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For many Romney supporters the biggest difference between Mitt and Newt Gingrich is character.
Topics: world-politics
Posted
Sure suicide is stupid, depression is stupid, and the public's understanding of mental illness is especially stupid. But victims of suicide aren't stupid, they just lost the battle.
Topics: mental-health, suicide, depression
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Only twice since the Menzies era have the same two leaders of the major parties gone head-to-head at consecutive Australian federal elections.
Re-runs are very much the exception rather than the rule.
So how is it that right now the major parties are on track to put up the same two candidates that failed to flatter in the 2010 election, failed to win a majority in their own right, and have been returning abysmal personal ratings ever since?
Topics: federal-government, gillard-julia, abbott-tony, government-and-politics
Posted
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is one of those things that's been put on Tony Abbott's "let's wait and see" list, should he land the top job.
The thing is, an effective disability system is not a luxury item that we can simply do without until there's some spare cash floating around. Whether or not we have the money, this can't wait.
Topics: disabilities, health, government-and-politics, federal-government
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Gina Rinehart is likely to find investing in Fairfax Media a deeply frustrating experience, whether she's trying to influence the newspapers or just make money.
It's possible that Fairfax board meetings will become slightly less civilized affairs if Australia's richest person is present as part owner of the company, but 15 per cent doesn't buy you the ability to change strategy or management.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, company-news, industry, mining-industry, media
Posted
Michael Brull might not like it but, on an issue as momentous as a referendum to change the constitution, every Australian has the right to speak freely.
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The coming week marks the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, one of the most significant and sustaining political protests in the history of Australia.
A series of events on the lawns of the Old Parliament House in Canberra will pay tribute to the Aboriginal rights agenda that acted as a rallying call for communities throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Topics: indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, parliament, government-and-politics, indigenous-policy, australia-day, community-and-society, indigenous-culture, aboriginal
Posted
I have traded a few phrases with the editor, stood at the back looking confused during James Murdoch's presentations on the 'digital future' and I have played football with two reporters now helping the police with their inquiries.
Hopefully, my incidental role means I am not tainted by association, but allows me to say 'I was there' to witness perhaps the last days of one of the world's great newspapers.
No, not the News Of The World; I'm talking about The Times.
Topics: information-and-communication, journalism, print-media
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It's hard to avoid concluding that both employment and commercial property returns in Australia are going to come under a lot of pressure this year and beyond.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, industry, banking, manufacturing, retail
Posted
CNBC's Rick Santelli's one act of broadcast petulance sparked a viral grass roots movement that captivated parts of the Republican right and swept through those febrile, anxiety tinged, partisan corners of cable TV and the internet faster than Sarah Palin can drop a moose.
But three years on it seems the steam is starting to come off the party.
Ironically, an Obama victory might be the one thing that would bring back the steam and keep the Tea Party alive.
Topics: us-elections, obama-barack, world-politics
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The majors have such a hold. On participant and spectator alike. Be it tennis or golf, the chosen four are iconic.
Topics: tennis, sport, australian-open
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The world loves cars. Cars are an object of desire; a status symbol for the wealthy, an aspiration for the poor.
People want cars, as a general rule.
So why is everybody so rubbish at making them? How is it that barely a car manufacturer in the world seems capable of operating without some kind of government assistance?
Topics: automotive, business-economics-and-finance, industry
Posted
Why do customers feel that banks are less competitive than other industries that have an even smaller number of dominant players?
Topics: banking, business-economics-and-finance, industry
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They call it the toughest job in America. And when the White House is your office it's understandable.
You're in charge of a big staff, you've got to be on your game on both domestic and foreign policy, simultaneously keep Capitol Hill and Wall Street happy and make sure those that matter feel they're getting the attention they deserve.
It's not the president we're talking about here but his chief of staff.
Topics: world-politics
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Marketers everywhere are watching what Sutherland and McKenna are doing to Australian cricket, and not just because they like the game.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, cricket, sport, economic-trends, twenty20
Posted
Slim Dusty's famous song about drinking beer immortalises a bloke called Duncan – but it also includes a verse about Bob:
Topics: alcohol-education, alcohol, government-and-politics
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It may not surprise you that a man approaching 50; with an expanding girth and hair growing out his ears is not necessarily the target audience for the Big Bash.
Topics: community-and-society
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Cricket has long been irresistible for those who ache to own a piece of its rich and eccentric history.
It may be a hat, a bat, a ball or manuscript; indeed anything that is part of the great narrative of the game. Anything that is part of the story.
Is it fair to say the very best of the cricket collecting best is already held in private collections or museums or has simply and sadly, been lost?
Topics: history, community-and-society
Posted
The year 2011 has almost drawn to a close. And what a turbulent year it was. Alan Kohler, a man who loves a good chart, looks back on his favourite charts of 2011 and what they say about where we've been and where we're heading.
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Things look grim for Bradley Manning, the young man charged with, among other things, aiding the enemy.
Topics: world-politics, information-and-communication, journalism, internet-culture
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The hardest thing in politics is convincing the people who elected you to endure a certain amount of pain now, in order to avoid more of it in future.
All over the world, politicians ask hard things of constituents, demanding that they should be their best selves. And that's perfectly fair enough.
What should never be surprising, however, is that constituents baulk at such exhortations from a bunch of people who do not seem prepared to make the same sacrifices themselves.
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The word "productivity" didn't make it into Bill Shorten's press release yesterday announcing a review of the Fair Work Act, or into the terms of reference.
There is no-one from business on the panel and nothing in the terms of reference about asking businesses whether the act is working for them.
It is, in short, a whitewash - the review you have when you don't want to have a review.
Topics: industrial-relations, unions, federal-government, government-and-politics, work, small-business, business-economics-and-finance
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I only met Hitch three times, but even had I never met him at all, he would have left a deep impression on me.
Topics: books-literature, author, journalism
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The logic behind the Media Convergence Review, whose Interim Report was issued yesterday, is simple enough.
Our current media regulation is based on the concept of 'silos' - radio, television, and print are separate and different: regulation that applies to one is inappropriate or irrelevant to the other.
But in the digital age content of all kinds - text, audio, video - is inextricably entwined on the internet. So we need new rules that will be appropriate to the converged media world.
Topics: information-and-communication, broadcasting, internet-culture, social-media, print-media, television-broadcasting, radio-broadcasting
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The media inquiry is exquisite torture for an industry in financial trouble: a formal inquiry looking simultaneously at whether to regulate and/or support it.
Topics: media, industry, business-economics-and-finance, information-and-communication, internet-culture, journalism, print-media
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