Like most current and former students, I don’t spend a lot of my time worrying about the minor extortion represented by student union fees, yet here I am doing a second blog post on them. Why? Probably because the issue is encouraging some of the most fanciful claims I have heard in public debate in […]

Crikey reported yesterday in its subscriber only email that: NSW Liberal leader John Brogden is ready to announce his $20 billion plan – to be called ‘Rebuild NSW’ or ‘Rebuilding NSW’, depending on who you talk to – aimed at winning the next election. With a $20 billion wish list of major public private partnerships, […]

The Four Corners site says “Cornelia Rau’s case has raised uncomfortable questions about how Australia treats people at the social margins such as the mentally ill, prisoners and asylum-seekers.” Yes it does, but it does much more than that. It questions the assumption that the bureaucracy and the professions are composed of competent and compassionate […]

Two quite different stories in today’s Courier Mail should be embarrassing to two quite different people. Alex Gilady, IOC member for Israel, is caught in colour on the front page of the paper, sitting in an outside dining area of Brisban’e Stamford hotel talking to Judy Gosper with a huge stogie in hand. (His is […]

One of the most common complaints you hear from politicians is that they have been misrepresented by the media. Generally it’s whinging, but occasionally you come across the real thing. It’s insidious when the media misrepresents what public figures are saying. Not only does it give the public a false basis on which to make […]

I never thought I would see the day when Labor members were arguing for flat rate taxation and non-means-tested welfare. But then the Voluntary Student Union debate is unusual. The arguments for keeping compulsory student unionism appear to be that it helps poorer students by making canteen food cheaper,and providing sporting and club facilities, counselling […]

Here we go again. It’s like a familiar school ground dust-up. You know that whenever the Queensland Nationals throw a punch, the Queensland Libs are going to walk straight into it. This morning’s Courier Mail provides yet another example with a story that the Liberals are demanding to be the senior party in any future […]

Rob Davis of the Queensland Law Society is opposed to using private laboratories to augment the John Tonge centre’s DNA testing. Apparently private companies couldn’t be trusted not to tamper with the evidence! Read Bernie Matthews’ series of articles about the centre and DNA testing in general on On Line Opinion, and you’d be left […]

The Courier Mail reports this morning that John Howard is going to broker a peace between the Queensland Libs and Nats. Here we go again. Not that the CM journalists appear to be aware of this. The CM reports “Mr Howard has never before personally and formally intervened in the Queensland Liberal Party division” which […]

One thread binds the riots in Redfern’s “The Block”, Palm Island and Macquarie Meadows. It’s not race, it’s public housing. In all the talk of tougher laws and social intervention, hardly anyone is dealing with the root cause. If you bang a whole lot of financially deprived people together in an environment where no-one owns […]