It’s that time again. Labor Senator Claire Moore has sent me, courtesy of her taxpayer-funded electoral allowance, a deceptively non-partisan appearing form to request a postal vote…. but in reality a camouflaged party information gathering tool that is open to abuse. The word “Labor” appears nowhere. Everything about the form looks “official” .. i.e. “neutral”. [...]
Tags:2010 election·abuse·deception·Greens·Jane Prentice·Labor·LNP·postal vote·postal vote application·privacy·Queensland·Ryan·Senator Claire Moore·The Parties
Three images of oil that speak for themselves. The first, courtesy of Paul Rademacher’s site, shows the extent of the BP oil spill in relation to S.E. Queensland. It completely dwarfs not just the electorate of Ryan, but would extend from Noosa to Ballina on the NSW coast, and from Stanthorpe in the south-west to a [...]
Tags:Energy Policy·Environment·Oil·oil spill·Paul Rademacher·peak oil·Queensland·Steve Sorrell·URR
Given the current furore over the super-profit tax, and claims by the miners that we risk the country’s economic well-being if a tax of this type is introduced, we should also ask what effects the mining industry imposes on the rest of the economy. There are many ways this can be assessed. The classic “Dutch [...]
As a university student in the 1970′s I was given a slender volume written by the UC Berkely economic historian Carlo Cippolla, Economic History of World Population (1962). No other book has ever changed my view of the world so much. In laying out the story of human life through the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, [...]
Tags:2010·candidate·Environment·federal election·Greens·Queensland·Ryan·Ryan electorate·Sandra Bayley
This week the ABC reported on poverty in Logan, SE Queensland, leading to record queues for free food donated by The Tribe of Judah church on “Free Food Fridays”. According to the report, the church is“doing its bit to relieve the strain of the global financial crisis”. There’s no doubt that significant poverty exists in [...]
Tags:Coltart·hunger·Logan·Mugabe·poverty·Queensland·Zimbabwe