Times are tough if you are an Australian worker. Not only are unemployment levels presently high (currently around 6%) but wages in real terms are falling (except those who are ensconced in feather-bedded public sector jobs). Now, as I have argued in previous essays, one of the major reasons for these dismal outcomes is the […]

Some of you have remarked to me how difficult it must be to define a topic each week, research it and then write an essay to post for you. In reality it is not usually hard because I write about things that have interest to me and that have often come up in discussion with […]

Life has many disappointments. There wouldn’t be a human alive that has not experienced a disappointment when fervently hoping for a better outcome. And this week we were bound for more disappointment as this year’s “closing the gap” statistics were released. But those of us who wished to see our indigenous compatriots prosper have had […]

A friend just recently commented that he thought my thoughts about militant Islamism had changed over recent times. That is no doubt true. But it also provided a spur to me to summarise what I currently think on this issue. This short essay seeks to do just that. It is difficult to understand the phenomenon […]

This is the week of Australia Day. First up on the day, while it was still cool (36 degrees being the forecast maximum), I did something very Australian and mowed the lawn. Then I sat down to read the newspaper. I couldn’t help peruse the Australia Day honours list to see who I knew had […]

The underlying platform of our liberal democracies is derived from our freedom of speech. There is nothing more important to an enlightened society. Yet, today, it seems to me that our freedom of speech is being constantly eroded. With that our way of life is being threatened. As you can see, I have titled this […]

With the ubiquitousness of social media, it’s now almost impossible to keep anything to yourself! The tentacles of Facebook and Twitter reach into every crevice of our psyche and overturn every metaphorical stone we seek to hide something under. Sometimes reputations are destroyed by anonymous commentators who operate with malignant intent and no accountability. Often […]

I have always enjoyed sport. When I was young I played cricket, rugby league and basketball with varying degrees of success but with considerable enjoyment. The teams I played in were not champion teams and we probably lost more often than we won. But that was character building as well. I also competed in athletics […]

So, another year has passed. There is nothing particularly special about that but I am heartily sick of people saying to me, “Where did the year go! It seemed to go so quickly.” In fact it went where every other year we have experienced went. (It is as though they expected to turn a rock […]

“If you open your mind too much, your brain may fall out!” Attributed to The Telegraph commenting on a video purporting to show an alien body being dissected. (Although I have also noticed someone recently attributing it to G K Chesterton!) It seems a harmlessly endearing quality of the human race that it seems capable […]