It’s the biggest story next door but barged offside by the Australian media for the Trump indictment and the ‘No’. There’s another factor: Soccer’s not our national game. But it is Indonesia’s, and the reaction to the loss of the Republic hosting the Under-20 World Cup because Israeli youth will play is showing the Great Continue reading »
politics
President Biden has resorted to extortion to destroy one of China’s leading digital companies ByteDance, the owner of the highly successful social media group, TikTok. Strongly backed by Congress, Biden insists ByteDance must be sold to an American company, or he will ban it in the US where it has 140 million monthly users. The Continue reading »
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but has ASPI’s China-like propaganda model run its course? There he was last week, ASPI’s pro-U.S. executive director with a penchant for wearing CIA cufflinks, Justin Bassi, speaking at his first big event since taking the helm a year ago. Younger and, some might argue, a Continue reading »
The Albanese Government’s flagship housing legislation has stalled in the Senate, with the PM alarmingly flagging a risk that the package might be abandoned until the next election. To understand what’s going on here we need to wind the clock back to the ALP’s platform taken to the 2022 election. Let’s remember that, when it Continue reading »
Australia’s health system is under significant pressure. The Labor government has inherited a system with declining bulk-billing rates for GP visits. These fell from almost 90 per cent of all GP attendances bulk billed in December 2021 to just over 80 per cent a year later. Significant workforce shortages remain in rural and remote Australia, Continue reading »
Two recent news stories say it all. On the 4th of April the Sydney Morning Herald carried a report of an interview with Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, in which he claimed that Australia was a vital partner in the organisation’s campaign to confront the security challenges posed by China and in particular Continue reading »
‘I believe the time for the Voice has come’. With those words from the Liberal MP Julian Leeser announcing his resignation as shadow minister for Indigenous Affairs, the path to a successful referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament just got a lot clearer, as did Peter Dutton’s dire miscalculation in opposing it. Leeser is Continue reading »
Scientists and public health officials didn't do a great job of explaining Covid vaccine efficacy. Laziness? Arrognace? Obfusction?
A shaggy dog story on trying to get the IRS to accept cash....
Opposition leader (for now) Peter Dutton’s plan to unite the country by destroying the Coalition is coming along nicely. With news today that his shadow immigration and indigenous affairs Minister Julian Lesser was standing down over the party’ position on... Read More ›