, shambolic mess that...
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The price inquiry may be impotent, but it’s also important
The first time, as a journalist, I looked at international price discrimination was in the 1990s – I guess 1997 or 1998, for a publication called Australian Communications, in conjunction with the...
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Game of Thrones S03E01 HDTV x264-2HD [eztv]
Imagine, if you would, your reaction if you walked into the supermarket to pick up some Crispy M&Ms, and the young lad at the checkout said upon purchasing something like this: Checkout Lad: “Hi,...
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Renewable empty promises (updated)
The Government has often touted its commitment to renewable energy. And I have never believed the dribble that comes out of their collective mouth on the subject, but I’m a cynic on most issues. No,...
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A SUPER Change
Bernard Keane’s piece in today’s Crikey got me thinking (paywalled, sadly for some of you…) The thrust of his piece is that, in short, superannuation concessions are incredibly expensive. He’s right...
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The state of the State – Tasmania
In our continuing State-by-State examination of the political landscape Damien Walker looks at his home State of Tasmania and finds the Liberal party will have to overcome entrenched Labor support if...
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On tax expenditures
Reblogged from We are all dead.: Imagine if everyone with a surname starting with the letter C didn't have to pay income tax. For some arcane reason, back in the mists of time when the tax was...
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Gonskis: University Funding and Education Reforming
“It’s alot of money, but I believe it is a wise investment in our children’s future and in our nation’s future’ - Julia Gillard on Gonski funding implementation. “It also means the best of equipment,...
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A Shot in the Dark
Are Labor just really, really bad at politics? That’s a conclusion you could easily draw. I don’t think it is possible to blame the media alone for the negative perception of the Labor party (although...
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China Talks: What’s In It For Them?
Julia Gillard’s recent China trip was undoubtedly a success. Even most of her harsher detractors are prepared to concede that annual heads of government talks with the PRC are wholly desirable and...
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