23 November, 2011
President Barack Obama’s speech to the Australian Parliament, like those of his predecessors, was indeed an historic occasion.
Amidst the hype and ceremony, I can’t help but wonder if a couple of Labor Minister didn’t squirm a little in their seats as the President reminded us: “We seek tra...
11 October, 2011
They boldly claim “we are the 99 per cent” - it’s their official catchcry - so unless you consider yourself among the uber rich and powerful, these folks are your new voice. So they’ll be speaking for you when they wave their glib and nebulous placards declaring “people not profits” and “be th...
09 September, 2011
If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. – Abraham Lincoln
Perhaps the most damaging outcome of all the dysfunction wrought by the Gillard Government is the shocking loss of respect for the office of Prime Minister itse...
22 August, 2011
This week the right to peaceful public assembly got a bit of a battering. And those wielding the sticks were none other than freedom-of-speech-loving journalists.
The derision with which many critiqued the anti carbon tax rally seemed, to use one of their favourite descriptors, extrem...
03 August, 2011
Remember those rabid beta-tape aficionados of the late 70s and early 80’s?
You know, the ones who swore they had found the one true technology and held firm to their allegiance as the video library shelves became chock-o-block full of VHS tapes and the beta tapes were relegated to a d...
20 July, 2011
While the media last week fixated on the political “divide” in Australia, with vastly divergent views expressed on the carbon tax at the forums and some confrontations between people with passionate viewpoints, it’s worth remembering that every day of every week, Aussies are getting on with their li...
05 July, 2011
When the sun rose yesterday morning, optimistic Federal Labor MPs must have woken up thinking, “Monday morning – time for damage control”, their more pessimistic comrades would probably have been thinking “a new week, a new fiasco”.
The weekend announcement that some motor vehicle users wil...
21 June, 2011
The high political farce of the last few days is unprecedented. Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd are tearing each other to shreds and nameless Labor MPs are also leaping into the fray. It’s rapidly turned into a can’t-look-away episode of Jerry Springer; “Knifed in the back a year ago and still mad as h...
08 March, 2011
It’s a strategy that President Obama’s spin team employed when he was neck-deep in political hot water over an incredibly unpopular health care policy – demonise the critics.
Instead of addressing valid criticisms, damn the people making them.
Witness the way the groundswell “Tea Party” movement w...
01 February, 2011
Last weekend - while you were taking the kids to the beach, buying those extra back-to-school necessities, or for many, still counting the toll of recent devastating floods – unleaded petrol prices in capital cities rose an average 15 cents a litre at Coles and Woolworths outlets to a massive 143.9 ...