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Archived news for October 2008 | Recent news
From beggars to choosers
Tasmanians are the poorest Australians. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics data, Tasmanians have a per capita gross state product of just...
Rudd's questionable call
Maybe Kevin Rudd has a sense of humour after all. Or maybe events are getting to him. Or maybe he genuinely believes that he should be left alone...
A misguided desire to save the bush
There has been much written about Australia's national character emerging from a bush ethos - the idea that a specifically Australian outlook...
Train driven through rights
Treasurer Wayne Swan has added his own voice in support of a High Court decision requiring BHP Billiton to provide rival iron ore miner Fortescue...
Only our government failed to predict the crisis
It has been said that those who lack the imagination of disaster are doomed to be surprised by the world. Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan obviously don't...
Billions lost as SA finances melt away
IN the modern economy, everything is interconnected. Poor financial regulation in the U.S. leads to a meltdown in their housing market; banks...
Clamp on conflict of interest may hobble sound judgement
Do we want our councillors to be even less interested in local government policy than they already are? As potential councillors submit their...
Henry policies must be in public gaze
At the Senate estimates hearing on October 22, Treasury secretary Ken Henry expressed his preference that the government's bank deposit guarantee...
Depression logic pushes fast cash into the economy
Anna Schwartz co-wrote with Milton Friedman the signature piece of work on money and economic stability. Now 92 and still working, she recalls that...
New IR law contains unnecessary risks
So far the Rudd government's Forward with Fairness policy has been debated in the context of what it is not. That is, it's not Work Choices. Also...