What if the mining industry backs down?
Such is the impact of the 24 hour news cycle and the eternal present it creates that commentators seem unable to contemplate what comes next, and seem to assume that what has happened before will always happen again. So we’ve [...]
Boring freight and exciting high-speed rail
A couple of months ago, the Australian Greens got a minor splash in the media with their proposal for a $10 million feasibility study of an inter-capital (which, at least initially, would presumably mean Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney) high speed rail link. I [...]
Say hi to your target audience for me
So, Electronic Frontiers Australia launched an online campaign last week asking opponents of the clean feed to tell their mums about the filter. Quite a few mums found that patronising and sexist, and said so. Fair enough. Then Geordie Guy [...]
The Liberals and economic management
Peter Martin details evidence given by Treasury at a recent Senate Estimates Committee hearing, on the latest GDP numbers and the contribution of the stimulus:
The Greens as a social democratic and left party?
In a lot of the discussion here and elsewhere about the drift of ALP voters to The Greens, there’s an assumption that The Greens represent a purer left alternative to Labor. That assumption might be a tad simplistic, if Tad [...]
Anti-corruption commission for Victoria
ABC News: The architect of Victoria’s new anti-corruption body has defended the complexity of the commission. The Brumby Government will establish a Victorian Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission, after years of opposition to such a body. The commission was a key [...]
Chucking away our meal ticket
Is there any nation on Earth that agonizes quite so much over tourism ad campaigns as we do? Here’s the latest effort, “There’s Nothing Like Australia”. For those that can’t bear to watch, it’s the same collection of cliches that’s [...]
The RSPT and the polls
Possum has taken an intriguing look at changes in public support for the RSPT, as measured by three pollsters. He concludes that the mining industry and the opposition have succeeded only in picking off “low hanging fruit”, not in translating [...]
So what if royalties (and the RSPT) are operating costs – not taxes? Guest post by John Davidson
John Davidson is a process engineer who worked in the construction and mining industries in various locations around Australia for many years. Earlier discussion on the RSPT is here and here. Last weekend Ross Gittens argued that royalties are operating [...]
Democratise or die: the future of the ALP
One of the ironies of the British election, as I noted at the time, was that a campaign and a result which seemed to portend an end to politics as usual brought forth a reactionary result – the coalescence of [...]
Newspoll ALP 51-49 (Greens on 16 primary)
The latest Newspoll is out, with an ALP primary of 35, the Coalition on 42 and The Greens on a record breaking 16. With preferences nominally allocated as they were at the last election, that translates to a 2PP in [...]
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