Recent Posts

Bowen opposes GST on fresh food but does not support excise on unhealthy foods Addressing the AFR Tax Reform summit Chris Bowen has cited the diabetes and obesity epidemic as a reason for not broadening the base of the GST to include fresh food. “We’ve got a diabetes and obesity epidemic in Australia. My electorate is the epicentre of it, we have the highest diabetes rates I metropolitan Australia. I ...

Abbott Wrong That Nazis Tried To Hide Their evil Abbott says that, unlike Islamic State, the Nazi’s tried to cover up their evil. But this is not historically accurate. The best research indicates that the mass of ordinary Germans knew of the evolving terror of the Holocaust. They knew concentration camps were full of Jews. They knew Jews and other minorities were being put to death ...

National Reform Priorities- SL Policy Development Group of the Victorian Branch of the ALP  National Reform Priorities SL Policy Development Group of the Victorian Branch of the ALP  Executive Summary Introduction The paper ‘A Third Wave of National Reform’ was publicly released by the Premier of Victoria in August 2005. The paper had not been the subject of consultation with constituent units of the party including relevant policy committees, the state parliamentary caucus ...

Catch and Kill- The Third Wave of National Reform and its Criticism Former Bracks- Brumby speechwriter, Joel Deane has written a very lively, entertaining and insightful book on the history of the Bracks-Brumby Governments. Joel’s book sets out the story of how Victorian Labor was able to come back from the crushing defeat by Jeff Kennett in 1992 to be returned to government in just seven years. It focuses closely on ...

What Were We Thinking? (Updated and abridged version) Labor has very badly misread the politics on the Border Force Act (BFA). The BFA gags workers in detention centres from speaking out about conditions there. It provides that public servants, as well as consultants and contractors to the immigration department, face a penalty of up to two years imprisonment for recording or disclosing “protected information”. Protected information is ...

The case for a conscience vote for Labor MP’s on Asylum Seekers “An amendment should be made to Labor’s constitution to provide for a conscience vote on asylum seekers. It should provide that while matters concerning treatment of asylum seekers and refugees can be freely debated at any forum or conference of the Party, any decision reached, which it can be reasonably argued, is not consistent with Australia’s obligations under the ...

What Were We Thinking? “It should be recognized that the first Rudd government did attempt to achieve a more compassionate asylum seeker policy but…both under Gillard and Rudd mark II, Federal Labor made the political decision that it was not capable of leading enough Australians to accept that boat arrivals should be processed onshore, and that for many Australians, “stopping the boats” ...

Inequality- the USA, Australia and the ALP In his article ‘America’s economy is a nightmare of our own making’ former secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, Robert Reich, describes increased inequality in the USA. He concludes that the increase in inequality is the product of a heightened concentration of political power in the corporate and financial elite. It is this concentration ...

Harari- History and Happiness Happiness in the study of  History In chapter 19 of his book, ‘Sapiens’, Harari examines happiness. He asks whether the transformation of human society by the industrial and scientific revolutions over the last 500 years, and the commensurate increases in wealth, have increased human happiness. He says that historians have researched the history of politics, society, gender, ...

Religion Series for Teens- part 3- Get High With A Little Help From Your Friends No matter what the teachings of the various religious prophets- Moses, Jesus Christ, Muhammad and Buddha- history shows that the spread of the world’s most successful religions was often assisted through support from powerful or rich friends of the religion and through military conquest. Judaism Moses is regarded as a leading prophet for the Jewish religion and is ...

Religion Series for Teens- Part 2- Arguments for and against God   There are two different types of argument that have traditionally been put forward in support of religion or belief in God. The first type of argument goes to the issue of whether any God, or Gods, really exist. This first type of arguments does not generally say anything about what the God or Gods that exist are like. Such a ...

Religion Series for Teens- Part 1 Darwin and Religion- Three Views on how Human Beings developed   Darwin’s big idea Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is that all organisms (living things) develop from characteristics, or traits, that are inherited from their parents. Certain traits have survival advantages. Traits with survival advantages enable an organism to cope better in the environment in which it lives. Darwin’s big idea was that over periods of time, usually ...

The Responsibility to Protect Probably the worst violence committed in modern times has been violence by governments against their own people. What should happen when this occurs? When should those outside the country come to the aid of people who are attacked, either by their own government or by other groups that the government is unwilling or unable to constrain? These ...

Why the ALP President should not be a serving parlimentarian At a recent meeting of ALP members a federal MP gave a report to the meeting that in order for there to be a change in ALP policy concerning treatment of asylum seekers the community would first need to be won over. I do not doubt that the report is an accurate account of the reality ...

Human enhancement technology and the horrible challenges to equality that lie ahead Throughout history the upper classes have always claimed to be entitled to their wealth on the basis of their claim that they are smarter, stronger and better than the lower classes. These claims were, and remain, largely delusions. The advantages of the upper classes are socio-political not “biological”. But with new scientific developments, the pretensions of the privileged threaten ...