In an interesting coincidence, the Federal Government resumed its efforts to secure a free trade agreement with Washington at almost exactly the same time that Australia recorded its largest ever quarterly trade deficit: $6.9 billion for the June quarter, compared to the previous record of $5.3 billion last December. The Keating Government’s largest quarterly debt…
Sir, Shareholders of Australian companies have much to lose in a “Free Trade” deal with the United States. The average profit made by Australian companies and distributed to shareholders is approximately four and a quarter percent. Most of that is also tax paid. American companies on average manage only one and a quarter percent with…
The Federal Budget is both an economic and a social document. It sets the parameters for the future direction of the Australian economy, and additionally, influences Australian individuals, families and companies through its taxation and investment policies. Separately, the Federal Government exercises indirect influence on interest rates. Whatever the short-term benefits of a surplus Federal…
The Australian media rarely report the annual British local elections, which are conducted nationwide, including Scotland and Wales. This silence is broken only when the Tories suffer heavy losses, and Labour or better still, the Greens, do well. Nothing like that occurred this time; so our media was silent. Labour lost 800 seats, while the Tories, winning more than 600 extra seats, became the dominant party in local government for the first time since 1991. The British Liberals and Greens failed to make real headway anywhere. Had the voter retreat from Labour been motivated by dissatisfaction with their foreign and…
The following paper was delivered recently by educational consultant, Dr Kevin Donnelly, to an NCC sponsored forum in Brisbane. How successful are Australian schools? Judged by the annual complaints of the Australian Education Union (AEU), the answer is that our school system is failing and nothing will improve until more money is spent. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of more effective teaching and learning being dependent on smaller classes and more teachers, the reality is that it is what actually happens in the classroom that decides how well students learn. Curriculum As such, any discussion about strengthening…
The Federal Labor Caucus’ apparent desire to switch leaders well before the next election, possibly within weeks, will do little to fix one of the fundamental problems facing the party – denial. Recent reports suggest there could be a challenge against Crean within weeks, with Caucus members backgrounding journalists that Crean’s days in the top…