It is amazing how many people miss the bleeding obvious, including those who should know better. Barnaby Joyce has been salivating with glee at the prospect of being able to hold the Howard Government to ransom on rural issues. (His latest demand a 15% tax rate for rural workers.) Others sound like they have just […]

Yesterday’s Australian revealed that Federal Cabinet is to take submissions on proposed changes to the Child Support regime. I don’t have time to send them a paper-based submission, so here are my random digitally produced thoughts. First thing is that I don’t see how anyone living below the average wage with an ex-wife who does […]

In a recent post I congratulated Queensland Senator Brett Mason on earning a PhD whilst being a full-time senator for Queensland. The post attracted a couple of very heated responses, suggesting that I had hit a raw nerve. While no-one denies anyone the right to further educate themselves part-time while working full-time, an issue could […]

Could Vivian Alvarez receive $2 million damages for her wrongful deportation? According to this morning’s ABC Radio National Law Report former HREOC Commissioner and Federal Court Judge, Marcus Einfeld, believes she could, at a rate of $1,500 per day (net of GST?). This story in the SMH suggests it might not be so cut and […]

What big idea would you pitch to the Prime Minister and the Premier if you were caught in a lift with them for five minutes? That’s the challenge put to me, and a number of other panellists, by Eidos, “a consortium of Queensland universities, government and non-government agencies or statutory bodies committed to improving education […]

Beazley’s budget reply is better economics than the government’s budget, but more to the point it is better politics. Howard holds government in Australia by assembling a coalition of the well-off and the working poor. The last group tend to vote Labor, and continue to do so at a state level, but Howard has hived […]

The best budget analysis I’ve found this morning is not in the pages of the daily broadsheets, but rather in two documents prepared by Saul Eslake, the ANZ’s Chief Economist. His Budget Report (pdf 88kb) starts like this: Budget 2005-06: The Magic Pudding In a post election year there was no pressure on the Government […]

Lynton Crosby is a great self-publicist. This morning on ABC Radio he was given credit for the 1995 Queensland State Coalition Campaign. There are a lot of things he has done, but that wasn’t one of them. He’s not alone in getting undue credit for that campaign. After the election Kelly Gee, the National Party’s […]

I’m sure it’s just coincidence, but Pru Goward, Federal Age Discrimination Commissioner and wife of John Howard’s biographer, is running a seminar on age discrimination in the workforce. Has she issued an invitation to Peter Costello to attend? Pru will be speaking, as will Philip Ruddock. Ruddock could also be sending a subtle message to […]

Wednesday 11th May will be a significant day for Margaret Krause. It is the day she will appear in front of what she and others refer to as the “Star Chamber” – the Queensland Liberal Party’s Discplinary Committee. The committee has had a revamp since it interviewed Marion Feros, a former challenger for the presidency […]