Slumbering Green

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...