It's Australia Day. Or Invasion Day. It's when I think about what I love about Australia, but also all of the horrible things we've done in our past and how far we've got to go. On Australia day they hand out a bunch of honours to people who've made significant contributions to Australian society and one award for Australian Of The Year. I'd never ( Read more... )

I just finished watching The Howard Years on ABC Online. It was fascinating. I'd forgotten how much of Howard I hadn't been around for. The most surprising thing for me was how sympathetic Mal Brough was.

Sharon asked me to share this for you all. These were the ads they played in prime time TV in Australia when I was a kid:

Click to view

He's not a great bowler.

So, as the US dollar has tumbled the risk of inflation has been rising (the weakening dollar means imports will be relatively more expensive, a lot of the economy is the consumption of imported consumer good - look at Walmart). To counteract this the federal reserve has been slashing interest rates. A year ago the rate was 5.25%, today it's 2% (see ( Read more... )

On my way into work this morning I was listening to an ABC Radio National podcast about a farming family deciding to abandon the farm that had been in the family for generations. I had to stop because it was just getting me depressed. I remember the drought and collapse of the price of wool in the late 80s when we were trying to farm sheep ( Read more... )

http://www.pollbludger.com/857

Or so it would seem... What's with that? I mean, are the ALP doing that bad job?

Today the Australian parliament formally apologized to the Stolen Generation and their families. The Stolen Generation are Australian Aborigines and Torres Straight Islanders who were systematically removed from their families and children for over 100 years, into the 1970s ( Read more... )

I think I probably keep up on Australian political news better than most Australians. I read the ABC News web site at least once a day. I spend probably close to an hour a day listening to ABC Radio National podcasts, primarily current affairs programs. I never miss Laura Tingle and Christian Kerr's weekly analysis of Australian federal politics on ( Read more... )