It is now two years since the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States triggered the US financial crisis, and a year since the global investment house, Lehman Brothers, collapsed after the retiring US President, George W. Bush, announced that his Administration would not rescue it from bankruptcy. Within hours, the New York and London…
As part of its response to climate change, the Rudd Government has announced that it will secure 20 per cent of Australia’s total energy needs by 2020 from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal energy. The policy of the former Howard Government was that 5 per cent of Australia’s energy needs should…
In an extraordinary admission that squarely contradicted earlier public statements that world leaders would reach agreement on a successor to the Kyoto Agreement next December in Copenhagen, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has privately conceded that there is little chance of agreement this year. Mr Rudd’s admission was made to the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mr Lars Rasmussen, who will host the December talks, at the recent leaders’ conference in L’Aquila, Italy. The Australian Prime Minister was overheard by SBS television telling Mr Rasmussen, “Right now, I don’t think we are on track to get an agreement at Copenhagen; there…
The incredible hype surrounding the death of pop icon Michael Jackson is more revealing for what it says about the power of popular culture and the media than the talents of the man widely described as the King of Pop. I accept the widely expressed view that Michael Jackson was a talented entertainer. His weird…