Labor's promise to implement an independent Speaker of the House of Representatives is, as Christopher Sheil comments, a potentially major reform. It deserves a post of its own, because if implemented it would greatly improve the standard of Parliamentary conduct and debate, a...
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Ken Parish has most graciously allowed me room to opine on politics, without me having to go to the bother of re-establishing a blog of my own. Time pressures mean that posting from this quarter will be erratic at best, but I hope to pop by once in a while to give my own 0.02...
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Christopher Sheil claims today's Newspoll result means that things are "sweet as a nut" for the ALP at this stage of the campaign. He explains his spin this way: [Y]ou don't want to be way ahead at this stage. Given probabilities and margins of error, a big lead increases the...
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It's not likely that I'll ever emulate Gummo Trotsky and base my blogging on cooking recipes. Not that I'm all that bad a cook, mind you. But being in a solo domestic phase, I usually can't be bothered cooking unless my daughter Rebecca is coming around for dinner. Even then,...
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I still can't get motivated to write anything analytical about politics, despite the federal election campaign entering its fair dinkum phase. I tried to generate some political coverage on Troppo by emailing Scott Wickstein to see whether he intended making good on an earlier...
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Yes alright, the election is on 9 October. So?* The big news of the day is that Kerry Armstrong has slagged our Kylie and our Nicole: "I truly believe with acting and singing those two have done more damage than anyone I've ever seen," she said. "I really do believe there is a...
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Maybe I'm a bit strange but it occurs to me that casting a vote purely on the basis of your sexuality is a pretty dumb way to exercise your democratic franchise. I share this insight because there's a campaign underway within the gay community to punish the ALP for supporting...
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He's an evil bastard, that Latham. Now he's suborned a couple more generals to back up that porn-perving prick Scrafton. Lucky the Great Leader's still got some loyal staffers who can corroborate his story. He never told them about Scrafton mentioning anything apart from that...
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Don Arthur has finally solved his home computer problems by investing in a second hand iMac, and has made yet another comeback to blogging. During his previous blogging life, I had classified Don as "centrist" by inclination. I was mistaken. Don is undeniably of the left, and...
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Richard "Justinian" Ackland focuses on defamation law in his column in today's SMH, pointing out that Commonwealth A-G Phillip Ruddock's ambit claim for a uniform national defamation law includes a proposal that would allow the estates of dead people to sue for defamation with...
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One of the things you can do on a blog that you can't necessarily do in the mainstream media is run stories that can't be fully corroborated. This is one of them. Readers will recall that I ran a post the other day about NT Administrator Ted Egan's breach of the conventions go...
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This story won't please Professor Bunyip , whose third greatest pleasure in life (after castigating Phillip Adams for alleged serial plagiarism, and futilely fantasising about fornicating with firm young female flesh) is ridiculing the commercial acumen of Fairfax boss Fred Hi...
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John Quiggin has suggested that detained asylum seekers should be released on "bail" pending finalisation of their visa applications and appeals. It's a suggestion that I've also previously made, although in the context of implementation of a revived "Australia Card" secure na...
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One of the many great things about the blogosphere is that when you get bored with the political stuff (as I am at the moment - I can't even be bothered reading it let alone writing about it), there are usually more intimate posts to read and ponder. And some of them are very...
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Christopher Sheil has an excellent parsing and analysis of John Howard's "denial" statement in relation to the Scrafton allegations. As I mentioned in Chris's comment box, the critical weasel aspect is that Howard's statement in his initial paragraph " I had spoken to Mr Scraf...
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I wonder how many readers saw last night's ABC Four Corners program and, like me, were depressed if not horrified by the apparent degradation of the US criminal justice system by an extreme version of "plea bargaining", where not only do prosecutors and defence lawyers bargain...
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I attempted to kick-start a broad-based comment box discussion about vice-regal appointments in the Australian constitutional system. Unfortunately I failed completely. It occurs to me that it may be because I posted my comments under a post about Northern Territory Administra...
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I'm too depressed to talk about last night's Wallabies versus Springboks Tri-Nations decider. Fortunately Chris Sheil has fought off the after-loss lethargy and written a brief post-mortem update, and I managed to raise enough enthusiasm to insert some thoughts in his comment...
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it's my right to choose. I first heard about Phil Nitschke when he was working at Royal Darwin Hospital and he appeared in the local press waffling on about nuclear warships visiting Darwin and the lack of a disaster management plan in case an accident happened. The next time...
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The Northern Territory has its very own homegrown vice-regal constitutional crisis (well, controversy anyway). NT Administrator Ted Egan made some remarks about Aboriginal promised marriages on ABC TV Stateline last night, and is reported to have had a private conversation wit...
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Early Saturday morning ... crisp and cool ... managed to fight off insomnia and slept through the night ... looking forward to a delicious sleep-in ... BANG CRASH BANG BANG BANG ... LOUD VOICES. Christ what time is it? 6.30. Cunts. Blokes preparing for a fishing trip in the un...
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Given the slow and painful journey of middle-aged twice-bitten love, I was a bit disconcerted to read today's quotable quote in the NT News. It was by Bertrand Russell , and said: Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness. I personall...
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I may have given readers the impression that I think Clive Hamilton is as big a goose as Alexander Downer. In fact I think many of Hamilton's insights are very valuable, especially in focusing Australians on the deficiencies of global capitalist consumer culture and the relent...
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It's fashionable both in the mainstream media and blogosphere to portray Alexander Downer as an effeminate goose. He may well be, but that doesn't mean his statement that Australia would not necessarily support the US in a war with China over Taiwan was wrong, either factually...
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Signposts is another new blog I've just found and will link. It's a group blog that looks at politics from a Christian perspective. And I see that Chris Fryer , whose blog I also mentioned below, suffers from muscular distrophy . Jen is always asking me to tell her stories, an...
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Darp Hau's blog is another one I've just stumbled across as a result of his posting a comment about rugby. He's another depressed, besieged fellow Manly fan. And yet another blogger who's been banned by the lovely Andrea Harris, the obergrupenfuhrer at Tim Blair's blog. Darp h...
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Yesterday I put my parents on the GHAN which will take them back to dark and wet Adelaide. After a couple of months in the Top End they'll suffer the cold seeping into their 80 year old bones. I don't communicate well with my father but I make sure that we bump along so that w...
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I've been idly following the discussion in rugby league circles about the possibility of adding two new teams to the NRL, probably one on the Gold Coast and one on the NSW Central Coast. Rupert Online reported yesterday that the Gold Coast consortium was totally opposed to shi...
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Clive Hamilton is his own worst enemy. His current ham-fisted attempts to promote proposed ALP policies to impose filtering software on Internet Service Providers to protect children from Internet porn are a case in point. By making the utterly stupid statement that "[n]o man...
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Queuing at the CDU cafeteria bain marie. Takeaway lasagne and apple juice for lunch. " Hello, Mr Parish ," says the woman at the counter, plump, middle-aged with a pleasant face. I look puzzled. " I really know your face from somewhere ," she explains. " Were you an Anglicare...
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This article by Paul Kelly in today's Oz provides the best short summary I've seen so far of the whole "children overboard" saga and the dilemma Howard faced on election eve: Howard is right to argue that the "children overboard" story did not win him the election. It was a su...
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Well, it looks like those dodgy polls (Omnipoll and that other one) were correct. Newspoll also shows Labor in front and going away (54 to 46 per cent on a two-party preferred basis). No wonder Howard looked and sounded like a confused old man in his multiple press conferences...
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Have you ever noticed how, when you get a new car, you suddenly see that model everywhere (hasn't happened to me for a while - you should see my car - but I still remember)? Well the same thing is happening to me since I decided to update and expand the Troppo blogroll. I just...
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I've just added to the specialist section of the Troppo blogroll a blog started by frequent commenter Stan which examines the possibility of political union between the South Pacific island states, Australia and New Zealand. It's called the South Pacific Federation Project . I...
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( both via Chris Sheil ) I'm not sure whether calculated blindness is any less morally reprehensible than outright lying, but the revelation in this morning's Oz that John Howard did lie outright about children overboard, rather than just being kept in "plausibly deniable" ign...
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Re-arranging my blogroll has been a mixed blessing. The good part of it has been that several new-ish bloggers have been induced to post comments, and I've discovered their existence as a result. All have been added to the Troppo blogroll, because that's my policy: - I want it...
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This SMH article by Australian physicist/philosopher Paul Davies was published about 3 weeks ago. I intended to blog about it then but didn't get around to it. It deals with the fascinating subject of the possibility of multiple parallel universes (or multiverses), which I ass...
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I thought he was dead, but apparently not. Rupert's mob reports : Neil Diamond has lashed out at big-name performers who "rip people off", vowing no one will pay more than $99 to see him live in Australia. They'd have to pay me $99 to go to a Neil Diamond concert, and even the...
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JOHN HOWARD CANBERRA PRESS CONFERENCE 13:02 AM 12/8/04 HOWARD: I'd to thank you for all coming . I would like to discuss the spirit of the FTA which the leader of the opposition has so heinously ridiculed showing his anti-American and anti-religious fervour. Now we had quite d...
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The Troppo blogroll was getting far too long and intimidating for comfortable use. Accordingly I've decided to revert to a previous organisational principle, namely listing blogs in rough ideological sub-divisions. Along with the individual description tags attached to each hy...
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Margo Kingston's Web Diary is a bizarre, eclectic and idiosyncratic publication, mostly with a tiresomely left-wing bias. And Margo herself is a strange creature to say the least. I often find her journalistic efforts shrill and irrational. But a long article by Margo in today...
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Different bloggers write for different readers. Ken enjoys the cut and thrust of debate in the comments box with threads often attracting scores of extraordinarily erudite contributions to the debate. The Bunyip on the other hand, simply flings his vitriol into cyberspace with...
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The question of whether and to what extent international law norms ought to influence the interpretation of Australia's Constitution is one that aroused fairly heated debate between Justices McHugh and Kirby in the High Court's decision in Al-Kateb v Godwin handed down last Fr...
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This story from today's NT News (not online so I've reproduced it myself) gives a flavour of the subtlety and sophistication of political campaigning in Australia's north. It may be of some interest given that the federal seat held by the CLP's David Tollner is Australia's mos...
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In the wake of the Richard Butler gubernatorial resignation farce, George Williams floats an idea that I've been pushing on and off on this blog for a couple of years: The first priority should be public discussion about the appointment process. It can be changed without a ref...
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Christopher Sheil has a fairly short guest post by peripatetic blog commenter Peter Ransen musing about how Labor advertising should be framed for the forthcoming campaign. There are some interesting comment box posts, including one by yours truly. Troppo landlord Scott Wickst...
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Christopher Sheil has an interesting post in which he proposes abolishing the National Competition Council and using the $0.75 billion paid annually to the states and territories (as incentives to continue implementing Competition Guidelines) to fund national infrastructure. R...
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As others have no doubt noticed too, the Gravett Right Wing Death Beast Blog Empire has been off the air most of the time for the last fortnight or so. For this lover of blog bile, that leaves a yawning gap in my daily blog browsing. What with Tim Blair being away somewhere in...
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Al Bundy waxing lyrical from current bitter experience on the qualities necessary for public service promotion in Canberra (or, I would add, anywhere else): These people know 'superior performers' when they hear of one over their prawn toasts at a cocktail party. They're not a...
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The strategic release of a statement by 40 43 very senior retired military, diplomatic and public service heads calling for enhanced standards of truthfulness and accountability in government should by rights be a significant political development. These blokes aren't in the m...
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Chris Sheil's match preview ended up being pretty well spot on. The All Blacks tried to play the grinding, possession-based rugby they've reverted to this season with such success. However, except for the first 20 minutes, the Wallabies matched and then outpointed them 23-15....
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Quantum Meruit gives a young practitioner's perspective on the likelihood of truthfulness of certain evidence being given by a lawyer from Allens Arthur Robinson (acting for James Hardie) before the Jackson commission of inquiry. The general topic is one on which I also blogge...
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It's a wonderful day for a constitutional law academic. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! The High Court hands down two parallel decisions dealing with a plethora of subtle and interesting constitutional questions: the nature of judicial power and Chapter III of the Constitutio...
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Sometimes the generally sensible SMH legal affairs pundit Richard "Justinian" Ackland has a brain spasm. Today's column is an example. He argues that it's unfair for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions to use relatively new statutory powers to seize or freeze "chequebook j...
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Yesterday I mentioned Tim Dunlop's post on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme aspects of the Free Trade Agreement as telling us everything we need to know on the subject. But Chris Sheil's post is even better. What's more, most of the meaty detail and analysis of the pros and...
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Still procrastinating before the 5pm e-tutorial rush, so I'll whip around the newspapers as well: How long will it take Tim Blair to start slagging Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen following the announcement of a series of anti-Bush concerts with other noteworthies like Pearl Jam,...
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Needing a break from endless administrative and student support tasks generated by CDU's embarrassingly successful external law degree program, but lacking the energy to write anything original. Here's a mini-race-around of the blogs: Tim Dunlop has a long post setting out jus...
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Since I'm making insomniac posts that technically breach my resolution to have a holiday from blogging while finding and re-inserting my dummy, I thought it might be a good idea to explain the origin of the blog title "Troppo Armadillo" to readers. The "Troppo" bit is easy eno...
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A change is as good as a holiday, they say. But a change and a holiday as well is even better. Non-abusive feedback on the new style is welcome.
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The ALP has played an interesting card in the FTA debate. Yesterday the Labor caucus voted overwhelmingly to support the FTA. The FTA is of course a deal or no deal affair. Either it's accepted or it's not. Having done that, Labor then introduced two amendments to the enabling...
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My mum always used to say: " If you can't say anything nice about someone, don't say anything at all ." Mind you, that was usually after she'd made a decent hole in the cooking sherry, verbally knifed just about every neighbour and relative she had, and was looking for a way t...
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A brief update on my previous brief post about Christopher Hitchens' demolition of the increasingly self-parodying Phillip Adams. Professor Bunyip has skillfully dispatched Adams' ridiculous reply to the Hitchens article over the square leg boundary. A welcome return to top form.
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When I read in the Oz over the weekend that the Full Federal Court had allowed an appeal by the wife of disgraced bankrupt former Sydney QC John Cummins, I thought it must surely be a badly flawed, hometown decision. The case concerned whether assets Cummins had transferred to...
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Yes, I know the "triple bypass" label refers to the number of times Howard rose as Liberal leader, rather than his number of election victories. But it's still a good headline for a post about the latest Newspoll . Chris Sheil won't be happy, but he'll probably bear up under t...
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Given the extensive debate generated by my previous post about the ABC , it's worth highlighting an opinion piece in this morning's Oz by the egregious former Communications Minister Richard Alston's former adviser Andre Stein. Stein advocates a standard neoliberal, total dere...
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Paul Watson has noted , stylishly, that a feature story in yesterday's Oz looks, on the surface of it, to be a strange fit with the brief of the nation's daily newspaper. That thought had also occurred to me. The gist of the story is pretty unremarkable on the face of it, thou...
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This review of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 by Darlene on Ambit Gambit is well worth reading. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I suspect my reaction is likely to be similar.
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The Peter Principle holds that employees in any organisation are promoted up to their level of incompetence, and then cling relentlessly to a job they're incapable of performing. It's a phenomenon especially evident in the Northern Territory. Much of the population is so mobil...
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'Fisking' (defined here and here ) was an often irritating aspect of the blogging genre, that seems to have fallen out of favour over the last year or so. Probably that was for a very good reason: too often bloggers resorted to 'fisking' mostly because they were too lazy or in...
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