On Q&A Hockey was asked by a young woman why pads and tampons should carry a GST while “condoms, lubricants, sunscreen and nicotine patches are all tax-free”. Of course economic orthodoxy says they should all be taxed, but Hockey agreed with her and has undertaken to put the matter to the states. Continue reading Saturday salon 30/5
Abbott has been in several kinds of trouble over his latest idea about stripping terrorists of their citizenship. Continue reading Stripping citizenship is simplistic and dangerous
We’ve just broken some more global warming records. January-April was the hottest on record and May 2014–April 2015 was the hottest 12-month period on record. Continue reading Climate clippings 140
As noted in Climate Clippings 139 (Item 5) the new Queensland Labor Government has committed to a 50% renewable energy target by 2030 so I was interested to attend a public forum last week on the future of electricity in Queensland, chaired by John Davidson as convenor of the West Brisbane Branch of the Queensland Greens. Speakers were John Foster, Professor of Economics at Queensland University, Murray Craig, Managing Director of Solar Centre and Charles Worringham, spokesperson for the Queensland Greens. Continue reading The future of electricity in Queensland
The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse continues to amaze, this time with the horrific abuse in the Diocese of Ballarat. At the same time we find that the Catholic Church will continue to use the so-called Ellis defence, whereby it can’t be sued for compensation because it does not technically exist as a legal entity. Continue reading Saturday salon 23/5
Ironically one of the biggest benefits to the environment could come from “Tony’s tradies” in the form of rooftop solar. One of the benefits to small business is the ability to write off immediately as a tax deduction business expenditure to the extent of $20,000. Continue reading Budget 2015: the environment
Newspoll, which is the poll pollies are said to take notice of, moved from 52-48 in favour of Labor to 53-47 after the budget. Not that you’d know from ABC radio, which was spruiking the Fairax/Ipsos poll which came in at 50-50. A month ago it was 54-46 in favour of Labor. Continue reading Abbott back in the game after the budget
In the link above, Graham Readfearn goes into some detail on the likely melting prospects of East Antarctica in particular. The salient points are as follows: Continue reading Climate clippings 139
This post is a photo essay on the most beautiful and interesting private garden I’ve ever seen or am likely to see. Continue reading Glen Aplin garden splendour
Listening to Bill Shorten’s budget reply speech, I was reminded on my son Mark’s statement of what people want from politics in his book Queensland: Everything you ever wanted to know, but were afraid to ask. Continue reading What people want from politics: Shorten’s budget reply
Judith Sloan said the budget was “a classic case of politics trumping policy”, with a focus on the Coalition’s core constituency. Paul Kelly is on a similar theme: Continue reading Politics trumps policy? Budget 2015
