We know Australia’s got a problem when a cautious, technical, energy market operator says: “Imminent and urgent investment is needed, or the reliability of the NEM [National Electricity Market] will be at risk.” More broadly, Australia’s energy transition is at risk. But the federal government has the challenge and the opportunity to get things back Continue reading »
Government
When Labor next loses state office in NSW, it will almost certainly be entirely its own fault. One might have expected that the party’s twelve years in the wilderness would have taught it something about restraint, and about the risks of reverting to its ancient, and traditional ways. Not a bit of it. Not yet Continue reading »
When governments first assume the reins of power, an air of optimism accompanies them. They will be different from their erring predecessors, adopt a more conciliatory approach to opponents, listen to various positions and develop policy with mild sagacity. Within a few months, the air palls. Old practices reaffirm themselves. When it was elected in Continue reading »
With the escalation of natural disasters in the last five years due to climate change it is now obvious – all too painfully obvious – that we have let our kids down, that we have robbed them of a decent future. The world is on track in our lifetimes – even in the lifetimes of Continue reading »
With the date of the Voice referendum now having been set for 14 October, all households will have received a pamphlet outlining the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ case. Australians should understand that these pamphlets have not been officially fact checked. An attempt at fact checking the two cases by The Guardian is worth reading but I Continue reading »
The Australian government has reneged on its 1984 commitment to the UN “that it had no intention of making the Cocos (Keeling) Islands into a strategic military base or of using the Territory for that purpose.” Will the Labor government ignore the warnings of the late Richard Woolcott and make the Cocos Islands a militarised Continue reading »
The major barrier to health reform is the power of providers or at least their assumed power. Recently the Australian Pharmacy Guild told us that 665 pharmacies would close if the Government proceeded with its 60 day dispensing policy. It was all widely exaggerated doom. Fortunately the Minister for Health stood his ground. It was Continue reading »
In the last few months events have occurred globally which indicate an astonishing, but not unexpected, acceleration in the pace of climate change. The world has now entered a new era of extremely dangerous climate impacts which are already proving catastrophic in many parts of the world. The factors which hitherto have constrained warming, such Continue reading »
More than 180 human rights and legal experts, social justice organisations and First Nations community groups have signed the open letter below condemning the Queensland Government for overriding the state’s Human Rights Act to lock children in the state’s police watch houses indefinitely. The letter is addressed to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark Ryan, Minister Continue reading »
There is a curious Chinese saying that cautions against “calling a stag, a horse”. As the Qin empire disintegrated, the wily Prime Minister Zhao Gao fed the second Qin dynasty Emperor (221-206 BC) false reports of imperial military victories. Lining up all the ministers at court, Zhao showed them a stag and demanded that they Continue reading »