The best thing about the resignation of Parliamentary Speaker Bronwyn Bishop is not that it ends one of the worst, most vociferously partisan Speakerships in living memory – although that is certainly a good thing. The new Speaker will no doubt still be partisan, as is the Australian tradition, although it is unlikely there is…
Continue reading →Despite not being a tech head, I will be speaking at the cryptoparty being held in Brisbane on Wednesday. Details of the event are at this link, however it is booked out so the only option this time around is to register for the waiting list. I want to make the simple albeit sad point…
Continue reading →My favourite memory of the Magna Carta involved a group of refugees who had recently arrived in Australia after spending years being kept in the detention centre on Nauru. I’d visited them while they were incarcerated in Nauru, where they were uncertain of their future – not knowing how long they would be locked up…
Continue reading →I wrote a piece here nearly ten years ago about how I personally wasn’t a big fan of daylight saving – mainly because I’m a bit more of a night owl than most people. But it’s an issue that repeatedly raises it’s head in Queensland, and I’ve certainly had countless people mention to me that…
Continue reading →Adding to my own wish/goals, this article contains a range of good resolutions from folks such as Maya Angelou, Carl Sagan & Benjamin Franklin, along with plenty of others.
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Brisbane’s independent music radio station 4ZZZ FM hits its 40th birthday this year. (The actual 40th anniversary of the first broadcast is not until 8th December, but it’s something worth building up to!) It was the first community radio and first FM radio station in Queensland. At the time FM – being in stereo, as…
Continue reading →The presence and impact of proactive haters is multi-layered, but if left unchecked can cause immense harm both to those who are the targets of the hate and to what becomes a more divided, antagonistic society. (I thought I’d keep this manageable by restricting it to Australia, although there is of course plenty worse that…
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This goal/wish might seem even more unlikely than world peace, but I feel it is worth a stab none the less – so much so that I thought I’d even risk putting something as potentially boring as economics at the start of my Ne Year’s list (which is of a still indeterminate length). Perhaps convincing…
Continue reading →The start of a new year seems to be the time for lists – looking back at things that have happened, lives that have changed (and ended), and looking forwards at what might happen next and what might be able to be done differently. It also seems to be the time for wishes – wishing…
Continue reading →One of the most frustrating and perplexing aspects of the Howard government was their dogged determination to completely neglect housing issues – (apart from regularly spruiking their alleged ability to keep mortgage rates lower). For something as fundamental as basic shelter, it always baffled me that the Liberals quite readily vacated the field. The Rudd/Gillard…
Continue reading →The role of the Australian Democrats as a political force is beginning to recede into history. It is now over six years since the party ceased having representation in the federal Parliament. But I am keen that the very positive legacy of the party is not forgotten and nor should those people who made a…
Continue reading →The LNP in Queensland have been softening up the public for a privatisation binge pretty much from the day they got elected in 2012. In recent times, they’ve kindly made the public pay millions for a prolonged wide-ranging advertising campaign – badly disguised as a pretend consultation process called Strong Choices. Naturally, any input from…
Continue reading →The furore in New South Wales over developers and resource companies seeking to buy influence through political donations has died down a bit as focus has turned to the federal Budget. Whilst no one is linking Budget decisions to specific donations, it is pretty obvious the Coalition has brought down a Budget which favours many…
Continue reading →Since I took up studying teaching, all that half-silly/half-sinister commentary that happens from time to time alleging Australia’s school children are having their brains filled with left-wing propaganda – especially when it comes to history – has become a bit more directly relevant for me. Although it’s pretty clear that fact-free fumigating by some random…
Continue reading →Calls to bring back the Upper House – or Legislative Council – in Queensland’s Parliament appear with fairly regular frequency. Like every other state Upper House at the time, when Queensland’s Legislative Council voted to abolish itself back in 1921, all its members were appointed rather than elected – something which certainly needed addressing. However,…
Continue reading →As anyone passing by this site in recent months would know, this blg has basically been dead for some time. But perhaps it’s just been resting. When I saw a piece towards the end of last year by Jason Kottke called The Blog is Dead (long live the blog) – http://kottke.org/13/12/rip-the-blog-1997-2013 – it seemed apt….
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The possibility of people getting elected to the Senate with virtually no public support has been greater coverage, with a piece in today’s SMH and Antony Green letting fly about it on the ABC this morning. http://youtu.be/xT7t8Xt7qms Given this is how the Senate voting system works, it’s probably idealistic to hope that people wouldn’t try…
Continue reading →This election sees a record number of parties contesting the Senate and a record number of candidates. Even people like me who enjoy filling in all the squares below the line on the Senate ballot paper might balk at having to fill in 82 squares (if you’re in Queensland), 102 (if you’re in NSW) or…
Continue reading →There was a great piece today by outgoing MP and former Cabinet Minister Craig Emerson on the enormous suffering experienced by many pigs in factory farm environments which is very common in Australia (and elsewhere). http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/no-excuse-for-beastly-behaviour-towards-pigs/story-e6frg6zo-1226674775633 Even though I strongly agree with him, there is often a part of me when I read something like…
Continue reading →This weekend sees a national election taking place which could be pivotal in Malaysia’s future, which makes it a significant event in Australia’s south-east Asian region. It also reminded me of a forum I attended in Kuala Lumpur last year as part of Malaysia Social Media Week (MSMW). I spoke in one session which looked…
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