The revolution may not be blogged

My recent travels in Melbourne, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale

The Liberals face self-destruction
In the first decade after Federation, the conservative forces (Deakin’s protectionists and Reid’s free traders) opted for fusion in the face of the growing electoral and parliamentary strength of the Labor party. The formation of the Country Party in 1922 introduced a clear rural interest, and took votes from the ALP and bolstered the conservative position outside the capital cities. For most of the twentieth century, the conservative side has also been bolstered by the three major splits in the ALP over sectarianism and ideology, spread across WW1, the Depression and the 1950s. Nevertheless, the clear division in Australian politics has been Labor versus

Crawford report a dull dud spiced by a big no to John Coates
Today’s media coverage is rightly hostile about the Crawford report, commissioned and welcomed by the Rudd Government, which recommends that Australia abandon its Olympic traditions and ambitions and accept a more realistic target. So much for excellence. The report recommends that additional government funding go to community sport (eg our many footy codes) rather than elite Olympic sports programs. Of course, ‘framing’ comes into play here. The report want s you to believe that archery is an ‘elite’ sport while AFL and rugby league are really just community sports after all. The report is also premised on a flawed, or exaggerate

Bonney Djuric, Parramatta Girls Home and the Forgotten Australians
This is the text of a piece I wrote for ABC Unleashed last year: On Wednesday last week, during ceremonies to mark the nation’s apology, Bonney Djuric gave Prime Minister Rudd a letter seeking his support for a living memorial to the Forgotten Australians and the Stolen Generations in Sydney’s western suburbs, on a site called the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct which has long been associated with both indigenous and non-indigenous women and children committed to institutional care. Bonney Djuric, and other ‘Parramatta Girls’, believe a living memorial could become a sy

Grammar Obsessive Disorder (G.O.D.) – anyone you know?

More, not less, equality needed for economic growth
Now the attention of Australian policy-makers is turning to maximising prosperity, understood as GDP growth, over the next few years. The Australian’s Michael Stutchbury says this will require ‘tough-love’ policies. Usually, this is code for giving carrots to the rich and sticks to the poor. Tough for the bottom of society, great for the top, In economics, inequality rocks. Right? Well, actually no. Inequality peaked in the US just before the great depression, and it only returned to those levels just before the