Posts tagged…Australia
No need, no gain, no glory
Thu, Aug 26 2010Only nine years late, we are to have a Parliamentary debate about our involvement in the Afghan conflict! What has bought our leaders to consider, at last, owning up to their duty to explain their policies which have so far killed almost twenty Australians? They felt no such need during the election, so it can only be the confounding election results that have bought about this attack of…
Read more…Revisiting the climate evidence
Tue, Jun 29 2010Julia Gillard's determination as Prime Minister to revisit the debate about an Australian response to the potential dangers of climate change calls for a review of the evidence to ensure that any response is proportionate and effective. In my view, the relevant data show less and less reason to attribute recent warming to human activities ('anthropogenic warming').
Why we should pull out of Afghanistan now
Wed, Jun 23 2010There can be no stronger argument for our withdrawal from combat (along with Netherlands and Canada) than this arrogant martial nonsense from Malcolm Turnbull on the ABC "Q&A" program on 21 June
"We are in a war, a global war against terror, and the battle in Afghanistan is the front line, so we have a vital interest in winning that battle, and the mission that Australia has and our allies have…
Evidence on State hospital administration
Thu, Apr 15 2010Adam Cresswell in The Aus. offers us the data instead of spin. The impression of 'excellence' in Victoria fades in the light of the evidence.
"...[H]ealth experts say official comparisons show no evidence that Victoria's system is any better: whether cheaper or, the more important question, whether patients emerge healthier on the other side" Extract from Diagnosis: state of mediocrity | The…
The evidence for ‘stolen generations’
Thu, Apr 01 2010The so-called 'history wars' are disputes about research, historical data and the interpretation of events. As such they should be approached like any other discussion of evidence; with an open mind, a sceptical attitude and a respect for verifiable evidence.
Since reading the 'Stolen Generations' report for myself a couple of years ago—around the time of Kevin Rudd's parliamentary 'apology'—I…
Offensive teenagers
Thu, Mar 18 2010
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics more than 1 in 12 teenage males commits an offense that comes to police notice.
Motor vehicle subsidies wasted on Ford
Thu, Mar 18 2010
Ford Australia made just over a quarter (60,000) of all the cars made in Australia last year and less than one-fifth of all the new cars+light trucks registered in Australia in 2009 (a total of 302,400: see the ABS Motor Vehicle Census)
Ford is not going to be a profit center for its global parent any time soon.
'As soon as choices have to be made, Ford is the next Mitsubishi,' said John…
Discounting the Intergenerational Report
Fri, Feb 12 2010"[H]ow often does the IGR [Intergenerational Report], in five pages vaunting public investment in infrastructure, use the term 'cost benefit analysis'? Not once. Clearly, suggesting that public investment only be undertaken when the benefits exceed the costs is no longer politically correct." Extract from Henry Ergas in The AustralianHenry Ergas is—as ever—right on the money. The 2010 IGR has…
Good idea or insidious threat?
Tue, Dec 08 2009When an economy has trade leverage, the threat of discriminatory duties need not be simple protectionism.
"The US can help China make the necessary adjustments toward a reduction in imbalances by adopting a uniform tariff of 10 per cent on all Chinese imports, based on their values when they enter the US. Six months after the establishment of this tariff, the rate would increase by one percentage…
Agriculture in the AUSFTA
Wed, Aug 26 2009
The first few slides are charts of current data showing a surprisingly poor performance of Australian exports to the USA in the first five years of the implementation period of the free-trade area. The…
The Emissisions Trading bill madness
Mon, Aug 10 2009The text of my email to all Victorian senators at the start of the week in which the bill comes to the Senate.
Dear Senator,
As a Victorian constitutent, I urge you to oppose the wasteful, ineffective "Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme" legislation. There is no plausible case for concern about global warming which has been mild (0.5 deg per century since 1850s) and has presently stopped. The…
Twitter test of defense policy
Tue, May 05 2009The first rule of marketing is simplify and exaggerate. Or, in my trade: shorten and sharpen. Go straight to the point and tell it plainly.
Twitter's one-forty byte limit is a tough test: a rhetorical sieve. Like a map or a model, a tweet holds only what you can see at a glance.
Here's my idea: when a proposal is too hard to grasp, twitter-test it. Let's try it out on the big White Paper on…