Depression seems to be the plague of the 20th and 21st centuries. There is no physical or mental dysfunction that has such an ubiquitous and deleterious impact. The World Health Organisation has predicted that by 2020, unipolar depression will be second largest health problem in the world. Unfortunately, psychiatrists and psychologists have overwhelmingly come to […]

During my career in the Electricity Industry, Australia had some of the lowest electricity prices in the world. In Queensland for many years, under the guidance of Electricity Commissioner Neil Galway, we had the challenging target of keeping increases in electricity charges to less than half of CPI increases. As a result for many years, […]

In the lead up to the same-sex marriage decision, Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull acknowledged that some people with conventional religious beliefs believed that legislating for same-sex marriage would impinge on their ability to freely advocate and act on their religious convictions. Turnbull assured them that he would ensure that their rights to religious freedom would […]

When I was young, our family house was only a hundred metres or so away from the railway line. As well, my father worked for Queensland Rail for many years. Consequently it wasn’t surprising that I took an interest in trains, rolling stock and all that goes on above and around the rail tracks. In […]

When describing our landscape we find much that is attractive – verdant green pastures,  majestic forests, rippling streams and, of course the beautiful blue sky. Let us focus a little on the latter. When we look up at the heavens we can be faced with a myriad of vistas. The sky is often obscured from […]

In the early years of Australia’s history, legislation was inevitably weighted in the favour of business and to the detriment of employees. Initially trade unions were suppressed on the basis of being a “restraint on trade”. In general, the law required absolute obedience of employees to the whims of employers. Any act of disobedience could […]

It seems that more and more of us take our cherished freedoms for granted. Recent surveys of young people indicate that many of them see no great advantage in our democratic way of life. Sure, I guess many of them have known no other way and haven’t had to struggle as our forefathers did to […]

When I look back at our household when I was young, I can’t but help admire my parents’ tenacity and resilience.  When I was a child I had no perception that we were poor, and compared to some around us, we weren’t. My mother was frugal and as early as March would start putting a […]

Every now and then, after a little nagging, my wife prevails on me to clean up the cupboards in my office. I am a little sentimental and that causes me to be somewhat of a hoarder of the various mementos and awards I have collected over my career. In cleaning out recently, I came across […]

It is within my mind, then, that I measure time. I must not allow my mind to insist that time is something objective. When I measure time, I am measuring something in the present of my mind. Either this is time or I don’t know what time is. St Augustine, Book Xl of the Confessions. […]