My interest was piqued recently when reading the letters to the Editor in The Australian newspaper when someone wrote: The two must haves for young families today, a home and childcare are being kept out of reach of ordinary young Australians by unreasonable profit margins. The writer (rightfully) bemoaned the fact that a socialist government […]

As I have often written, time is such a difficult subject, but nonetheless a fascinating one. But in this essay I want to direct my reader’s attention to another fascinating issue about time. It is the notion of the benefit of “Spare Time”. The traditional Protestant ethic would suggest that having spare time is surely […]

If you were a book, you would be a book of memories. The idea that your memories make you who you are is a common one. They are probably not the whole story of you but it is difficult to deny that they are a significant part of that story. Mark Rowlands Professor of Philosophy […]

Perhaps the most famous quote attributed to Socrates is: An unexamined life is not worth living. It is undoubtedly true that to be a well-functioning, competent human being requires that we have adequate self-knowledge. We need to be realistically aware of our strengths and weaknesses, our skills and vulnerabilities. So there is indeed value in […]

It is an inevitable consequence of growing older that we increasingly know more people who have died! We dutifully attend funerals and endure endless eulogies. To begin with we are often introduced to the deceased by a religious person officiating at the funeral of someone who barely entered a church in their lives. This well-meaning […]

Western civilisation was built on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Most of us are probably more familiar with Christianity than we are with Judaism. But Judaism has a long (predating Christianity), colourful history. It is the oldest of the religions of “The Book” and the antecedent of Christianity and Islam. According to Jewish folklore, the Maccabees were […]

Whilst I have written on this subject before, I believe it is worthwhile revisiting the topic again because the Federal Liberal Party is currently trying to formulate a policy on immigration to take to the next election. They have just successfully compiled a policy on energy where they have (sensibly in my view) walked back […]

As you undoubtedly would know by now, the person who had the biggest influence on my career as an executive was the late Dr Pill Harker. Whilst Phil helped me understand the basic psychology of human beings, he was sometimes naïve about the politics of organisations. Nevertheless I will be eternally grateful to him for […]

Having studied physics, chemistry and mathematics, I have always been intrigued by what is the nature of the natural world. Conventional science would have us believe that science is about “discovering” the Laws of Nature that have governed the Universe since its creation. If you are religious you probably believe that God laid down these […]

I am now in my eightieth year and remain a loyal and grateful Australian. As others have rightfully said, “To be born Australian is akin to winning the Lotto”. But being Australian has become more problematic in recent decades. As a young man, I and my peers were unabashedly patriotic. Sometimes our beliefs might have […]