There was a story last week about how the new government has issued a directive that major statutory agencies (for example the CSIRO, ANSTO and Questacon) will not issue any “strategic media releases which relate to the Government’s key messages” unless they have been vetted by the government – specifically theContinue Reading
The City of Sydney recently engaged “international urban design expert Jan Gehl” to perform a “public spaces public life” study on Sydney with the aim of reviewing how people use the city of Sydney, living, working, playing, and make some recommendations as to how to improve it. He reported toContinue Reading
We had a small party at our place for the election last night. I realised how well I’d chosen the guest list when the people that didn’t know each other started comparing notes on how much they loved Antony Green. This was the preparation I did for the evening: TheContinue Reading
A friend of mine pointed out to me (you really should get your own blog, Brian!) that the discussion of who is a better economic manager by reference to absolute levels of interest rates misses some fairly fundamental points about how much is inside the control of the people managingContinue Reading
Michael Duffy, in the SMH last week (although it seems to have disappeared from their website), mentioned in passing how many issues seemed to be setting the older generation against the younger – global warming, the aged pension, housing policy, even economic policy – the interests of the older generationContinue Reading
I’ve always been one of the 4% of voters (Antony Green) who voted “below the line” in the Senate*. Every person who admits to sharing this obscure habit always comes back to one reason, “I wanted to vote [XXX] last”. So this year, with the release of the Senate ballotContinue Reading
Paul Frijters at Club Troppo has a post up about maternity leave – a disucssion of the recent policy announcement from the Greens and the Democrats to guarantee 14 weeks of maternity leave (at minimum wage) and the pros and cons from an economic perspective. I commented there that IContinue Reading
I live in the electorate of North Sydney, a very safe Liberal seat on Sydney’s North Shore (10% swing required for Labor to win). It has been held by Independents in the past (the legendary Ted Mack), but there isn’t one around at the moment with the right level ofContinue Reading
An alcoholic, manic-depressive, plagued with self doubt, he spent all but three years of his working life working for the unions before being elected to parliament. Alternatively, the man regarded by many as Australia’s greatest leader – wartime Prime Minister John Curtin. After watching the miniseries Curtin six months ago,Continue Reading
With APEC visiting this week, my team took the opportunity to dress in casual clothes. The theory is that we are less likely to be pelted with fruit by ratbag protesters. My team, as befits a bunch of actuaries, is not much into dressing especially well. So the chance to dressContinue Reading
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