Synopsis

• The crisis Australia is suffering did not start with the dropping by China. We have been suffering this for decades. But the China crisis brings it to a head.
• This crisis in dealing with waste calls for new initiatives and for a new era in which real bi-(multi-)partisan cooperation is a real possibility.
• The COAG get together of ministers for the environment is a real opportunity to take a completely new approach.

Well that was a year, that was! 2016? The year that they destroyed the meaning of the word #Census. And now we understand it was the year that they destroyed the meaning of the word #Centrelink, too.

2016. The #Censusfail year and the #Centrelinkfail year.

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is based on a lie. It's been happening since the mid 70s when US economist Milton Friedman & Austrian/British economist Friedrich Hayek finally threw out the long standing economic traditions of British economist John Maynard Keynes, (who had focussed on government policy to avoid the problems of unplanned market forces made clear in the 1929 crash), and replaced it with a return to *unrestrained competition*. Neoliberalism took up this argument with a passion.

#Bixit

The lie of Neoliberalism goes something like this:

Constitutional crisis?

That was a week, that was. Question, Mr Speaker: If the lying, cheating, rorting, corrupt, secretive, racist, child-molesting, rapist, murderous, incompetent, hypocritical (and I use these words advisedly) buffoons in Canberra offer you a "referendum or a plebiscite?", do you reply "please sir, I want some more?" or is it a Constitutional crisis?

Change of State Boundaries - Really?

Again we have talk of new States in Australia, as key people in the Northern Territory raise arguments for statehood.

On Friday 20 March, 2015 Australia lost an important voice. The voice of Malcolm Fraser. Here is a personal account of this moment.

Looking back: the siege mentality

Coming events

Early September, I knew the Sydney siege was on the agenda; I just didn’t know what it would look like or where or when it would happen. But Abbott appeared to be promoting a siege mentality (for his own reasons) and for me, this sort of thinking usually leads to nasty outcomes.

A more personal reflection of the Whitlam days and other similar irrelevancies

Here is a personal note by an old leftie looking back on Whitlam's 3 big years from Remembrance Day 11th of the 11th 2014

Looking back: Anzac Day marches in a small country town

For the first few years of my life, watching Anzac Day marches each year in the small country town of my birth, I was convinced they ended every public statement of honour and respect for the Diggers with the declaration:

“We will remember them (unless we forget)!”

Broad overview of evaluations via MSM & Social Media

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There are at least 100 things to take a look at at this point in the cycle.