Liberal President "dishonest" - Vice-President
- posted by Graham

Liberal Party interim president Gary Spence has been accused of dishonestly misrepresenting the views of members of the party's state council, of fabrication and flagrant misrepresentation. One of the mysteries of reports of last Friday's Liberal Party State Council was... More

Liberal and National merger - over the falls again
- posted by Graham

Lawrence Springborg has been spruiking a new conservative party for most of this year, but when we get to look at his bride, she's actually not new, she's 63 years old and calls herself the Liberal Party. She will have... More

Johnson forces rethink of global warming taxing strategies
- posted by Graham

I made a few guesses in this blog post as to how Boris Johnson beat Red Ken Livingstone. The skeptical part of the blogosphere, as in Global Warming skeptics, have thrown their vaunted caution to the winds and embraced the... More

Nervous Nelson at the Brisbane Club
- posted by Graham

Laser pointers may be endangering more things than aeroplanes landing at Australia's airports. Brendan Nelson might be another casualty with a jittery laser pointer in his hands showing just how nervous he was when addressing the Brisbane Club yesterday. This,... More

The blight that the ALP has become
- posted by Ronda Jambe

Nearly every day some bright spark suggests in the letters to the editor that technology will save the world. One day the focus is on carbon capture, the next on GM foods. Desalinisation and nuclear energy are other scientific saviours.... More

How could climate sceptic Boris Johnson beat true believer Livingstone?
- posted by Graham

Boris Johnson is a well-known climate sceptic, and fellow sceptics are pointing this out to suggest that his victory means that climate scepticism isn't a political handicap afterall. I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the UK local... More

Hospital pass
- posted by Graham

First we have Wayne Swan promising a Robin Hood budget which will take from the rich and give to the poor. Then, almost simultaneously we have elite sportsmen in Australian football, rugby league, rugby union, cricket, swimming, netball and basketball... More

This time Chris wasn't Masters-full
- posted by Ronda Jambe

What was this week's Four Corners all about? Chris Masters, an icon for investigative journalists in Australia, delivered a squishy program that was all fluff. Was it a travelogue about the gentrification of Harlem? Was it a very vague look... More

George Pell at the Brisbane Institute
- posted by Graham

I heard Cardinal George Pell speak at the Brisbane Institute last night and Jack Waterford in the Canberra Times has a pretty good precis of what he said. The Brisbane Institute billed it as: Cardinal Pell considers questions such as:... More

Brickbats to Queensland Rail and Citizen Journalism
- posted by Graham

I've just walked back to the office from Central Station after standing on a train for 15 minutes and deciding it was more likely that I would arrive at Brunswick Street Station than it would. During the 15 minutes that... More

The Australian takes up Williams' comments
- posted by Graham

Robyn Williams' misuse of a Spectator review gets a run in today's Australian - Cut and Paste. They also add some cautionary remarks about peer review from Terence Kealey who is VC of The University of Buckingham. The full text... More

More crony capitalism
- posted by Graham

Last July the Queensland Government instituted the "Urban Land Development Authority" which amongst other things would have the right to compulsorily acquire land from private land holders and sell it to developers who could then make a profit from it.... More

Robyn Williams misrepresents The Spectator
- posted by Graham

In my previous post I referred to an introduction that the ABC's Robyn Williams gave to an Ockham's Razor presentation by Don Aitkin. He used a quote from a piece in The Spectator to suggest that Aitkin's view should be... More

Who the hell is Robyn Williams? Can anyone help?
- posted by Graham

This morning's Ockham's Razor broadcast was by Don Aitkin on global warming. Presenter Robyn Williams introduced him in these terms: It is one of the disappointments of my life as a broadcaster that I've never managed to interview Nigella Lawson.... More

Under the Moruya Moon (4)
- posted by Ronda Jambe

A continuing saga of a coastal adventure. Or: how to convert a goat-shearing shed into a semi-sustainable habitable space. In any case, today is a good time to divert attention from the circus of the Olympic torch run in Canberra.... More

At last - reliable evidence on the "booze epidemic"
- posted by Graham

I'm sceptical of the "booze epidemic", particularly as I've been unable to find anything justifying the claim. But now something authoritative has come to light. According to AAP: The NSW auditor-general's report found there were 20,475 alcohol-related assaults (ARAs) statewide... More

Open for foreign supermarkets, but not foreign ships
- posted by Graham

Every government, no matter how honest its intentions, ends up shaving the common good for sectional interest. It's unavoidable, but spotting the inconsistencies can be fun. With increased food prices the government is desperate to be seen to do something... More

Lin Hatfield Dodds
- posted by Graham

The Hatfield Dodds, Lin and Steve, were about the only power couple that I could spot who both got a guernsey to the 2020 Summit. Lin's now topped that to make herself a household name by withdrawing from the Olympic... More