2020

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Aug122020

NEW ECONOMIC MODEL TO REBUILD AUSTRALIA

ECONOMICSAugust 12, 2020

by Patrick J. Byrne Tensions with China and the covid19 crisis have caused Australians to ask, what have free trade agreements delivered for them? Have they left the nation strategically vulnerable? Can they be renegotiated? Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a false optimism that the age of hostile ideologies was over and that free trade policies would cause authoritarian states like China to evolve into capitalist democracies. On the back of this thinking, Australia’s free trade purists pressed for the unilateral cutting of tariffs and for free trade agreements (FTAs), arguing that consumer welfare would be…

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Aug122020

PATRICK GETS TAUGHT

POETRY LETTERS & HUMOURAugust 12, 2020

by Pat MacStuttles, Theobogan News about nuns lately? Er, none! It’s like these saintly sisters are betraying the feminist revolution or something! Does the ABC ever run a nun story? Only if Sister Trevor, wearing overalls for a habit, complains: “I’ll never be accepted into the priesthood!” Trev doesn’t want to be a priest, mind, but “it’s the principle!” No such vocational co(nun)drums are on display when goodness grafter Sister Agnes advises nipper Patrick: “Plunge into the Tiber, laddie, it’s your only option!” Growing up in the WA bush, Your Theobogan isn’t receiving a classical Catholic education. The closest we…

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Aug122020

MORE EXCUSES FROM PREMIER OVER COVID19 SECOND WAVE

POLITICSAugust 12, 2020

by Peter Westmore As the Victorian count of covid19 cases has risen into triple figures – while all other states and territories had either eliminated or at least controlled outbreaks – Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has continued to blame everyone other than himself for the crisis. First it was people failing to follow the rules of social distancing, then the spread was blamed on families. Then on people gathering at pubs and clubs after he relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Then on part-time workers in aged-care facilities shifting between jobs. And then on sick people delaying testing, or not staying…

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Aug122020

CASSANDRA’S LEGACY: WE HAVE LEARNT NOTHING FROM 1995

FOREIGN AFFAIRSAugust 12, 2020

by Amy Brooke As Bertrand Russell once commented, pragmatism is like a bath full of warm water heating up so imperceptibly you don’t know at which point to start screaming. However, in embracing pragmatism, New Zealand’s political parties, including Labour and National, have abandoned a vital principle of government: even-handedness. Reacting to continual pressures, successive governments have parted company with New Zealanders as a whole, outmanoeuvred and intimidated by radicalised activists. Not only is their agenda prioritised: law and order are no longer adequately maintained. In 1995, an article in The Economist described New Zealand as having embarked on “ethnic…

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