Club Troppo

The author of this article at Online Opinion seems to think so. And it's a vaguely intriguing idea too; after all, lots of creative people live and experience reality rather closer to the edge than most of the rest of us. But there's an almost complete absence of evidence for...

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[photopress:GST.gif,full,centered] I've written previously about how lifting marginal rate thresholds is a preferable alternative to lowering tax rates (essentially because of the inequity and the inefficiency of lowering tax at the very top). This week's column explores an id...

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Which of these John Howard statements is more believable?: This one : JOHN HOWARD: There's no way that GST will ever be part of our policy. REPORTER 1: Never ever? JOHN HOWARD: Never ever. It's dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election. Or this one ?: "The changes...

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[photopress:record.jpg,full,pp_empty] TEACHERS who express radical left-wing views in the classroom are facing a new tactic in America: conservative parents are encouraging students to make recordings of their views. The use of micro-recording devices, often in mobile phones o...

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As the Courier Mail moves to a tabloid format they've informed me that they won't be taking my column. So that's a bit of a pity. But I was grateful for the chance to do it for over a year. I've written around 70 columns so I've had a fair chance to get some ideas out there. P...

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The orgy of political analysis triggered by the tenth anniversary of John Howard's prime ministership has been extraordinarily variable, ranging from shallow hagiography ( The Howard Factor ) or vitriolic abuse right through to penetrating insight. Among the latter is an excel...

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The classic statement of this doctrine is provided with all the easy authoritativeness of a harangue at the pub by Alex Sanchez, a former Mark Latham staffer. In today's world, paying more than the company tax rate of 30 per cent is optional. After you've gone beyond that thre...

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In contrast to John Howard, apparently Bomber Beazley mostly didn't bother to read much of the MSM until recently. It's said that he's now begun taking a leaf out of Howard's book in this respect, and assiduously reads the op-eds every morning. It certainly looks like he reads...

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There's a certain nastiness about a certain cadre of Australian expats. The big four are Germaine Greer, Barry Humphries, Clive James and Robert Hughes. They didn't like the Australia of the fifties and early sixties, and a lot of them think we're still the same. This was the...

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A weekly wrap of what's been happening across the Top End news-wise, which might be handy for former residents who really miss reading about this sort of thing. May contain cane toads and/or crocodiles. JUST THE TICKET The NT Government has been losing hundreds of thousands of...

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Courtesy of Slashdot, a nice bit of culture clash and mutual incomprehension broke out in England when an anti-piracy bureaucrat approached the Mozilla Foundation reporting that someone was making money selling Mozilla software. The representative of Mozilla said that that was...

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I while back I attended a very informative talk by Ken Harvey of Latrobe University. It was about prescribing software for medical practitioners. Your doctor probably has a computer on their desk by now the Federal Government gave grants of $10,000 in 1999 to GP practices to a...

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For Darwin-based Tropodillians, I'll be on ABC Local Radio (105.7) at about 5:10pm this evening, musing about 10 years of John Howard and his impact on the NT, along with a distinguished panel which also includes former Nationals leader Tim Fischer and CLP spin doctor Peter Mu...

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Because all the manufacturers are scared of the restrictive practices of Microsoft. Please comment below if you can think of any other reason why Dell computer, having a Linux desktop machine on sale won't cooperate with journos who want to give them some publicity on it. Cour...

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While researching my column on John Howard's ten years as PM, I came upon the quote from Howard which I used in the column - that 'multi-stage VATs' involve "enormous" administration and compliance burdens. I also came upon a quote from the Regulatory Impact Statement for ANTS...

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Herewith this week's column which tries to sum up my own view of John Howard's economic stewardship. Obviously the piece has to have focus and leaves lots out. My editor said he thought I was a hard marker, but that it was an interesting view. Left out is the fact that Howard'...

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The Bush administration has returned to the covert propaganda tactics of the Cold War, says Matt Welch . And In the process they've "forgotten one of their most potent weapons: the truth." In a recent essay for Reason Welch writes: ...the CIA served as what the foreign policy...

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From the Financial Review, 28th Feb, 2006 Every few months the head of the Prime Minister's department, Peter Shergold, denies that the Commonwealth public service is politicised. It is Shergold's duty to counter the assertion, frequently made by former public servants, that t...

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