• Time to say goodbye
    To me, Ad Astra, “Time to say goodbye” are among the saddest
    words in our language. Yet say them now we must. I chose Ad Astra
    as my moniker because my secondary school’s motto is ‘sic itur ad astra’,
    which can be liberally interpreted as: “Here is the way to the stars”.
    How inspiring these words have always been to me.
  • Have we got a deal for you
    There is a conspiracy theory that suggests that birds (in the USA
    at least) aren’t real. The claim is that all the birds in the USA were
    hunted down by the government between the late 50’s and early
    70s and replaced with bird like drones to spy on you.
  • Get out of the gutter
    You may not have heard of Mike Rinder. A Scientologist for most
    of his life, at the age of 52 he walked out, and as a result lost his
    family, friends, employment and pretty well everything else in his life.
    RInder has written a book on his time in Scientology, runs a
    website that questions Scientology beliefs and practices...
  • Was Amtrak Joe derailed?
    Prior to becoming President, Joe Biden was a US Senator for around
    36 years. He is known as Amtrak Joe as he routinely took the daily 90
    minute each way train trip (on the USA’s national passenger train network
    - Amtrak) from his home in Delaware to Washington DC to represent his state.
  • If employers can measure well-being...
    Last September, you might have seen Qantas CEO Alan Joyce
    received a pay increase of $278,000 per annum. It seems that Joyce
    has met or exceeded the performance goals set by his employers and
    contractually has earned the reward. It does, however, raise a larger question.
  • Coming back to haunt you
    In his recent Budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton
    laboured (pun intended) on the increasingly difficult to achieve promise by
    Prime Minister Albanese that power bills will be $275 less in 2025. While the
    government is claiming the modelling done in 2021 supports the accuracy of
    the promise, 2021 modelling doesn’t account for changes in circumstances since then.

The Political Sword

Get the inside track on the media and government.

Double standards

There has been general praise for the Australian Governments (at all levels) and their management of the COVID19 pandemic. While the politicians signed off on the decisions, they listened to and generally acted on the advice of the state and federal Chief Medical Officers. In comparison to a lot of ...

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People trusted Holden

In the 1970s and 1980s the slogan was ‘People trust Holden’; and they did. General Motors Holden had spent a lot of time and money over many years marketing Holden vehicles as Australia’s own car and as a result Holden sales were going gangbusters. While a considerable amount of design, engineerin...

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Listen to the experts

Are you as impressed as I am with Australia’s response to COVID-19? It is regarded as perhaps the most competent reaction, amongst similar nations, of how to manage an outbreak of a vicious virus. Why is it so? In my view, this outcome has resulted because our decision makers at both federal a...

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Is China a bully?

Is China a bully? If you stopped the average person in the street and asked this question, the answer would probably be a resounding ‘YES’. Why? A bully is defined as: Someone who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable. So how could China be a bully...

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Give us a break

A week or so ago, we discussed the union bashing disguised as concern for ‘essential workers’ from LNP MPs Andrew Laming and Peter Dutton. Unfortunately, the pitiful behaviours exhibited by these two LNP politicians is not reserved to the outer suburbs of Brisbane. It is on the record that the Prem...

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People that live in glass houses

You may have seen Federal MP Andrew Laming’s comment in the media recently suggesting that parents send their children back to school, regardless of the recommendations of the various Education Departments around Australia. The ABC’s version of the story is here. "Essential workers are being seco...

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The Trump Dx – have we seen the clincher?

Code: Dx = diagnosis. ‘The clincher’ = a fact, argument, or event that settles a matter conclusively. How many times have we questioned the mental status of POTUS Trump? It was as far back as November 2016 that we began to do so with Let’s welcome President Trump. Even then, Michael Moore...

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Greed isn't good

It seems Australia’s success so far in reducing the impacts of COVID 19 has a lot to do with the co-ordinated efforts of the various state governments and the federal government. Comparisons to other countries with similar qualities of life demonstrate Australians are experiencing less Coronavirus r...

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Never let a chance go by

Have you ever noticed there are some ‘special people’ in our society that are always hustling to gain a sniff of an advantage? With the current restrictions on life as we (used to) know it accepted by the majority of Australians in an effort to prevent a far worse tragedy, our hustlers seem to be li...

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Will we go the way of the Athenians?

As COVID-19 spreads relentlessly throughout the world, bringing with it the most devastating death toll that anyone alive can remember, people the world over are asking: How will it all end? With confirmed cases worldwide numbering almost 2.5 million, and deaths over 170,000 and rising, with the ...

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A world we can't explain

Up until recently, the last worldwide pandemic was the Spanish Flu at the end of the First World War. According to the National Museum of Australia, 50 million people died across the world. Australia introduced a quarantine in October 1918 however around 40% of our population were struck down by the...

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Ideology no longer rules

As the superannuation advertising says — compare the pair. Alan Jones and former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello discussed the Rudd/Swan economic stimulus during the 2009 ‘Global Economic Crisis’ ALAN JONES: Well then knowing that he has got a massive problem with debt and deficits, massive p...

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The chickens are coming home to roost

Apart from the creation of a futures market in toilet paper, pasta and rice, the Coronavirus may also have a few positive political effects here and overseas. Firstly, the messaging from the government regarding protection of you and those around you seems to be based on the recommendations from th...

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The great awakening

No sooner had I completed a piece titled: How would YOU revive the economy? than it became redundant. A quick glance through it will show why it dated so rapidly. Like me, do you ponder why it took the dramatic events of recent days, of which you are all well aware, to bring about what can ...

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You can't discuss an idea with an ideologue

Recently I watched an episode of Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery where she ‘delivered’ Gillian Triggs back to her high school and university while discussing various elements of Triggs’ life. Towards the end of the program, Zemiro invited Triggs to read some of the commentary made about Triggs in her r...

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If you do what you've always done

Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is attributed with the maxim that ‘change is the only constant in life’. If he came back to life now, you would hope he wouldn’t be surprised to see the maxim is as accurate now as it was 500 or so years before the modern era when he was alive. We don’t react we...

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Speak out

Although recent public opinion polls have suggested that some people are losing faith in democracy, how many would prefer another style of governance? Very few! Yet our Australian democracy does have one telling defect: usually, we have a chance to vote for a federal government only once every three...

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Be Kind

You would think after a month or two, Senator McKenzie’s ‘own goal’ in the allotment of sporting grants would have subsided. If anything, the stench is now worse than when McKenzie’s largess to shore up political positions first came to light. In Senate hearings, an executive of the Australian Audit...

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Corrupto-virus threatens world governance

People the world over are understandably alarmed by the recent eruption of a novel coronavirus (now named COVID-19) and its spread to countless countries, bringing in its wake widespread disruption, chaos, panic, illness and death. Previous coronavirus infections: SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Sy...

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Accountability in the Canberra bubble

The Australian Federal Police have dropped the investigation into the political ‘hit job’ Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor failed to execute on Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. For those who came in late, we noted last December. Morrison has also spent a considerable amount of political capit...

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