Queensland politics – the state of play
There are some interesting tidbits around today about where Queensland politics is at – at a point in time when the serious business of politics has started (at least for the ALP) but where I think the election is still [...]
Millennia of drought
More cheery news from climate scientists! A new study published in Proceedings of the (US) National Academy of Sciences conducts a little thought experiment. What happens if anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gas emissions stop tomorrow? You’d hope that it might [...]
The real Peter Garrett question
Today’s Sydney Morning Herald carries an article on the travails of Peter Garrett since becoming a member of the Labor Party, and in particular since becoming a member of the Federal Cabinet, as he has to take ownership of policies [...]
National debate on our national day
I’m inclined to think that Kevin Rudd sank to new depths of populist patheticness when he replied to Australian of the Year Mick Dodson’s call for a debate on the timing of our national day with “no”. There was all [...]
Corporatism redux?
There’s a bit of chat around the shop today that one of the mooted new stimulus measures the Rudd government might undertake – bringing forward tax cuts and LITO changes for low income earners – could be a way of [...]
Cronulla Day?
What’s with this? In the Sydney suburb of Manly, hundreds of youths draped in “Aussie pride” livery wore slogans declaring “f–k off we’re full” as they smashed car windows and ran up the famous Corso targeting non-white shop keepers. A [...]
Gerry Harvey as leading indicator?
Anyone who’s worked in a large public sector organisation will know how “efficiency dividends” work. Or don’t work. Or work in unintended ways – by destroying the capacity to do what your actual main purpose is. There’s a bit of [...]
Guest post by Andrew Crook: In a class of their own – Obama staffers and social change
In the 2005 “dramatic documentary” The American Ruling Class, big oil heir turned Harper’s editor turned armchair socialist Lewis Lapham narrates the career choices confronting a group of shiny young Yale graduates. With their future at the crossroads, Lapham asks, [...]
Patriotism ludicrous partisanship, the last refuge of Quadrant
I’ve made the case before that the unintended upshot of the Katherine Wilson hoax on Quadrant was to expose that tawdry publication as a complete joke. So perhaps its continued Australia Council funding can be justified as a source of [...]
We've always been at war with Eastasia
A further sequel to the LNP/Courier-Mail early election mania – Springborg backer Clive Palmer’s 18 year old son, Michael, who’s the LNP candidate for the safe Labor seat of Nudgee, has had a bit more publicity for saying dumb stuff [...]
Lazy Sunday long weekend! (Lunar new year edition)
Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all! <img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2256617555_f87b2474d8.jpg" Chinese New Year in Sydney. Image courtesy of yewenyi at flickr [...]
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