History repeats with good governance in retreat
As a continent that interacts with the rest of the world, Australia cannot escape depressions, recessions or pandemics. However, colonial (before 1901), state and federal governments can make such disasters worse than should be the case. The depression of the early 1890s, the Great Depression of the 1930s, the recession of the early 90s and [...]
Issue 513
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG ISSUE – NO. 513 11 September 2020 * * * * The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Between November 1997 and October 2015 “Gerard Henderson’s [...]
Liberalism after the Pandemic – Tim Wilson
Buy Tim Wilson's new book The New Social Contract here
Truth unmasked: No, we’re not all in this together
Last week there was a question in Melbourne. And this week, across the Pacific, came an answer from San Francisco. On August 28, inner-city Melbourne-based ABC presenter Jonathan Green put out the following tweet towards the end of the Republican National Convention: “Watching trump — louche, glib, a shambling slob, slumped at the lectern, mouthing [...]
Issue 512
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG ISSUE – NO. 512 4 September 2020 * * * * The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Between November 1997 and October 2015 “Gerard Henderson’s [...]
Grim power still in symbols of past
Perhaps it’s the advent of social media with the abundance of emojis and the like. Or maybe we live at a time so contemporary that there is scant historical awareness. Whatever the reason, communism and its past and present followers receive a relatively good media, with the exception of today’s Chinese Communist Party. And fascism [...]
Issue 511
GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG ISSUE – NO. 511 28 August 2020 * * * * The inaugural issue of “Gerard Henderson’s Media Watch” was published in April 1988 – over a year before the first edition of the ABC TV Media Watch program went to air. Between November 1997 and October 2015 “Gerard Henderson’s [...]
Labor faces a divergence between its old and new base
When the Australian Labor Party splits it does so over policy — not personalities. So bitter are these disputes that those who have left, or been expelled from, Labor are invariably labelled “rats”. On Thursday, The Australian broke the news that Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon had told the Blenheim Partners podcast that Labor could divide in much [...]