The Commonwealth government ran Canberra until 1988. From 1988, the Australian Capital Territory has been self-governing. Unlike the six state governments, the ACT government relies heavily on revenues from land-based taxes, rates, levies and stamp duties. Now to The Canberra Times: (“Land plan bit rich: Greens”, February 21, p1). The Greens …
Until Australia was elected to the UN Human Rights Council, with the resulting increased attention on our treatment of refugees, I hadn’t realised what a world leader in crime prevention we really are. As Australian politicians have repeatedly said, the indefinite detention in concentration camps for the refugees who were …
Malcolm Turnbull rejected New Zealand’s offer to resettle 150 Manus Island refugees in New Zealand. The reason is Turnbull would lose 150 out of the 600 “tethered goats” who deter faraway refugees. Once Turnbull loses all his 600 “tethered goats” in Manus, the deterrent effect is gone. No longer could …
The refugees aren’t the illegals. It’s the politicians that are. – John Passant, CLA member, Kambah ACT
David Eastman was convicted in 1995 of the murder of Assistant Commissioner of Police Colin Winchester. On August 22, 2014, the conviction was quashed and a new trial ordered, by which time Eastman had served almost 20 years of a sentence of life imprisonment. The DPP is proceeding with the …
After much anticipation the letter arrived. I opened it and read the question a first time. I then wasted time, yelling abuse across the room and acting like a schoolyard bully by calling out childish names. At one point I nearly had to remove myself from the room. My lap …
So, Australia & East Timor have reached a “confidential” agreement on a new maritime boundary & how they will jointly develop billions of oil & gas reserves in the Timor Sea … maybe, possibly, perhaps, we’ll see … (“Australia and East Timor strike ‘landmark’ deal to end Greater Sunrise dispute”, …
Why does Donald Trump’s popularity remains solid among his supporters? Until 2015, it was the mainstream news media (MSN) that made or unmade parties and political leaders in democratic nations. The MSN expressed its abhorrence of Trump as soon as he announced his candidacy for the presidency of the USA. Interestingly, Trump had …
Now that a bipartisan approach to fixed-term elections is on the cards, here are some suggestions for those thinking about it: A scheduled election every February 29. Election day as a public holiday; we could call it the Democracy Day Holiday. Delete one of the anachronistic public holidays to make …
One of the pivotal events in contemporary European history seems to have largely bypassed Australia. The event is the constitutional crisis in Poland. Simply put: last week, Poland’s parliament lower and upper house passed three laws that would have given total control of the Supreme Court, and the appointment and firing …