Oct 112019
 
Pragmatism - the road to apathy

an approach that evaluates theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application. Richard Marles, Labor’s Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Party, has come out stating that Labor needs to be ‘pragmatic’ in it’s approach to policy development between now and the next federal election. “be prepared to ignore and avoid and look past the manufactured parliamentary tests, the stunts and the wedge politics the Liberals spend so much of their time constructing for us”. “We know that sometimes that will hurt in the short term, sometimes it will sting our passionate supporters who might prefer a […]

Feb 102018
 

I don’t accept Katharine Murphy’s premise of not reporting on this sorry business, simply because she couldn’t verify the yarn. She shoots herself in the journalistic foot in at least two points in her “don’t-shoot-me-I’m-a-journalist” piece. “I’ve known Joyce, and his former wife Natalie, for ages. We all grew up in the same part of the world.” yeh….uh huh….and??? “The feedback I got in the time I had available to make inquiries was people weren’t speaking on the record.” In the time she had available??!! If that’s not a cop out, I’m not here and I’m not writing this. Let’s […]

Jun 012014
 

”There is no right to demand from your fellow Australians that just because you don’t want to do a bread delivery or a taxi run or a stint as a farmhand that you should therefore be able to rely on your fellow Australian to subsidise you”. So says Eric Abetz as he attempts to defend the conservative axing of existing newstart arrangements. Thing is, this is oh-so very typical of the conservative mindset which is, as a matter of course, out of touch with reality at the coal-face for the unemployed. Newstart doesn’t simply exist as a salve to leftist consciences, […]

Nov 092013
 

I haven’t written much in this tome since the September federal election, primarily because I couldn’t see myself embracing this radical conservative government as anything of an issue before the Parliament actually resumed. That, and the fact that I was/am too depressed for my country at what it and our society will be subject to over the next 3 years. That must change.

Apr 122013
 

Recently John Winston Howard spoke to the Lowy Institute, defending his government’s decision to take Australia to war in Iraq in 2003. This against massive national and international protests against the US-led invasion of the time, which has since proven to have been based on – at the minimum – poor intelligence. At worst, a lie perpetrated for the purposes of regime change in direct contravention of UN Charter Chapter VII. In other words, an international crime. Today we see yet another retired public servant of that era coming out with her own definitive claims that Howard lied to the […]