Published in the the Guardian 17 March 2021 Last month’s strong words from political leaders about tackling the power imbalance at the heart of our democracy between men and women, bosses and staffers, have long since been drowned out by the brutal echoes of “lying cow” and “mob rule”. The initial pledge of action for women, the commitment to change…
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Thinking economists are grappling with why their profession has made our lives worse by Ross Gittins
Most economists are great believers in the need for “reform” – for other people, not themselves. Over the past 30 or 40 years, no profession has had more influence over the policies governments have pursued, but the results have hardly been flash. Even the lightning speed at which an epidemic in part of China became a pandemic reaching every corner…
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USA – Republican security officials back Biden
An article by David Sanger of the New York Times 20 August 2020 Four years after 50 of the nation’s most senior Republican national security officials warned that Donald Trump “would be the most reckless president in American history,” they are back with a new letter, declaring his presidency worse than they had imagined and urging voters to support former…
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Rio Tinto admits it ‘missed opportunities’ to save heritage site
By Nick Toscano, The Age An article by Nick Toscano, The Age 4 August 2020 Miner Rio Tinto has acknowledged it missed a series of opportunities to better communicate with traditional landowners or pause to rethink a proposed mine expansion that might have prevented the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal site in Western Australia. Rio Tinto, Australia’s second-largest miner, has faced a storm…
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Rio Tinto looks to shelter from self-detonation
An article by Elizabeth Knight Business Columnist of The Age 4 August 2020 As the adage goes: “when you are in a hole stop digging”. Amended for Rio Tinto it would read “when you are in a cave stop blasting”. For the past few months the pressure has been mounting on Rio’s management and board. But on Friday, when a…
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Benefit the Poor
It’s good that the great human race Has sent a spacecraft into space It’s said that that technology Will benefit both you and me That may be true but I’m not sure Whether it benefits the poor If foreign powers us attack We need resources to fight back Hence the expenditure extreme On many a French submarine Modern defence technology …
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What would we go without to properly fund the ABC? Try one less submarine
This article was written by Warwick McFadyen, desk editor for The Age, Melbourne, Australia – 27 June 2020 Perhaps only someone of a fair degree of accounting naivety can ask this question, so here goes: why can’t we – as in we’re all in this together, Australia – do with one less submarine so that we can properly fund the ABC? No…
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The wanton destruction of universal historic sites
The pyramids in Egypt are over 4000 years old, the oldest being the Saggara pyramid dated at 2630 BC. Stonehenge in England was built in 3000 BC. The rock shelter at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, one of the earliest sites of human occupation, has been identified by archaeologists as being 46,000 years old. This historic site was bombed on…
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Coronavirus and the Universal Basic Income by Sarah Stanley
I am concerned about the ongoing financial uncertainty reported in Australia at this time. Shops are closing, or are unable to meet their supply requirements. The panic buying of toilet paper and supermarket goods generally is a sign of uncertainty about the future, as is the debate about school closures There is need for advice and government action to help…
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Transcript of the keynote speech delivered by HRH The Prince of Wales at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on 22 January 2020.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am most touched that Professor Klaus Schwab should have invited me to be with you as we mark the 50th anniversary of the World Economic Forum and its mission to “improve the state of the world”. It is this mission, and the urgent need to shape the next 50 years, that has inspired me to be…