More Pacific News Stories
Risk-averse paternalism makes for a perverse reversal of freedoms. THE nanny state isn't a cheap Tory slogan. It is a threat to our free, open, pluralist society. Chris Middendorp wrote on these pages last week, in justifying why governments should increase regulation over individual choice, that...
Melbourne City Council will stay impotent unless it follows Brisbane's lead. SYDNEY and Melbourne City Councils are strange animals, tiny political eunuchs. Both exist within cities of more than 4 million souls, yet they represent only 180,000 and 98,000 residents respectively. They are minuscule in...
Pokies campaigner Andrew Wilkie. Photo: Peter Mathew THE government lost its intense battle to get pokies campaigner Andrew Wilkie to agree to the introduction of legislation yesterday for a trial in Canberra of mandatory pre-commitment to curb problem gambling. The government will only bring in the...
The big four banks have increased their home-loan interest rates to help protect profits, the Reserve Bank said yesterday, sparking calls for consumers to either shop around for better deals or use the lending slowdown to apply pressure for cheaper rates. Westpac, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, ANZ...
Australia's first female federal attorney-general says she is determined to cast the widest net for the nation's top judges and is eager to consider candidates who break the mould of being commercial barristers from legal bastions in Sydney and Melbourne. With two key High Court appointments looming...
In the end it was a desire for shelter and warmth that was Malcolm Naden's undoing. The stark timber hut where Naden was captured contains only the barest of essentials, but Naden would have considered it luxury as darkness descended on Wednesday evening. A freshly-disturbed mud patch at the door, a...
