Plus Ultra!
I know Brian said that we’d posted our last, but I couldn’t let the very kind words on the thread announcing our closure to go un-remarked. I also thought it somewhat incumbent on me as founder of the blog to […]
Boys’ Own Adventures of John Howard
Quadrant magazine, the self-described “leading general intellectual journal of ideas, literature, poetry and historical and political debate published in Australia” has published a book titled The Howard Era. The book is co-edited by Quadrant editor Keith Windschuttle, University of Queensland […]
Brisbanites! Announcing The Ubiquitous Hat Pop Up Book and Garage Sale! This Saturday!
As Brian mentioned the other day, I’m moving and we’re hosting a Pop Up Book and Garage Sale on Saturday at our Farm House. There’s oodles of quality books – academic and otherwise, with politics and history particularly prominent among […]
Abbott government watch
A few days ago Jenny Macklin put out a press release headlined “Abbott Government Dumps DisabilityCare Roll Out”, implying that the new Coalition Government has no intention to fully roll out the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) across the country. […]
Avoiding futility under the Abbott administration
John Quiggin argued at the Centre for Policy Development‘s Pushing Our Luck launch discussion at Avid Reader a couple of weeks ago that the best way to view the advent of the Abbott government was that the Coalition had not […]
The Contradictions of Direct Action
One of the great illusions of political analysis in Australia is that the Coalition has a “cunning plan”, a unified and coherent agenda for governing the nation. This is manifested in both left and right variants. On the left, we […]
All local politics is global I
One of the interesting things, to me, about visiting Prague was talking to a number of local academics – at the Anglo-American University and the Institute of Industrial and Financial Management – about how globalisation was often viewed through a […]
Mr Abbott elected PM; Invents invisibility potion
There’s been a fair bit of comment today about Tony Abbott’s reluctance to appear in the media. Notable are Jonathan Green (who rightly derides the absurdity and immorality of the “hide the boats” strategy) and Dee Madigan, with whom I […]
Mr Abbott and the Culture Wars II: Climate Change and civil society
One argument I made in my earlier post about Mr Abbott’s relaunch of the Culture Wars is that he won’t have noticed that civil society is stronger than it was in the Howard years. It’s not just “clicktivism” – there […]
Research priorities: towards a culture of ideas
Last week, I looked at the new Coalition government’s intention to circumscribe the range of acceptable topics for Australian Research Council grants. I think – aside from the obvious ‘condemn’ – that might also provide a useful starting point for […]
Mr Abbott and the Culture Wars I: Marriage equality
The ACT government has introduced legislation into the territory’s Assembly to provide for same sex marriage. Unsurprisingly, when not distracted by plans to Defend Freedom and re-introduce the title of QC, Attorney-General George Brandis QC has been asked by Tony […]