JASMINE’S PLIGHT – THE UNITED STATES AS A SCARED COUNTRY Cate Blanchett and the American Nightmare Stone the Crows! Cate Blanchett now explains the State of the Union. At least the bits about inequality, where President Barack Obama seemed inspired by Ms Blanchett’s portrayal of a psycho-socialite gone broke in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine . [...]
KEVIN ANDREWS’ FREE MARRIAGE ADVICE – MORE THAN PEOPLE PAY FOR IT Stone the Crows! The Minister for Social Services has decided to review the “unsustainable” growth in the welfare system.[i] This amounts to him pinning a sign reading “kick me” to his political bottom, which is what Labor duly did, with Jenny Macklin saying [...]
FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS – SOME GOOD NEWS Stone the crows! There we were thinking free trade had gone the way of zombies, with ministers at meetings just walking into walls and eating officials’ brains. But it seems the trade triplets bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral agreements are not not-dead, in fact they are looking surprisingly sprightly. [...]
ECONOMIC GROWTH – WHY IT’S ESSENTIAL Stone the crows! Suddenly it’s the 1970s with talk of the limits to growth. Readers who experienced that unhappy decade (hair and flairs, disco and doomsday – shudder) will remember the Club of Rome’s warning it was all over for capitalism because we would run out of food and [...]
JOE HOCKEY'S CHOICE: HIGHER ENTITLEMENTS OR LOWER TAXES? Stone the crows! We have no idea how to pay for what we want but can’t afford. While he may not appreciate the compliment from the likes of the Crows, John Quiggin is a serious academic economist who also applies scholarship to social commentary, as in last [...]
Emotional intelligence plus political experience equals political success. Stone the crows! Politics has gone all quiet. But for irate Indonesians, Tony Abbott would have already achieved what Malcolm Fraser aspired to, sport on the front page of the papers for want of politics interesting enough to report. Perhaps it only seems quiet because we are [...]
THE CASE FOR FAMILY COUNSELLING CENTRES Stone the crows! There’s a case for the government sticking its bib in people’s marriages! In 2005, then Attorney-General Philip Ruddock allocated $336m over four years to a chain of 65 family relationship centres, store front services where people could get advice on holding relationships together and resolving child [...]
THE PRICE OF DRUG REFORM The Crows stoned? Well they’re not, but they do wonder whether Australia should follow the many chilled-out Americans and make marijuana if not universally legal then at least openly available. As in California, where it was legalised for medicinal use in the middle 1990s and where it seems just about [...]
Need a speech or an opinion piece – call Stephen Matchett 0417 469 093 RESEARCH PUBLISHING – THE NEW CHALLENGES Stone the crows! When it comes to research, you don’t get what you pay for. Open Access week is just over and I’m guessing the big journal publishers hoped you missed it.[i] Understandably so, because they [...]
RBA GOVERNOR & THE VALUE OF AUSTRALIA’S BRITISH HERITAGE Stone the crows! The Brits bequeathed us the killer apps for prosperity and identity – which will help as we grow closer to Beijing. The Crows are just old enough to remember when the left walloped Westminster as well as Washington, when the British ruling class [...]
