politics

Created
Mon, 20/02/2023 - 04:50
Difference is intrinsically good, a vital force behind creativity and innovation, and an essential ingredient for international competition. It becomes a negative force only when people or governments try to impose those differences on others, and this is not something China has done. I have a chronic, deep-seated discomfort with US President Joe Biden’s call for Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 20/02/2023 - 04:53
In 2007, at age forty-four, I stood as a Senate candidate for Victoria in the federal election. In 2011, I moved into a shared support accommodation facility, where I suffered a severe loss of choice and control. Disability can be progressive. Supportive regimes for those subjected to physiological deterioration need to be progressive too. They Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 20/02/2023 - 04:54
“Lifters” and “leaners”; “makers” vs “takers”; “strivers” and the “skivers”. The language may be different but the pejorative sentiment around the welfare state is similar, be it in Australia, the United States or the United Kingdom. However, it is highly misleading. Government payments to people who are unemployed are a fraction of the spending on Continue reading »
Created
Mon, 20/02/2023 - 04:59
The greatest enemy of economic development is war. If the world slips further into global conflict, our economic hopes and our very survival could go up in flames. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the hands of the Doomsday Clock to a mere 90 seconds to midnight. The world’s biggest economic loser in Continue reading »
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 04:54
The Liberal Party has made an extraordinary intervention into the parliamentary inquiry on the conduct of the 2022 Australian election. After every federal election the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) of the Australian Parliament holds an inquiry into the conduct of the election and matters arising. The work of JSCEM has been credited Continue reading »