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Farmers feeling the squeeze of marketplace realities
We are a pessimistic bunch. Apparently no-one will win out of the supermarket price wars. The farmers will lose: Nick Xenophon claimed that...
It's not sexist to be critical of Julia Gillard's performance
Political commentary has some fairly regular and predictable trends. In an average electoral cycle the consumer of political news is almost...
Scientific research drowning in a sea of alarmism
Last week, almost 400 people attended a public meeting in Newcastle to learn about the scientific evidence that underpins sea-level change. The...
Who'll drag us free of our heavy debt burden?
While most Australians were tanning themselves at the beach during their summer breaks, the federal opposition and the Gillard government traded...
Renewable energy rules lose traction
Energy policy in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries is spurred by concerns that gas and oil are becoming...
Danger of new thickets of gas regulation
Peter Roberts' "Globalised gas pricing has local costs" (Talking Point, January 30) applauds the commonwealth's National Energy Security...
Yet another flipping flop
Credibility is draining away from Julia Gillard as if from an open wound. The effect of a year of mounting mistrust in the nation over the carbon...
GOP's first-rate foreign policy chaos
Distinguished US commentator Walter Lippmann once wrote what is arguably the single most important sentence written on foreign policy: "Without the...
The true origins of anti-paternalism
Opposition to government paternalism wasn't always a conservative or libertarian thing. Indeed, the use of the word "nanny" to describe state...
Lost in translation
As school returns for 2012, there are now more students learning Latin than Chinese. Once we take out Chinese-born students and those who speak...