Slumbering Green

I live in Sydney and I don’t like to brag, but on 15 December – when QR code use in NSW was scrapped – I presciently tweeted the following: I don’t think we’ll have lockdowns again but QR code and mask use probably will stay .. Today it was announced that, in New South Wales, QR code use would return. It was also announced that, in Victoria, indoor mask use might be expanded. Mask use is already mandatory in Victorian shops and on public transport there (it’s mandatory on public transport in NSW). Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that, in South Africa, where the Omicron variant of Covid-19 first appeared, infections are declining after a short, sharp spike for about a month. It looks promising. Every day Australians are watching the news avidly as the main drama is playing out in our communities at large. We know how addicted to drama people are – news stories are written to encapsulate conflict in order to draw our eyes, and the number of OTT services serving up movie...

On 8 December at 10.30am (or thereabouts, I can’t be arsed checking the numbers again) I tweeted: I'd be surprised if Berejiklian runs for federal seat of Warringah ... she'd want to avoid the controversy if the ICAC report (not expected for some time) is worse than PM Morrison suspects it might b. To prove that I’m generous with my praise at 9.20am the next day (yesterday) I posted this little sally: Brave of PM to publicly invite Gladys B as a refusal might indicate (in some ppl’s eyes) that she thinks he’s a lame duck. Shows courage of his convictions. I don’t mind, you can flame me. Feel free. Take your best shot. I think Gladys B was a brilliant premier and I know that Morrison is genuine – even though most people I know think he’s something like a snake oil salesman – because he thinks the same. It’s not every day that a politician changes an entire community. And because New South Wales immunised itself in advance of the rest of the country when Michael Rowland on the br...

Like everyone I’ve been watching the news reports about the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation of former New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian. She must now be feeling like someone with a car right on her rear bumper bar – this happened to me just the other day and I pulled over to let the guy pass me and go on his way (but in Berejiklian’s case she’s the target and so won’t be able to get away). Not in the short term anyway. Longer-term she’ll emerge from this debacle prosperous in some other walk of life and in five years’ time when people report on her activities the community’ll need reminding of why she quit office. What she’ll definitely be remembered for will be her generosity. Berejiklian’s urge to help other people is what made her such a great premier but it’s what led her to indulge Daryl Maguire as well. Berejiklian identified transport as a big issue for Sydneysiders so embarked in an extensive program of spending on roads and rail. She saw that...

Controversy is the business model of News Corp and recent events have shown it to be led by individuals who are masters at keeping the heat turned up to just under boiling point. ‘Media Watch’ on 18 October concentrated entirely on News Corporation in an attempt to try to understand the latest switch – Rupert Murdoch’s reported stance with regard to the issue of climate change – which has helped the ruling Liberal-National coalition adjust its own position as well as keeping managers actively involved in the public sphere.  This is their natural element and, rather than being fazed by controversy, they welcome it because it results in more clicks on stories and therefore more advertising dollars. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Paul Barry noted, furthermore, major advertisers like the NRMA and Coles have started to adjust their policies – and publicly air them – so it’s become incumbent on media executives to conform. As I pointed out in January, what’s more, global m...

In a way it was the ideal timing for Gladys Berejiklian to leave office: just before Freedom Day, at a time when the people of New South Wales prepare for opening up, for haircuts, for weddings, for convivial gatherings in pubs where relieved hosts are stocking up on supplies. Dominic Perrottet was right to thank the people of the state he leads. It’s been their dedication to equity and an ingrained aversion to death and suffering that has brought us to this happy place, just a few short days away from liberty. On LinkedIn I left unanswered a comment on a post a woman’d made about her time as Berejiklian’s speechwriter. Berejiklian was also in the habit of thanking people for doing the right thing. The LinkedIn comment came from an American who so deplored the lockdowns that he said our state was reviled Stateside, but when I went back to the page to find what he’d written later, days after I’d first read his words, they’d been deleted. I regretted his feelings of remorse because I wan...

Sydney residents will understand immediately where I’m coming from. Labor has form when it comes to denigrating the contributions made by people born overseas, or of their children. For me this current debate – which centres on the party’s moves to push aside a candidate from a CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) background in favour of Senator Christina Kenneally – has strong echoes of 2019.  Kenneally had been in danger of slipping down the ladder of places in the list of Senate candidates , so wanted to move to the lower house of Federal Parliament in order to stay there. The casualty was Tu Le, who’d already put herself forward for Fowler.  But on 25 March 2019 the ABC ran a story that contained this:  NSW Labor leader Michael Daley has announced that he will be standing aside as the state's Opposition Leader until the upcoming federal election is over, calling it "the right and proper thing to do". A little before that date he made a gaffe that cemented his...

Labor’s shifting of the chairs on the deck of its powerful cruise liner goes some of the way but perhaps more needs to be done to make the party for victory at the next federal poll. The political landscape has changed since the first half of the year , when it seemed that nothing Labor did could cut through. Covid has scotched that deathless purgatory and the party is now setting its sights on government.  A few niggling obstacles remained to be cleared away when I wrote that post. One which had been removed, and which I refer to in the story linked above, is the decision to reverse a policy on franking credits. This is where people who get income from shares are paid the equivalent of what the company those shares are linked to paid in corporate tax. For context, a relevant media story appeared on 2 January: Labor has been reevaluating its prospects since then and has now dumped two other signature tax policies – the one that would’ve seen the ability to deduct expenses relating ...

It’s tragic that there have been additional deaths due to Covid’s recent surge through suburbs in southwestern Sydney, parts of the city that are not foremost when it comes to knowing who’s been vaccinated. I’m particularly troubled on account of these deaths, since in my personal life there has been a similar tragedy to make memorable a period of time that otherwise would’ve been notable, in my recollection, for the fact that I reached a personal goal (losing 35kg). On the other hand it seems as though the sense of urgency that the current outbreak of Covid has produced in people is working to do what hadn’t previously been done. I wrote about the government’s need to get more people vaccinated at the beginning of May but little at all in the way of new ideas resulted when I first made those comments online. Now that people are starting to fall victim to the virus the government – and, more importantly, the people – are beginning to take steps to ensure that a larger number get the j...

It’s inevitable. Even the Nationals’ installation of Barnaby Joyce cannot stop the progress of change. You see the signs everywhere you turn. Some objects are just too big to halt once they have started moving. While ads for utes continue to depict Australians enjoying the great outdoors, the press of ads on Facebook for solar panel installers drips like a raw wound. It’s even questionable whether the Coalition’s pledge to build a gas-fired power station in the Hunter Valley is tenable. On Twitter, where there’s a lively commentary held every day mostly among people who sit on the Left side of the political spectrum, a feeling of unreality persists. When Joe Biden, the US’ game president, pledged to reduce carbon emissions – a call echoed by European leaders – there was universal condemnation on Twitter for the government here in Australia. The gas plant announcement had just been made and people were unhappy. But the writing is on the wall. Even Mathias Cormann, who once sat in Canber...

The taste of burnt flesh must be ambrosia for the old pollies of the venerable Australian Labor Party, shocked by the failure of the NSW Branch to make a dent in the authority of the Liberal-National Coalition in the state. The by-election on the weekend furnishing material for a hundred editorials on Monday morning. The online commentariat has launched a thousand arrows of hatred at journalists who’ve fed the beast they themselves create in aggregate. It started a couple of weeks ago with an editorial by old Labour blowhard Tony Blair, the UK’s prime minister before the Tories got their hands on the reins of power a decade ago. It’s been a decade in NSW for the LNP (the conservative coalition) as well. Years of pent-up anger at a fate that has served to bring to power in the United States a Democratic Party that seems confident of years of success. But their success is an index of Labor (and Labour) banishment because the Dems are as left-wing as a UK conservative party. Or an Austral...

The economy is suffering because of closed borders. To allow students and migrants to come back in – let alone tourists – we need new measures to speed up what is turning into an embarrassment for the government. The censure from the right must be the thing that is most painful for Morrison and Frydenberg, Dutton and Hunt, because it means that their traditional friends are getting tired of typical Liberal do-in-on-the-cheap measures. This kind of approach has seen the use of hotels for quarantine instead of special fit-for-purpose bases out in regional areas. Labor wouldn’t have let things get this bad, and would have done what they normally do – spend money – in order to open up a vicious bottleneck. The vaccination delay is bad enough without also having to shut down flights from overseas that universities and landlords – many of whom have seen rents collapse due to low demand in the property market – wish would resume. Many businesses that usually benefit from the economic activity...

Some weeks back when India wasn’t in the public eye a famous comic made fun of Scott Morrison’s wife on account of a rather ordinary photo. The prime minister had earlier been brought to tears on camera after allegations of rape arose in Canberra that were connected to his political party, the Liberals (the main conservative party in Australia). But Magda Szubanski’s attack – harnessing the power of a favoured woke celebrity (the Canadian author Margaret Atwood) – was below the belt. Now, the PM has trolled the left by threatening Australians returning from India with jail time. So far, no such matter has got to court so it’s still arguable if the policy would be able to operate, but at least people have stopped talking about women. In fact, that’s not right. For today the Liberals took a leaf out of my playbook and launched a childcare offer for young mothers that will go some way toward relieving women of a burden they carry due to the biological imperative as well as custom.  T...

If we think the media coverage of the obsequies is overbearing, then imagine what it’s going to be like when Elizabeth passes away. Personally, what struck me most forcefully amid all of the fandango – see photo below for the Channel Nine news desk on the Saturday: a farrago of kitsch made more convincing by the sleazy reputation of the outlet bearing this gift – were Charles’ expressions of sadness. “My dear papa,” he said, was loved and missed. And this from a man who’d been forced by that same father to avoid marrying the woman he loved. Instead Charles married Lady Diana Spencer and we know what tragedy ensued as a result. An incalculable burden for their two sons and a general sense of misgiving in the hearts of millions of people living in the UK and in Commonwealth countries.  Just imagine how much better the world would be without this shared source of pain and suffering. An Philip was largely responsible. Perhaps this is why he offered to walk beside Harry and William behi...

Linda Reynolds’ humiliating backdown in the face of public outcry about her handling of a case of sexual abuse in Parliament showed me that things are the same now in workplaces as they were when I worked in offices. Calling a staffer a “lying cow” didn’t appear to me to be at all striking. In fact, it seemed to fit the patterns of behaviour that had been followed by the – male and female – bosses I’d worked for for decades. Hyper-aggressive and partisan conduct is rewarded by organisations that want to succeed. So toxic masculinity is the lifeblood of the Australian workplace.  Anything except an exception for if you want to be successful in an institution you have to be able to lie convincingly and toe the line. Loyalty and duplicity are vigorously rewarded and Reynolds’ response to Brittany Higgins – the staffer who was subject to an assault in Parliament – is symptomatic of this. Deny, deny, deny. Attack, attack, attack. The funny thing is that the people who are most vocal on ...

While it’s laudable that so much attention has been focused on the treatment of women by a minority of people – blokes who, by their depraved conduct, let the side down – perhaps this is a good time to think about real change that can be brought forward. Let’s not leave the cutting of the prosperity gap as a task for a future generation. For years now we’ve been hearing of older women in the rental market who’re struggling to put food on the table. Many women also suffer financially due to their loss of years used for childrearing. Years out of work due to the need to look after kids. Superannuation at retirement lower than men. No ownership of the home.  Poverty after fifty-five can be particularly galling for women who’ve contributed to society in all manner of ways only to find themselves trying to pay the rent out of their pension. It pushes people away from major urban collectives to the fringes in rural and regional Australia – where services are not as good as they are in th...

While the rest of the country is getting exercised about other things, I thought it timely to return to a topic that had legs in 2019 when Labor lost an election it was, apparently, going to win by a mile. Talk of another election has been hosed down by the prime minister, but it won’t be too long before these issues will again start to enter the public sphere. Sometime in the early part of this year, Labor publicly announced that it would drop the policy whereby a tax credit would not be paid to retired shareholders on account of tax paid by companies. This sounds pretty arcane and marginal but if you’re living on uncertain income from investments – as retirees all are – then it sort of becomes a big deal. Franking credits are tax refunds available for retired shareholders. Because companies pay income tax, the government decides that shareholders do not have to pay tax on dividends paid to them as a result of owning shares. Under the existing system, even if you pay no income tax, yo...

Early on the morning of 23 February news about JobSeeker started to trickle out through the webs, first with a story on the Sydney Morning Herald website, then one on the Guardian ’s website. The SMH said JobSeeker would go up by $80 and fortnight and the Guardian said it would go up by $50 a fortnight.  Either way, it was disappointing. Though to get any movement on the unemployment benefit was a good thing. It just wasn’t far enough to make a real difference to the way people are affected by unemployment. As I’ve pointed out before , Covid-19 has changed the debate about government support. We now know that the cost to the collective from doing things for others is not insurmountable. The old right-wing consensus has been badly eroded and people understand, now, that doing things together is better, sometimes, than always making people function as atomised individuals. Shared destiny is a witness to hope. Every cent spent on JobSeeker will go back into the economy, as people use...

It’s not just news organisations that have been inconvenienced but even the Bureau of Meteorology, Australian Council of Social Services, and other organisations that provide critical information to the community. Facebook’s overbearing flexing of its corporate muscle to silence people needs to be met with alternative arrangements in the form of legislation – which both sides of the political divide could sponsor – that would bring the tech giant to heel. Who decided what gets published in Australia? Is it the people of Australia and the elected representatives of the nation – a proud nation of individualists that has seen its fair share of collective suffering and joy – or else a small coterie of highly-paid offshore executives whose sole mission in life seems to be avoiding paying taxes? Time for Australia to stand up and be counted. So far, it’s been a matter of people being asked politely on TV to go to the native website of the organisation or news outlet to find the information t...

Well, Donald Trump was just the first of many, it seems. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday – “Craig Kelly cops one-week Facebook ban for COVID-19 misinformation” – other politicians are fair game when it comes to censorship.   Now, I’m not a supporter of Kelly, who I view as a slightly toned-down version of Pauline Hanson, but social media companies that take action to suspend the accounts of politicians, or to remove posts they’ve made on the platforms, are indeed, as Leigh Sales proposed recently, walking a fine line. It’s instructive, perhaps, that the same day the Facebook ban of Kelly was announced I posted on Twitter: We need "woke police" to make sure ppl are liking the right things. Mb Twitter can set up an AI bot to do this, just give people suggestions or else block "likes" that are illegal. This was in response to a post by Glenn Greenwald, a journalist based in Brazil, who’d written: I was just reading on smart-liberal media Twitter earli...

If Barilaro’s tumbling verbiage weren’t indicator enough Peter Dutton’s scrambling for coherence yesterday must show that the clock has – finally – struck the witching hour. As the Guardian reported: Labor’s immigration spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, has attacked the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton over a fast-tracked grant to the National Retailers Association, which he denies was influenced by a donation. Here’s Kenneally on ABC News at just a few minutes after 8am yesterday answering reporters’ questions. The Liberals have form. We shouldn’t forget the water buybacks scandal that animated Twitter in April 2019. In that case, government looked guilty but nothing was proven. There was also the Paladin case , centred on a company that had provided services to the government on Manus Island, where Australia used to operate a refugee camp and where a number of refugees the country has so far refused to accommodate are still living (in the general community).  Given all thi...

A breath of fresh air descended onto my Twitter feed: federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese was ignoring the poor job Shorten had made of industrial relations. With new legislation before federal Parliament dealing with casualisation, Ablo’d seen an opportunity to do a Howard on Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Remember WorkChoices? Their passage by John Howard under a previous Liberal-National coalition government led to the loss of power and – for Howard himself – the loss of his seat. The only surviving part of the original Australian settlement of a century before was being attacked and workers rallied to unseat the abuser. Here's Krinatina Kenneally – a senator – talking industrial relations on ABC News channel this morning. The Sydney Morning Herald – which has published a good backgrounder on the debate – seems to be of two minds about Labor’s and the Coalition’s plans, and have written their story with the debate as a locus of conflict headlining two battling politicians. T...

On Tuesday 8 February – hardly a significant day in the calendar – John Barilaro, deputy premier and leader of the New South Wales Nationals (part of a conservative political party with its roots in rural and regional areas) was up against questioning by Greens Member of the Legislative Council David Shoebridge. The subject was the use of funds allocated for projects to offset the negative impact of heavy bushfires last summer. Shoebridge was later shuffled onto the set at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s for display in the evening’s ‘7.30’ program (see photo). He’s a tough adversary to have and his points were well taken by the community, many of whom sympathised with local government areas that missed out on allocations. Barilaro said that such submissions were eliminated from competition due to not meeting various elements of the guidelines set by the state government. But his words had a hollow sound. Gladys Berejiklian – the state premier – faced similar accusations put b...

It’s been the best part of a decade since I’ve been writing about greentech and innovation in the environment space. In March 2013 I consolidated my experience and wrote about the carbon price, which was introduced but which – following the Liberal-National coalition’s electoral win in September of that year and despite the stock market taking no notice of the carbon price – was abolished.  Within two years the architect of elimination – Tony Abbott – would be out of office and a new leader appointed in his place. Malcolm Turnbull immediately started to make noises about greentech. Julie Bishop appeared on-camera from Paris in the wake of the COP21 talks aimed at gaining global agreement on what to do about climate change. It was all "technology" and "innovation", with the foreign minister parroting what the new PM had been rabbiting on about on TV for months. Until this year that was about all we heard about technological solutions – and the attendant profitability...

We’ve seen the government pour billions of dollars into the economy through handouts to companies and individuals. Even that we’re having a debate about what used to be called Newstart (unemployment benefits now renamed “JobSeeker” to match with JobKeeper – a special Covid allowance given to companies whose revenues had dropped significantly due to the virus) is cause for celebration. But there’s more. We’ve seen state governments try to address the problem of cost-of-living notably, for example, in New South Wales – Australia’s most populous state and where (in Sydney) the nation’s highest housing prices are to be found – under, surprisingly, a Liberal-National Coalition government. The conservatives are normally all for the working of the free market and for small government, but Gladys Berejiklian and her ministers and their officials have come up with a plan to include social housing in some new developments. What’s now called the Waterloo Estate was called the Endeavour Estate whe...