All in all 2018 wasn't a bad year.
( My 2018 )

To start with I have to say that I think our treatment of asylum seekers is absolutely abhorrent and a human rights violation. I don't understand why we pledged to take refugees from Costa Rica but won't resettle the refugees we already have ( Read more... )

Thirtyfour billion dollars wiped off the Australian stock market today - market was in freefall from midday (Oz time) due to the increasing likelihood of a Trump victory. The election result wasn't called until after the markets closed today, so tomorrow should be interesting ( Read more... )

It's almost state conference time for the Labor Party which has just released its draft policy platform for comment. At the front of the document there is a list of the party's enduring values, and this one made me come over all goosebumpy:

"1.4: We will always stand up for fairness. Our party was founded on the important principle that everybody ( Read more... )

Not sure if the rest of the world knows who Pauline Hanson is - basically she's an ex fish and chip shop owner who got into parliament 20 years ago and gave the most xenophobic, politically naive maiden speech ever, then created a political party of her own after being thrown out of the Libs. She lasted exactly two years before being voted out, and ( Read more... )

Some of you may be aware that there was a Federal election in Australia this weekend. For weeks the papers have been saying that the opinion polls' results were too close to call, and they were right - it could be another week before we know who will govern the country for the next three years. There are 150 seats in the lower house, so an absolute ( Read more... )

I'm currently around two-thirds of the way through This Other Eden by Ben Elton. This book just... well it frustrates me! He's never heard of the concept show-don't-tell, and the book is chock full of exposition. Added to that he's trying so hard to be funny a la Douglas Adams and it's falling flat, being a poor imitation at best ( Read more... )

For years now, Australian retailers have been complaining about the unfair advantage that overseas online retailers have - namely the lack of goods and services tax (GST - the Oz equivalent of VAT) on overseas purchases. Now this is supposedly about to change, with the federal government introducing legislation to have GST payable on all online ( Read more... )

Watching the state election night coverage tonight; at present the ALP is one seat away from forming government in a real surprise result. No surprise that the premier lost his own seat as there was a hell of a lot of dislike for him, but the overall result I wouldn't have foretold. Even the bookies had the LNP at $1.10 and ALP at $3.30 ( Read more... )

Parliament was suspended, as a mark of respect to the passing of a great man ( Read more... )