Ron Radford, the newish director of the Australian National Gallery, has come up with a not entirely logical proposal to fund its growth. He suggests that as “masterpieces go up in value at a much faster rate than shares or property,” 2% of the Government’s $16 billion Future Fund […] Continue Reading…
October 13, 2005 | Graham
Australian National Gallery has a deal for Mac Bank
Posted by Graham at 9:30 am |
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October 12, 2005 | Graham
If taking donations from property developers is a sin…
Given that property developers and Queensland politics are so entwined I’ve been fascinated by the way the state government has set the CMC onto certain Gold Coast City Councillors. They may well be corrupt, but if they are, they wouldn’t be on their pat malone, and there could be […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:11 am |
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October 11, 2005 | Graham
Intelligently designed global warming
Pat Robertson has a different spin on recent natural catastrophes – they are a sign that the end of the world is nigh. Or is it so different?
Robertson’s outpourings can be characterised in a number of ways. One is as an example of “confirmatory bias” – the tendency to […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:17 am |
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October 05, 2005 | Graham
High tide of fear
One of the most frequent left critiques of John Howard is that he has created a climate of fear in Australia. What makes this observation interesting is that when we survey vast numbers of people we find that those who vote for Howard are most likely to be optimists, […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:32 am |
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October 04, 2005 | Graham
Secondo Amigo
With Councillor Tim Nicholls winning Liberal Party preselection by two votes for the state seat of Clayfield I now have a 66.66% success rate on my prediction that Santoro, Caltabiano and Nicholls would all attempt to enter state politics at the next election. Actually it’s really 100% because I […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:34 am |
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September 29, 2005 | Graham
Bligh and Beanland
The only thing Bligh and Beanland have in common is the first letter of their names, and the fact that they both figure in issues I wanted to mention today.
Beanland
Bundaberg Hospital Inquiry Head Geoff Davies has indicated that he is likely to make an interim finding critical of both […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:08 am |
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September 27, 2005 | Graham
“Coalition of Equals” could usher in Captain Bligh
I’ve been ruminating about the likely result of the new Queensland Coalition which, according to its proponents is really a “partnership”, and I think its result might be Queensland’s first female Labor premier.
My thought processes run like this. The Coalition agreement, that is really a partnership, isn’t going to […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 8:07 pm |
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September 26, 2005 | Graham
Queensland “Coalition” better on inspection, but not good
The Liberal Party should have gone into the coalition negotiations determined to ensure that whatever happened they had the run of the metropolitan areas, the National Party the bush, and they shared the regional areas between them. Queensland politics will be out of joint until the non-Labor side of […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:37 pm |
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September 26, 2005 | Graham
Coalition of equals shows Liberals not equal to the task
The Queensland Liberals and Nationals today announced the formation of a new coalition. The “Coalition of Equals” as they call it in their joint press release wasn’t a good result for the Liberals and robs them of much of the momentum that they gained by winning the Redcliffe and […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 5:56 pm |
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September 23, 2005 | Graham
ANU and QUT reveal the real reason Labor lost in 2004
Mark Latham thought that Labor lost in 2001 because of the small target strategy, and in 2004 because of…well, whatever…it was it wasn’t his fault, or not much of it anyway. Research by ANU and QUT reported in The Australian this morning provides a better idea. It also partly […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:59 am |
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