Australia’s Looming Electricity Catastrophe

The overwhelming victory by Labor in the recent Federal Election will have many flow-on effects. One of the more disastrous will be Labor doubling down on its renewable energy policy. Chris Bowen is already claiming the victory as a mandate to continue his reckless pursuit of renewable energy. It is an assertion that is pretty […]

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A Last Salute to the Good Dr Phil

  My friend of 40 years has now departed this earth. Dr Phil Harker my long-time associate and mentor has left his body and gone to a better place. The world is diminished with his passing. I first met Phil sometime around 1986 when he was part of a selection panel assessing applicants to be […]

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The Creation of History

My long suffering readers will be aware of my fascination with time. It seems indisputable that, no matter how you construe time, the only reality is “now”. No sentient being is able to access any time other than the present. In essence we reconstruct the past and we imagine the future. Mind you some of […]

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Make Australia Great Again!

It’s not hard to make the argument that on many fronts Australia has regressed in recent years. Our standard of living in real terms has diminished over the term of the Albanese government. Whilst our GDP, masked by record migration might have increased, our percapita GDP has fallen. We have endured high levels of inflation […]

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The Waning of Woke?


Whilst in my younger years I was much more progressive in my political point of view, as often seems to be the trend (we can only hope for the same with Greta Thunberg!), But as I’ve grown older I must confess I have become more conservative in my thinking (in case you haven’t noticed). My […]

January 28, 2025

Some More Thoughts on Knowing, Consciousness and Time


In 2009 I published a little book of parables which was titled Augustus Finds Serenity. In the introduction to the book, I outlined the reason why I had sought to use the medium of metaphor and parable to outline the concepts that I thought were useful in helping people live more fulfilled lives. I started […]

January 18, 2025

In the Beginning


In the Beginning In The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews sang: Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.. (Lyrics from Something Good.) I suspect she wasn’t trying to make a philosophical statement but in fact she made a very profound statement. When we study cosmology we try to understand how the universe began. Science suggests […]

January 5, 2025

Albanese’s Blind Spots


Albanese’s Blind Spots It is amazing how much the political world has changed in my lifetime. My father was a staunch Labor supporter. He had even been elected to the local council on the Labor ticket and served a couple of terms as a Labor alderman. Although he actually had many skills and was a […]

December 13, 2024

Unclear on Nuclear


The Albanese government has gotten us into a diabolical hole with its energy policy. Let me try to explain. Firstly you would have to concede that understanding our electricity system and the electricity market is quite a complex undertaking. I spent most of my professional career working as a manager in the electricity industry. Whilst […]

November 27, 2024

Our Woke Defence


I was astounded the other day to learn how the Government has set net zero emission targets for our defence forces. Our defence services are currently undermanned.(probably a politically incorrect word) and under provisioned. The government seems determined to hobble our defence capability. In an extraordinary display of wokeness it seems to believe it will […]

November 17, 2024

Diversity and the Decline of the West


Post-modernism has thrown up considerable challenges for Western societies. More and more it demands that minorities are given voices which is undoubtedly, usually, a good thing. But we continually have to mediate between listening to minorities and maintaining the welfare of the majority, for after all in a liberal democracy decisions should be made on […]

November 10, 2024

On Being Especially Ordinary


When I was a young power station manager I had an American engineer from Tennessee as my deputy. He told me a story about Abraham Lincoln. I can’t count for its veracity but I will repeat it just the same. At a function Lincoln was approached by a woman who gushed, “Mr Lincoln it is […]

October 29, 2024

Let’s Stand with Israel


It is now twelve months since Hamas terrorists perpetrated a huge atrocity against the people of Israel. The scale and the barbarity of this incursion is beyond the imagination of most civilised people. The abhorrent nature of the Islamist extremist perpetrators is highlighted at the joy they expressed at the killing of innocent citizens in […]

October 16, 2024

Challenging Truth


Humankind has now a long history of development and learning. Today’s Western societies in particular have been blessed with benefits that have accrued from the accumulation of knowledge over many centuries. But learning has often been challenged by contrasting ideas that have had to be adjudicated and eventually resolved before adding to the compendium of […]

October 3, 2024