Category: Politics
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The Reverse Golden Rule
Somewhere in Australia, someone is gloating over images of a burning mosque. Before that he or she was fuming over the latest executions from the Middle East. They’re probably thinking this is how much they hate us and this is how we should hate them back. Somewhere in Australia, someone is fuming over images of […]
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Reducing Penalty Rates works against the Laws of Supply and Demand
Jenna Price in her article on penalty rates nails it with those fatal words… price signal. Penalty rates are a price signal. That signal signifies a scarce supply of labour. That scarcity occurs as not everyone is able or willing, regardless of what the Prime Minister says, of working weekends, public holidays, night-shift or 24 […]
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Malcolm Fraser’s Journey of Wisdom
I came home from school on Remembrance Day, 1975 and the Government was gone. Even at that age, I knew enough politics to be shocked and angered by the outcome. I held Fraser responsible and I was joyful in his defeat in March 1983. But time passes. Besides Shame Fraser Shame stickers peel off schoolbags. […]
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Pyne’s Folly
When Alaska was purchased, it was almost universally condemned as Seward’s folly. Funnily enough the action strengthened both Canada and the United States of America whilst weakening Russia and England. But the same cannot be said of Christopher Pyne‘s folly. To recap, to encourage the Senate to pass the latest version of his contentious university funding […]
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Bunnies in a Basket : Facilitation Before Persuasion
Keeping Bunnies in a Basket by Annabel Crabb is still one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. And today things became more complicated with Glenn Lazarus resigning from the Palmer United Party. Funnily enough, despite being political, I didn’t immediately think of politics. No, selfishly, I thought of myself. You see, managing stakeholders is […]
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Why Doesn’t Gillian Triggs Leave? #IStandWithGillianTriggs
Last night’s ABC Q and A on domestic violence and the ongoing bullying of Gillian Triggs by the LNP would appear to have little to do with each other. But to me both events are more synchronous than coincidental. Last night Q and A exposed some of the private stories of domestic violence. Today the Senate […]
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Je Suis Charlie (Freedom of Thought is Freedom of Speech)
Those who wielded the guns at Charlie Hebdo not only wanted to silence freedom of speech. They wanted to silence freedom of thought. In both they are mistaken. They don’t understand the power of the pen… Writing is expressing thoughts and feelings out loud or on paper. Writing is the storyteller’s freedom of thought expressed as […]
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To Strengthen That Heart We All Share : After the Sydney Siege
Like many others, I was following the Sydney siege crisis on and off last night through mainstream and social media. When I heard the conclusion this morning, the gunman dead and two hostages killed, the others and a policeman injured, I was numb. But only at first. It wasn’t until I walked past the Lindt Chocolate […]
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The Government of Gobbledygook
After the week in politics, I realised how much I miss Yes Minister (and Yes Prime Minister too!). I especially miss Sir Humphrey Appleby. Ostensibly Appleby often spoke in riddles,paradoxes and contradictions. His self articulation was comprised of and constituted obfuscation and circumlocution both written and verbal. Yet given the fullness of time, as he would say, it […]
Andrew James Whalan 