Random thoughts and observations
Australia’s reputation for being insular and ignorant of world affairs was confirmed at the Davis Cup tennis this week. It’s beyond belief that we managed to play the wrong Spanish anthem. It’s hard to imagine such a debacle happening anywhere else in the world. Okay, at the Winter Olympics once the Austrian anthem was played [...]
I’ve commented here before about the republic debate and how I’d like to see it widened to address issues that are more relevant. I’m frequently annoyed at the buck passing between Federal and State Governments on health in particular. We have a major problem in this country in that no level of government has sole [...]
I was interested to hear Andrew Denton’s interview last night with veteran White House press corps member Helen Thomas. I empathised with her comment that it’s hard to start writing opinion pieces after years of straight reporting. It also made me realise that I’m in the older generation of (former) journalists who believe newspapers should [...]
I wrote this article in February 2002 in response to a campaign by Senator Julian McGauran and Tim Fischer to obtain a pardon for English officer “Breaker” Morant, who ordered the killing of prisoners in the Anglo/South African War. I was annoyed that McGauran took up this issue without any community consultation. It was the [...]
I was invited recently to speak at a conference in Albury on the notion that Australia should have more states or regional government. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend. The organiser had seen a letter I wrote to the Border Mail regarding the republic issue. I can’t find the letter, but in essence I said that changing [...]
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