politics

Created
Mon, 31/07/2023 - 04:53
In recent Pearls and Irritations essays there has been a difference of opinion between myself and Ross Fox, the Director of Catholic Education, Canberra and Goulburn. I believe this difference of opinion rests with the definition of students with severe behaviours and my assertion that private schools do not enrol them. I have a determination Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 31/07/2023 - 04:54
Western economies have immovable “stagflation” that classical (include monetarist) policies won’t budge, the increasingly “bearish” market seems incapable of getting growth, investment is in retreat, unemployment is rising and people in rich countries are starving. The Great Depression was just like that, and so is the present western capitalist economy. As the pundit says, those Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 31/07/2023 - 04:57
“It is very plausible that we’ve fallen off a cliff already and don’t know it,” said one researcher. The system of Atlantic Ocean currents that drive warm water from the tropics toward Europe is at risk of collapsing in the coming decades, an analysis of 150 years of temperature data published Tuesday concluded. “The Atlantic Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 31/07/2023 - 04:58
America is Australia’s “great and powerful friend” so it matters a great deal how reliable our firmest strategic partner is. Is the US heading for a degree of political dysfunction that could blow back into its steadfastness as a leading player and an Australian ally in a multipolar Indo-Pacific? In this series, Roger Beale explores Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 31/07/2023 - 04:59
The mainstream media has once more tried to generate alarm about the presence of two relatively innocuous Chinese electronic spy ships in international waters during the latest biennial Talisman Sabre military exercise spread across the Australian mainland and offshore oceans. It involves 30,000 troops from 13 countries. Although the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi had Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 30/07/2023 - 04:52
Despite the adoption in early May this year of a new development plan by the last Timorese government, incoming Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão has declared that his government will implement the Strategic Development Plan adopted when he was Prime Minister in 2011. His calls for unity ring very hollow when he ignores the serious work Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 30/07/2023 - 04:53
Criticism of Kathryn Campbell’s appointment a year ago to a $900,000 a year job to assist with implementation of the AUKUS agreement is mostly based on hindsight following the adverse comments about her performance in DHS and DSS by the Robodebt Royal Commission. To be fair to those who made that decision, it is important Continue reading »