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Archived news for 2012 | Recent news
Nasser tells it like it is
It's not quite going from the sublime to the ridiculous - but it's close. Two speeches have captured the national headlines over the past week....
Voters strain at paying for even small carbon cuts
The carbon tax and similar measures involve us making sacrifices to forestall what the government says will be catastrophic human-induced climate...
Qantas proved right in resisting unions
Qantas announced changes to its aircraft maintenance arrangements yesterday. The result is 500 staff in Victoria will lose their jobs. The unions...
Locking people away forever because ASIO reckons
It's a scandal that administrative decisions which result in indefinite detention are made outside judicial scrutiny. In his 1885 book An...
The unhappy compromise of European 'austerity'
Has austerity worked in Europe? Well, if "austerity" means savage cuts to government spending, then there has been no austerity. Figuring out...
The politics of projection: there's a reason we can't all just get along
Politics is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder. Obviously conservatives, libertarians, progressives and environmentalists have different...
Great expectations vanish
The federal budget was entirely predictable. The dodgy accounting. The flimsy "surplus". The higher taxes on the wealthy. The bribes to the...
We can't stop climate change - it's time to adapt
The release of the Productivity Commission's draft report into climate adaptation at the end of last month could have been a spark that changed the...
Despite the tough talk, spending is on agenda
Victoria's Budget documents lay into the previous government's spending profligacy. They point out that spending has outpaced state product for...
The Rise of China is the Real End of History
War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading. - Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts Reprising Hegel's view that the Battle of Jena in 1806...