November 29, 2003
ALP Leadership Fun - posted by peter
Jeez, I go away for a few days off, pick up a paper on Friday driving back to Perth, and find the ALP leadership issue back on the front page. Sometimes I think politicians will do anything for a headline,... More
Posted by peter at 02:55 PM
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November 28, 2003
Sydney’s house prices help the huddled masses - posted by Graham
Apparently it now takes 45 percent of average income in Sydney to service the typical first mortgage on the average first home. In the rest of the country it is only 28.4 percent. This is good news for all of us. More
Posted by Graham at 06:00 AM
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November 27, 2003
Two previews: Kevin Rudd for Leader and I scoop Howard’s first campaign ad - posted by Graham
Kevin Rudd is my local member and as a local member I reckon he’s great, no matter how I vote. He’s also very effective as a foreign affairs spokesman. But if Labor wants to get ahead, making him leader would be the least optimal choice. More
Posted by Graham at 04:13 PM
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What part of Separation of Powers doesn’t he understand? - posted by Graham
Joh Bjelke-Petersen famously couldn’t explain to the Fitzgerald Commission what the doctrine of separation of powers meant, and the whole country laughed. What would you expect from a hayseed “banana bender”? From some of the media comments that followed it... More
Posted by Graham at 08:12 AM
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November 26, 2003
The very model of a modern ex-Prime Minister - posted by Graham
Former Australian Prime Minister and life member of the Liberal Party Malcolm Fraser has joined the cyber age and posted a petition “To End Detention and Separation of Families in Australia” at www.petitiononline.com. I won’t be signing the petition, although... More
Posted by Graham at 10:41 AM
Reporting my own demise - posted by Graham
In a short biog I once described myself as an “inside observer” of the Liberal Party. While the term hadn’t been invented then, I thought of myself as being in some respects an “embedded” journalist. As we have recently seen, embedding brings its ethical challenges. More
Posted by Graham at 10:36 AM
November 25, 2003
Drag out and knock down the Drama Queens - Internet Content Providers are coming through - posted by Graham
What’s the point of rules favouring an “Australian” film industry if that industry can’t even make films that Australians want to watch? Get out of the way guys. There are plenty of other types of content and some of us who are manufacturing it are coming through. More
Posted by Graham at 06:37 PM
November 24, 2003
Web journalist and former State Presidential candidate to face Liberal Disciplinary Committee - posted by Graham
The Queensland Liberal Party State Council last night referred me and Marion Feros to the Liberal Party’s disciplinary committee under Clause 21D of the party’s constitution. More
Posted by Graham at 12:08 PM
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November 23, 2003
Camelot and Sherwood Forest - posted by Graham
Along with many Australians I winced at all the Nolan Ned Kellies stepping out of their dunnies at the opening of the Olympics, but I am a Camelotian minority in this country which sings Waltzing Matilda, a story about an itinerant thief, as its unofficial anthem. More
Posted by Graham at 09:22 PM
November 22, 2003
First reputable poll puts Hanson in her place - posted by Graham
Well, if the Libs decide to start expulsion proceedings against me tomorrow at their State Council, as threatened, maybe I should run as an independent! More
Posted by Graham at 01:08 PM
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November 21, 2003
Reality TV Revisited. - posted by peter
The first thing to say about 'reality TV' is that most of the time it could hardly be further from 'reality'. If you stick a camera there, most people behave very differently (even on Jerry Springer!). As I argue in... More
Posted by peter at 04:49 PM
Success incarnate - posted by Graham
But am I the only one to have noted the irony that the man selected to be an “idol” is a practising Christian who thanked God in his victory outburst More
Posted by Graham at 10:51 AM
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November 20, 2003
The Price of Fame - posted by peter
If ever there was an appropriate contrast to the whole Oz Idol contrived celebrity thing, it's Michael Jackson's fall from stardom into what looks like big trouble. Jackson is more talented than all the Oz Idol contestants put together, but... More
Posted by peter at 10:29 PM
| Comments (1)
John Howard follows my advice - posted by Graham
According to the Financial Review today John Howard is being an “interest rate dove”. In other words he is pressing the argument that there is no need to raise interest rates any further, just as I suggested he should (don't you love people who blow their own trumpet?). More
Posted by Graham at 03:22 PM
Fast Cars and Dead Boys - posted by peter
We are going through a little debate here in Perth about cars, speed and young men. It started with debate about how much speed does actually contribute to the accident rate. Obviously it does, but one problem is that the... More
Posted by peter at 12:30 PM
November 19, 2003
Howard, cricket and the DDs - posted by Graham
Just as there is only one Bradman, there is only one Menzies, and Howard understands that he will never be number one, but he can hope to be the Border or Waugh of his generation. More
Posted by Graham at 02:48 PM
Pauline Hanson needs a judicial inquiry - posted by Graham
This week the CMC began an inquiry into the trials and tribulations of Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge, but it is the wrong body. Hanson and Ettridge deserve a judicial inquiry. More
Posted by Graham at 11:35 AM
November 18, 2003
Free Speech - posted by peter
George Bush, who is facing a well organised protest in London when he visits soon, has a simple and effective response to such activity. As he did in Canberra when Bob Brown expressed dissent, Bush just says how much he... More
Posted by peter at 08:09 PM
More and More Like Vietnam - posted by peter
Iraq is looming as a huge problem for the US and Bush. And despite Howard sneaking away from it with talk about Australia 'moving on', the blowback may yet feature in the next election. After all, the putative new defence... More
Posted by peter at 01:28 PM
Power in Opposition - posted by peter
Gough Whitlam spent a lot of time and energy persuading the ALP before 1972 that Labor could only accomplish things in government. Being in opposition, he argued, meant being impotent. And Labor had spent a lot of years in opposition... More
Posted by peter at 01:14 PM
High taxes lower fertility - it's official - posted by Graham
But then a HECS debt is in effect an hypothecated tax on tertiary educated Australians. If HECS debts lead to lower fertility, then so too must higher taxes. The sound you can hear is a dog chasing its tail. More
Posted by Graham at 01:06 PM
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Order 39, Paul Bremer and the CPA - posted by Graham
Order 39 of the Coalition Provisional Administration in Iraq has reached cult status courtesy of an article by Naomi Klein of No Logo fame...Yet Klein’s reasoning is dubious and many of her facts wrong. More
Posted by Graham at 11:48 AM
| Comments (7)
November 15, 2003
Not a Warlike Nation - posted by peter
John Howard says Australians are not a warlike people. I don't think Australians are especially warlike, but we have a history of governments sending off Australian boys to fight wars for our imperial masters. Sudan , South Africa, World War... More
Posted by peter at 02:44 PM
November 14, 2003
The intentional fallacy - posted by Graham
The real question therefore is (a) whether this is a fallacy that Brandis perpetrated by intention, or (b) whether he has some more fundamental problems with reality. More
Posted by Graham at 02:01 PM
Labor's Foreign Policy - posted by peter
"The change of government provides a new opportunity for us to reassess a whole range of Autralian foreign policies and attitudes...the general direction of my thinking is towards a more independent Australian stance in international affairs, an Australia which will... More
Posted by peter at 11:18 AM
November 13, 2003
It’s not national security that is killing Labor, it is lack of trust. - posted by Graham
There’s a comforting Labor myth (comforting if you’re a Labor supporter anyway) that the only reason John Howard is Prime Minister is because he has “dog whistled” the xenophobic vote MoreSpend that surplus, Mark. - posted by peter
I think Mark Latham is the biggest gun in the Labor armory, but he's wrong about taxes. Labor should spend all the surplus, whatever it is, and not give it back in tax cuts (and especially not to the wealthy);... More
Posted by peter at 12:31 PM
Iraq and Vietnam - posted by peter
There are a lot of parallels betwen Iraq and Vietnam. A deeply conservative, single-mindedly pro-US prime minister sends Australian troops into an internationally unpopular war started on the basis of lies. Then it was to defeat international communism, supposedly on... More
Posted by peter at 12:16 PM
November 12, 2003
Separation of powers again - posted by Graham
I lost it just a little in an interview on Hobart radio earlier this week. Tim Cox was interviewing me about Pauline Hanson and he started talking about separation of powers. More
Posted by Graham at 02:53 PM
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Preserving Mediocrity - posted by peter
It is one of those inevitable laws of nature that in this age of white hot competition for work, it's the mediocre who have established themselves as the deciders of who gets what. Mostly this is because the people in... More
Posted by peter at 02:18 PM
Value for Money - posted by peter
It's a million degrees here in Perth, absurdly hot for this time of year, so naturally my fan decided to pack up on me. It was one of those cheap ones from Target and I'd had it a couple of... More
Posted by peter at 01:53 PM
November 11, 2003
"Marking Time" Part 2 - posted by peter
Well, a satisfactory ending to this excellent ABC program, 'Marking Time', and so what was John Doyle saying? The town of Brackley is of course both a town and Australia in microcosm. As a small country town, Doyle shows how... More
Posted by peter at 02:03 PM
Jim Cairns and Personal Responsibility - posted by peter
We recently lost one Australia's most idealistic and decent politicians, a man described by his old boss and rival Gough Whitlam as 'noble'. Jim Cairns was not perfect, and his imperfections included a capacity to lie in public, as the... More
Posted by peter at 01:50 PM
The Politics of Reality TV - posted by peter
As Graham points out, politics is everywhere, even on reality TV. However, the politics of reality TV goes far beyond who'll win Oz Idol or who gets kicked out of Big Brother. The politics of reality TV is mostly about... More
Posted by peter at 11:44 AM
The Heat is On - posted by peter
One reason why I think the global warming theorists are probably right is the way weather patterns are changing here in Perth. Here it is, still only early November, and it is going to be 39 today and forecast 40... More
Posted by peter at 11:14 AM
She's not your friend, she's your enemy Laurence - posted by Graham
Where's Ron Boswell when you need him? Is he the only Nat who understands Pauline Hanson is their predator? More
Posted by Graham at 09:33 AM
SMS GUY to 1889966 - posted by Graham
Politics is everywhere, and politics is entertainment, especially on reality TV. Take Australian Idol. The lobbying has begun in such earnest that even the On Line Opinions email forum has been subjected to spam More
Posted by Graham at 06:55 AM
| Comments (1)
November 10, 2003
Pauline's Politics - posted by peter
Right-wing populist parties have grown up all over the developed world, supposedly a response to the social and political upheaval generated by globalisation. However, although they usually embody anti-imigration and sometimes outright racist attitudes as well as many of the... More
Posted by peter at 12:47 PM
"Marking Time" - posted by peter
I watched the new ABC social comedy 'Marking Time' last night. I was just going to watch a few minutes and then change over to view the awfully slick Indiana Jones movie again, but I got caught up in it... More
Posted by peter at 12:22 PM
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Rate rise suggests federal election might be earlier rather than later. - posted by Graham
I know that this isn’t the common view (and it is certainly not the view of On Line Opinion’s newest - and only - virtual columnist Henry Thornton for whose persona and creators I have the greatest of respect) but... More
Posted by Graham at 11:40 AM
November 09, 2003
Hanson to shoot up the senate? - posted by Graham
That's one implication of the Sunday Mail's poll this morning which puports to show that Pauline Hanson would "storm senate". Maybe. More
Posted by Graham at 08:09 AM
November 07, 2003
Crimes Against Humanity Awards - posted by peter
The first CAH award (Field of Technology) goes to the inventor of the leaf blower. This ridiculous device has contributed more noise and pollution to absolutely no positive effect than probably any other invention in modern history, possibly excluding the... More
Posted by peter at 08:32 PM
Kyoto sucks, but... - posted by peter
I got a couple of interesting responses to my "Anti-Greens" piece. So I want to say that, yes, Kyoto is a joke, it does almost nothing to halt global warming because it would need to be about 10 times stronger... More
Posted by peter at 07:50 PM
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Pauline's back! - posted by peter
It is good to see Pauline back on the front pages! This is because sometimes even I forget that the mass media is about creating news, not reporting it, and having Pauline on the cover is like a big sign... More
Posted by peter at 07:30 PM
KATH & KIM KOUNTRY - posted by peter
Apparently the writers of 'Kath & Kim" have denied it is politcal satire, but I think it is the most trenchant critique of Howard's Australia on TV. Here is a bunch of self-satisfied, brain-dead cretins whose lives revolve around domestic... More
Posted by peter at 07:20 PM
And saved by Milo Minderbinder - posted by Graham
This morning’s newspapers show Pauline Hanson at her best, and most journalists at their worst. Pauline is busy doing what she does best – playing the victim – while the press is by and large improvising on her tune. Most... More
Posted by Graham at 03:48 PM
November 06, 2003
Saved by her own incompetence - posted by Graham
Pauline Hanson has been acquitted, which puts my essay in On Line Opinion in an entirely different light. I have only quickly read the judgement, but in summary it finds that while Hanson may not have thought that people signing... More
Posted by Graham at 06:43 PM
November 04, 2003
The anti-greens - posted by peter
It is an old trick of those power to try to steal the clothes of their critics and thus present themselves as the put upon underdog. This is why every conservative politician has to proclaim how much he or she hates government. More
Posted by peter at 11:34 AM
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