Category: Uncategorized

In four weeks the first Budget of the fifth Labor Government since World War II will be brought down. The first four tackled the big medical elements of social security. Chifley did the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Whitlam did universal health insurance. Hawke-Keating reinstated universal health insurance after Fraser cruelled it. Rudd-Gillard introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Now Albanese should follow the pattern by reversing the Howard Government’s cruelling of Medicare and by introducing universal dental coverage.

Continue reading “Labor should fix medicare and dental”

The death of the Queen and Morrison’s multiple ministries should have, but have not, made us question precisely what is the role of the monarchy and the Governor-General in the Australian polity.

The black-dress, black-tie and hushed-tone telecasts; the multi-page special newspaper wrap arounds; and the on-the ground displays of gold braid, medals and mo(u)rning coats, have clouded the essential questions: What do they do? What are they supposed to do?

Continue reading “What does the GG do?”

It is an uncoordinated, off-the-rails, unfair, loophole-ridden schemozzle. It is Australia’s tax system, of course.

Continue reading “Tax system off the rails”

Much has been made of the influence that the Teacher’s Pet podcast might have had over the bringing to trial of Christopher Dawson and over the trial itself.

One argument was that the podcast had denied Dawson a jury trial because potential jurors and witnesses would be influenced by the podcast which has been listened to by 60 million people worldwide since it went online in 2018.

Continue reading “Dawson case shows juries unnecessary”

Last week was Sugar Awareness Week. A lot of sugar; not much awareness. Australia is lagging hopelessly behind on dealing with the obesity-diabetes epidemic, most of which can be put down to too much sugar in the diet, particularly through sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages and breakfast cereals.

The amount of sugar in these on the supermarket shelves is, literally, sickening. Some of the drinks have eight teaspoons of sugar in a small can. Some of the cereals are 20 per cent sugar.

Continue reading “Killing us sweetly . . .”

Hi Everyone

I am about to make a complete goose of myself, so I am asking for your help to make sure that does not happen.

This is the story. The Captain Cook Highway between Cairns and Port Douglas vies with the Great Ocean Road in Victoria for being the most beautiful drive in Australia.

Well, on September 11 they are going to close it off to traffic for the Gran Fondo cycling event. For purely selfish reasons so I can cycle this road without traffic I put myself down for the 50km section of the event (just one way; some idiots do it both ways on the same day).

I went through all of the online bumf saying that I would not sue the organisers if an alien creature infiltrated the cogs of my bike’s gears or if I caught monkey pox from a cane toad en route etc etc.

But then one of those infuriating online things happened which said I could not register for the event without nominating a charity to take proceeds from sponsors.

I was going to just self-donate $10 and be done with it, but all the donations and money raised would be made public, so my effort would be pretty weak and humiliating.

I even thought of staging an accident on a different day causing the cops to block the road so I could ride it traffic free, but that seemed a little extreme, and possibly illegal.

So I am reduced to pleading for a few donations to make my ride respectable. The charity I chose was the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Sure, if the idiots who govern us allow 2.5 degrees of global warming nothing will save the reef.

But recent work and evidence shows that re-seeding and regeneration are improving the reef substantially. Importantly, if the idiots who govern us somehow manage to limit global warming to 2 degrees or less there will be some hope for the reef.

That hope will be greatly improved with human intervention with coral seeding. It is happening now. It is labour intensive. Volunteers go out and “seed” damaged sites with new coral. It is promising but not guaranteed.

So I (and the rest of the civilised world) would be grateful if you could contribute to the saving of the reef and the saving of my reputation as not just being a selfish turd who just wants a traffic-free cycle ride on the most scenic route in Australia but as someone who is concerned about Australia’s natural and environmental heritage.

It does not have to be much. One cent a k is just 50 cents, but how about 10c a k for $5 or 20c a k for $10.

And I hope that before too long I will join one of the coral-seeding expeditions and I will report back. That is if my seven-decade-old body survives the cycle trip.

The donation link is here.

https://portdouglasgranfondo22.grassrootz.com/great-barrier-reef-foundation/crispin-hull/donate?utm_source=gr-email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=control&utm_campaign=gran-fondo-22_1-day-after-sign-up_%240&utm_term=Workflow&vero_id=fundraiser-178076&vero_conv=RPXTW_rFPukmw3Xjk2Cb2pKpguOx-C9x2gTA_1cCxxnVInrXhvaSbTbDJ1B58bCAVXMASrNF41bk0YqMdEEF8Zb33R_9x8Iba5TkiWyhWxJY

It is just plain silly to continue doing something over and over again and hoping that the result will be different. Einstein reputedly said it was the definition of insanity.

So why then, for more than 20 years, have Australian Governments thought that the solution to “skills shortages” has been to ramp up immigration. It began in 1999 when the Howard Government more than doubled immigration from around 70,000 to 160,000 or 200,000 a year to meet “skills shortages”. And still, 23 years later, we l have “skills shortages”.

Continue reading “Skills shortage plea is a sham”

The Liberal Party is spiralling into irrelevance. Labor and the Greens are not connecting the dots. The Nationals are looking after their own as they always do. So maybe the Teals can connect the big policy dots that stand before us: health, education, childcare, tax, immigration, and rorts.

And underlying those six Big Ticket Items are two more Big Ticket Items: gender fairness and intergenerational fairness.

Continue reading “Can Teals make tax & gender sense?”

The odd thing about the visit by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives to Taiwan was that it was done by a woman, Nancy Pelosi. Usually, women in government tend to be the negotiators and compromisers, not the aggressors and agitators.

Why not just leave well alone?

Continue reading “Taiwan not worth a mushroom cloud”

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice is getting opposition from two fronts: those – mainly Green-left – who say it does not go far enough and those – mainly conservative, monarchist, British traditionalists – who say there is not enough detail.

Those critics have a point, up to a point, but now that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has set the referendum process in motion it is critical for our nation’s well-being that the Voice be passed.

Continue reading “Big 3 issues: something better than nothing”