Could there be good reasons for rusted on Labor voters to change their vote to Liberal this election? And if there are, what does it say for the likely poll result, and the responses currently being garnered by pollsters? Former Queensland Council of Unions President Dave Harris is quoted in today’s Courier Mail which says: [...]
Continue Reading...Posts in ‘Australian Politics’
A powerful argument for dumping federal Labor
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013Fine cuts: some feedback on the public service
Thursday, September 6th, 2012I haven’t been overwhelmed with responses on public service overmanning, but I’ve had a couple I want to pass on. If you want to add to this, please either leave a comment below, or go to my survey by clicking here. Jane, who has experience of how short term contracts and the recruitment agencies interact [...]
Continue Reading...Newman hikes workers’ compo insurance 23.4% for video stores
Friday, June 29th, 2012If the Queensland government is interested in privatising anything, they could do worse than running their ruler over WorkCover. They must be sensitive about their latest price hike – I’ve never before had a phone call from WorkCover to inform me that my premiums are about to rise. Perhaps they are super sensitive in that [...]
Continue Reading...Why 20K Queensland public servants could lose their jobs
Thursday, June 28th, 2012I’m on Steve Austin’s ABC radio program tomorrow along with former Queensland Labor A-G Cameron Dick. Not sure what we are going to talk about, but there’s a good chance public service cuts will be on the list. I’ve been wondering how Campbell Newman has reached the conclusion that 20,000 public servants have to go, [...]
Continue Reading...Newman’s feat not so unique
Sunday, March 25th, 2012There is precedent for Campbell Newman contesting a seat he as a potential premier when he is not a sitting memebr according to historian, and former Queensland Attorney-General, Denver Beanland. Campbell Newman standing for Premier of Queensland as Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal National Party outside of parliament is not unique, as has been reported. [...]
Continue Reading...Carr’s first test
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012Barack Obama has been telling the Iranians that “Yes we can” and that the US will take military action against them. I’m not sure whether the “we” includes “us” as in Australian, but I hope it doesn’t. While there were arguable reasons for going into Iraq and Afghanistan, there aren’t any with Iran. At least [...]
Continue Reading...The boundaries of legitimate protest
Thursday, January 26th, 2012As far as I can tell from the news reports, Julia Gillard wasn’t subjected to any actual violence today (unless you count being dragged to the car by her coppers), but we’ve never seen a Prime Minister being dragged by security like that before. It is reasonable to infer that there was a serious risk [...]
Continue Reading...So this is what desperation looks like
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012Anna Bligh has called the state election for March 24, one week before the council elections were due to be held. As a result the government (she) is going to reschedule the council elections until late April early May. This is not just a cynical political ploy, but it is desperate too as well as [...]
Continue Reading...Slippery slopes of Church and State
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011One of the most frequent objections I heard to Peter Hollingworth’s appointment as Governor-General was that it was a breach of the doctrine of separation of powers. This was a nonsense argument as he was appointed in his secular persona, not as a priest, but many intelligent people made it. It was also a self-serving [...]
Continue Reading...Occupy – a vacant lot
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011If a field full of Irishmen is called a Paddy field, what do you call a field full of Australians? A vacant lot. Boom boom. It’s an old joke and it’s what comes to mind when I see reporting of Occupy Melbourne, or Occupy Sydney, or Occupy Wherever. They’ve had over a week to work [...]
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