Labor leader Mark Latham is talking about reforming federal parliament. He wants an independent speaker in the House of Representatives and an end to Dorothy Dix’s. Well, that would make a start, anyway.
Federal parliament is a scandal, which would be much more of a problem if it had much […] Continue Reading…

“Fifty million dead’, now there’s a headline. That’s how many chickens are estimated to have been killed in an effort to stop the Asian bird flu spreading. Interestingly, it is the same number of human beings who died in the great flu pandemic of 1918-19. No less than three […] Continue Reading…

Well, apparently we are having a federal election campaign. And of course it will be another of those presidential style contests – Iron Mark versus Honest John. PM Howard and Labor leader Latham are stomping around opposite ends of the country selling their particular political products, mostly it seems […] Continue Reading…

The early indications that US politics was undergoing some kind of transformation, thanks to George Bush Jr, are diminishing as the selection of the Democrat presidential candidate proceeds. The argument was that Bush so polarised America (even many Republicans hate him) that it has stimulated US politics generally and […] Continue Reading…

In his opening speech of the ALP federal convention, Mark Latham announced that he has appointed Lindsay Tanner, Shadow Minister for Telecommunications, as new Shadow Minister for Community Relationships. Tanner is in the ALP left – indeed he spoke strongly against the proposed asylum seeker policy put forward by […] Continue Reading…

Until recently I taught a unit in Futures Studies. One of the things you learn in such a ‘discipline’ is never to predict.
So here is my prediction: before the year is out, George Bush Jr, Tony Blair and John Howard will all be out of office.
But here’s the big […] Continue Reading…

The ALP national Conference was always going to be a major test for Mark Latham as new leader. What we have seen so far is Latham the Labor leader as opposed to Latham the ‘Third Way’ theorist.
Like many others, I have not been excited by Latham’s efforts at adapting […] Continue Reading…

Bird flu – it doesn’t have the apocalyptic sound of SARS or AIDS or any of the other acronyms that made you wonder if this is what Nostradamus was on about, but it might just be the disease that makes us face the new realities of the 21st century.
SARS […] Continue Reading…

I live near the Swan River where each Australia Day there is a ‘sky-show’ of fireworks at night. It is mostly an advertising stunt by various Perth media, but it regularly attracts some 300,000 plus people on the night. Nothing else approaches this kind of crowd in Perth.
I missed […] Continue Reading…

It looks increasingly likely that Senator John Kerry will win the Democrat nomination for President of the US. Senator Joseph Lieberman and General Wesley Clark will test their chances in New Hampshire, and Senator John Edwards is still around the mark. Congressman Dick Gephardt is out, and the other […] Continue Reading…