I have a modest account with Australian Super, it’s Australian shares only.
I’m wondering if I can add ‘excluding renewables’.

The formula that doesn’t add up is that as additional billions from Gonski “education revolution” funding have poured into schools over the past decade, student performance on national and international literacy, numeracy and science tests has declined.

A granular insight into what’s going wrong in the nation’s schools is provided by the report from the Learning First education consultancy that benchmarks the Australian Curriculum for science teaching between kindergarten and year 10 against the comparable systems of our global competitors.

The Australian Curriculum – which its creator, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), claims is “world-class” – contains roughly half the average science content of the curriculums in England, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Quebec.

Only 44 topics are covered, compared with an average of 74 in these seven other jurisdictions, and only five topics are treated in depth versus an average of 23 in the other systems.

The content is also “poorly sequenced”, lacking a clear map so that children can build on what they know.

The overarching problem is the failure to specify what material teachers should be teaching and what students should be learning.

It’s the proverbial Clayton’s curriculum.

Yet surely it is fair enough to connect poor student achievement with the vagueness and deficiencies in a curriculum setting out what is taught in schools.

The irony is that the national curriculum, an initiative of the Howard government, was designed to standardise teaching and learning across the nation’s classrooms.

But a poor quality, dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator national curriculum makes the case for competitive federalism, and for allowing the state governments that actually run school systems to set the curriculum, so that jurisdictions could learn from the best-performing states.

The holes in the national science curriculum appear to recur across all subject areas.

ACARA’s six-yearly review, completed last year, was supposed to refine and update the curriculum so that teachers, students and parents had a clearer idea of what needs to be covered as children progress through school.

witness the quarter-century struggle over phonics or sounding out words to help kids learn to read, or the controversy over direct instruction of students by teachers, based on carefully planned lessons, that should be a no-brainer.

Yet for education outsiders it’s still hard to fathom the unacceptable lack of basic rigour and accountability for teaching, learning and testing in the foundational curriculum documents.

Australia’s education ministers have nevertheless signed off on the new curriculum, in part because the short-term political incentive is to avoid getting dragged into educational fights when the distant pay-off for educational excellence is a long-term improvement in student results.

Yet the policy context is federal Education Minister Jason Clare’s ambitious plan to increase university attendance beyond 50 per cent of school-leavers, and the need for a highly educated workforce, especially in STEM – science technology, engineering and maths – fields to progress the energy transition and Labor’s advanced manufacturing plans, as well as for the building and maintenance work in the AUKUS nuclear submarine program.

None of this will be achievable without a national curriculum that supports effective teaching and learning.

This concept, known as ‘one vote, one value’, is based on the idea of every MP representing the same amount of constituents, regardless of where they are.

In practise, though, Tasmanians are vastly over-represented, with one MP for every 80,000 voters in the island state.

In contrast, Victoria has one MP for every 111,000 voters, NSW has one for every 116,000 voters and South Australia has one MP

The 14-member committee, which is chaired by Labor’s Kate Thwaites, looked at a range of submissions that argued for the number of lower house seats to be increased to either 175 or 200, while Senate seats for states could rise to as many as 16 each, up from 12.

There is also a proposal that would see the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory double their number of senators from two to four.

Increasing the number of MPs to 200 would ensure every Australian is represented by an equal number of MPs in the House of Representatives.

While the committee did not make a specific recommendation about how many more MPs there should be, it said that ‘increasing the size of the House of Representatives (would) reduce malapportionment and improve the ratio of electors to MPs’.

If the lower house increased to 200 MPs, NSW would gain the most, with its seat count rising from 47 seats to 63, while Victoria would grow from 39 to 51 and Queensland would go from 30 to 40.

South Australia and Western Australia would gain five each, going up to 15 and 20 respectively, but Tasmania would stay on five.

Increasing the number of Senate seats in the ACT to four would mean the Liberals would win back the seat they lost in 2022 to independent David Pocock.

Although the former Wallabies legend is not a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, he has been a keen contributor to its work.

In one of his submissions, he wrote: ‘The fact that party loyalties trump state interest for many senators should not alter the original purpose of the Senate, namely, to protect the interests of smaller jurisdictions.’

Currently, the NT has two senators for just under 150,000 voters and the ACT has two for 315,000 voters. for every 127,000 voters.

Tasmania, again, is vastly better represented, having 12 senators for 402,000 voters because it is a state, not a territory.

The government will now consider the committee’s report and is expected to respond to it in the first half of 2024.

If the proposals are passed, it would be the biggest redrawing of the electoral map since 1984, when Bob Hawke expanded the lower house from 125 MPs to 148.

It was also an effort to restrain Israel from taking the law into its own hands against Iran and its proxies by trying to give the impression that the US was ready to do the dirty work if needed.

Some hope of that!

After his visit to Jerusalem at the start of the war, Biden said: “My administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering”.

It wasn’t long before his actions proved his duplicitousness.

While saying publicly that Hamas had to be defeated, he began coercing Israel behind the scenes to stop short of achieving that goal.

US collusion with Qatar, which has long harboured Hamas leaders, forced the Israeli war cabinet to agree a ceasefire in return for release of a few hostages.

Now the four day truce is expiring, Biden is pushing for an extension while still claiming to believe that eliminating Hamas remains a legitimate mission for Israel.

He knows that the longer Israel’s attack on Hamas is paused for hostage release, the greater the likelihood that it will not be resumed.

Hamas is reeling from six weeks of IDF assaults in the air and on the ground and all that can save them now is a permanent halt to Israeli operations.

They will continue to use their only two effective weapons to attempt to bring that about.

The first is the hostages, and Hamas will try to drip feed further releases to buy themselves more time.

The second is the civilian population of Gaza. If Israel does return to the fight, Hamas will ensure as many civilians as possible die to intensify international pressure on Israel. In that Biden is also their willing tool.

Ever since the IDF’s fight-back began he has been vocally “encouraging” Israel to limit civilian casualties.

The subtext to that message is that the IDF is deliberately killing Gazan civilians, playing right into the hands of Hamas and its supporters around the world.

According to the Washington Post, Biden even went as far as to privately apologise to Muslim leaders in the US for questioning Hamas figures for civilian casualties a few days ago.

That reflects his double-dealing approach to this war, on the one hand appearing to back Israel’s security objectives while on the other working to undermine them.

Musk – who is estimated to be worth $UDSD242 billion – visited the Kfar Aza region where some of the 1,200 Israelis were gunned down in an air, land and sea assault.

Dressed in a black suit and jeans with a bullet vest, he was flanked by armed soldiers and shown the aftermath of the terror, including a cot peppered with bullets.

The businessman was also shown multiple homes that appeared to have been set on fire and destroyed, taking photos of the scenes as rain fell throughout the tour.

Musk later appeared for an X Spaces conversation and spoke about being left shocked from photos and videos shown to him of the killing of civilians.

Mr Netanyahu and Musk spoke about the conflict and Israel’s goal to destroy Hamas if it had any chance at peace with Palestinians.

The Tesla founder said it was “jarring” to witness the massacre scenes and threw his support to the Israeli Prime Minister in his goal to eliminate the terror group.

“Those that are intent on murder must be neutralised,” Musk said.

“The propaganda must stop that is training people to be murderers in the future. And then, making Gaza prosperous. And if that happens, I think it will be a good future.”

Mr Netanyahu responded with approval and hoped the billionaire would be “involved” as his visit “speaks volumes” about “securing a better future”.

The trip to Israel comes after Musk copped criticism for replying to an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory post on X, calling it “actual truth”.

A whopping 60 per cent of 35 to 49-year-olds who took part in the survey said they felt worse off than they were two years ago.

An overwhelming majority of survey participants aged 50 and above also said they were in a worse position financially.

Renters and mortgage holders were two groups hardest hit by cost pressures and the flow on effect of persistent interest rate increases.

The research showed 56 per cent of renters felt worse off, followed closely by 53 per cent of those making payments on a mortgage.

Landlords have been aggressively hiking rents across the country since 2021 as the demand for affordable housing, flow on effects on inflation and high immigration rates continue to affect the market.

Some renters in Sydney have been slugged with increases of up to 30 per cent.

Thousands of Australians have also come off fixed rate mortgages in the past two years leaving them vulnerable to one of the fastest rate tightening cycles in the history of the Reserve Bank.

Women who took part in the Newspoll were more likely to be feeling the pinch, with 53 per cent saying they felt worse off now than they were two years ago compared to 48 per cent of men.

The results were also split along party lines.

Coalition voters were more inclined to say they felt more financially disadvantaged under Labor, with 60 per cent of participants agreeing with that view.

However, just 35 per cent of Labor voters agreed.

The survey showed the highest and lowest income brackets to be the most affected while residents in both metropolitan and regional areas said they were feeling the pressure by a similar margin.

These results follow another batch of disastrous results for the government.

A Newspoll released on Monday showed confidence in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dropped two points to 40 per cent, the worst result since he was voted into office.

Labor’s primary vote in the past three weeks also dipped by four points to 31 per cent.

It becomes more obvious by the day that they don’t really see the world they live on.

A world where evil does walk the surface, where defined and protected borders do enhance safety and order, where millions of humans actually work back-breaking hours to allow entitled rich students to get free everything, where utopian “green energy” fails every test to power and sustain humanity, where the rule-of-law, a strong – and fit – military, and community supported police departments do protect the preyed upon; and where hiring and promotion based upon merit does lift all.

Of course, it’s much harder to see such reality and despair from within a bubble of privilege which floats aimlessly high above the unwashed masses traveling from one fabulous and exclusive event to the next.

“What does it mean to be an English woman?”

“What does it mean to be an Aussie?”

For the far left, the answer is: “Who cares. We seek to crush tradition and cultural identity.”

At least… in certain countries.

For years now, elements of left-leaning groups – most especially in the media – have been smearing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for daring to say the country had to “preserve the very essence of Hungarian identity.”

In response to that hoped-for, very common-sense and logical policy, the left has quite predictably labelled the populist leader of Hungary as: “xenophobic and racist.”

Orban now rightfully sees himself as “David” up against the massive – but self-destructively ignorant – progressive European Union “Goliath.”

A battle Orban is winning via facts and truths which shred the far-left smears.

While about 500,000 protesters screaming for the rights of Palestinians certainly did get the attention of Londoners – it unnerved some.

Not because of the faith or the nationalities of many of the protestors, but rather because it was a stark reminder the London of old will never be again.

By some estimates, only 37 per cent of the city’s population is “white British” in terms of ethnicity.

Will the London of old simply cease to exist in a decade or two?

Will England itself cease to exist in that context?

“The environment is supportive,” said Sean Callow, a senior FX strategist at Westpac, who is forecasting the local dollar to test at least US66.5¢ by the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on December 12-13.

“We’ve got China throwing the kitchen sink at its private sector hoping something works, firmer equities markets and great strength in iron ore prices. We would probably need to see the Fed get real about rate cuts and that’s probably just too soon for that.”

The US central bank is expected to leave rates in the range of 5.25 per cent to 5.50 per cent range next month, where they have been since July. Fed fund futures indicate a 46 per cent chance of a rate cut by May.

In Australia, meanwhile, bond traders have abandoned the chance of the Reserve Bank cutting rates in 2024 and imply a 77 per cent chance of a 14th increase in the cash rate to 4.6 per cent by June next year. On Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers also appointed British central banker Andrew Hauser as second in charge at the central bank.

AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said he was also optimistic about the outlook for the Australian dollar, saying short-term interest rate differentials looked likely to shift in favour of the local currency.

Investors are awaiting a flurry of potentially market-moving inflation data in Australia, Europe, and the US this week, to help gauge when central banks might start cutting rates.

On Wednesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the October monthly consumer price index. The report will give only a partial picture because many categories, including services, are not surveyed.

But Commonwealth Bank’s head of Australian economics Gareth Aird said it would still help the central bank ascertain whether inflation was moderating. His forecast is in line with the consensus of a 5.2 per cent pace over the year, cooling down from 5.6 per cent in September.

On Thursday, the eurozone will release its inflation figures with forecasts suggesting a preliminary consumer price index reading of 2.8 per cent in the 12 months to November, from 2.9 per cent.

Mr Oliver said another factor that would drive the Australian dollar higher was commodity prices which he said looked to be “embarking” on a new super cycle.

Iron ore prices climbed to an intraday top of $US133.35 on Monday after hitting $US134.67 last week on hopes that China’s latest support for the troubled property sector would boost sentiment and contribute to further price gains. Iron ore prices dropped below $US100 in August.

Immigration Minister Andrew Giles described a bill to restrict these grubs – murderers, rapists and child-molesters among them – as “urgent” when it was introduced two weeks ago.

But the fact is there was no sense of urgency at all.

The High Court handed down its decision on Wednesday, November 8.

Only on Thursday, November 16, did the government show any kind of effort to restrict them.

More than half of the 111 people released so far (that we know of) had their visas cancelled due to serious criminality.

Court cases don’t happen overnight.

I’ve been a court reporter and they take months, sometimes years to make it to the bench.

While the government might have had some confidence in the fact that the High Court upheld the validity of indefinite detention some 20 years ago, they should have known this was a risk.

They should have had a bill drafted and ready to go if these people were released, as indeed they were.

It was only by virtue of amendments by the opposition – which the government initially dismissed out of hand – that the legislation had any teeth.

Two of those amendments were that all the released detainees would be monitored with ankle bracelets and have curfews imposed upon them.

Asked during the week whether the ankle bracelets had been fitted to them all, Home Affairs Minister Claire O’Neil said “many” had been and that the question should be referred to Immigration Minister Andrew Giles.

And when questioned, a government spokeswoman could not confirm how many people were wearing ankle bracelets.

Nor had any work been done on assessment or rehabilitation while they were detained because the government thought they’d never be let out.

Then an investigation by The Age uncovered that marijuana plants are being grown in immigration detention centres and drug and alcohol-fuelled violence is rampant.

The system is out of control – and the government has shown no signs of reining it in.

The anonymous child rapist who set all this off won his case on a constitutional argument that indefinite immigration detention breached the separation of powers between executive government and the judiciary.

In other words, courts have to administer detention – not the government itself.

But courts, of course, administer the laws passed by the parliament.

So why hasn’t the government introduced laws that would allow the courts to detain criminal asylum seekers we cannot deport?

It is absurd to think that you can come here as an asylum seeker and commit horrific crimes, here or elsewhere, and then try to stay but be denied asylum – yet we still have to keep you because the country you came from refuses to take you back or we won’t send you there because we think you’d be in danger.

We may as well put up a big sign on the coastline advertising ourselves as the dumping ground for the rest of the world’s criminal garbage.

These people should not be on the streets.

Just because we don’t want to send them back to where they came from as they might face the death penalty and we disagree with that, or they’re stateless or their homeland won’t take them back, it doesn’t mean ordinary, innocent Australians should have to live among them.

If you break the law while you are seeking asylum, that should be it. No more chances.

The incompetence of Ms O’Neil and Mr Giles has been staggering.

His full statement, by the way, didn’t include the word “Hamas” nor properly mention the wider context of her kidnapping, as part of a terror attack. It did, however, reiterate the call for a ceasefire made by his foreign minister Micheal Martin two weeks ago, a call which effectively tells Israel: sorry, but you must not do as every other country in the world would after a murderous attack by a foreign entity – launch a military action to try to neutralise the threat and make it clear that your attackers will not be allowed to win. No, you must lay down your arms, accept these things happen and maybe sing a few peace songs.

Varadkar tries to pose as an international peace broker, but his words speak of somewhat lopsided sympathies.

Earlier this month he didn’t have a problem condemning Israel of overreacting, and doing so by name.

He told reporters: “What I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence. It looks like… it resembles something more approaching revenge.”

His difficulty in reckoning with Hamas as the terror organisation it is follows a long history of Irish sympathy for Palestinian terrorism.

In 1980, long before the PLO renounced terrorism, the then government of Charles Haughey decided to recognise the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

Ireland has long been a supporter of a two-state solution in the Middle East – which is fair enough and one which I sympathise with – but did Haughey or any of his successors really think that a peaceful settlement was made more likely by recognising an organisation which had just spend two decades facilitating terrorist attack after attack?

Ireland’s troubled relationship with Palestinian terror didn’t begin with Varadkar.

The cause has long been romanticised as a struggle against colonial oppression, likened to Ireland’s own birth as a nation.

But Varadkar’s apparent inability to see Hamas for what it is continues to shame his nation.

In Senor Garcia’s case, he stayed at home and read philosophical works; but council workers back in Blighty are taking advantage of the new WFH culture by taking whole other jobs and pocketing two pay cheques.

Work from home has been a feature of the modern workplace since the lockdowns, and it is proving an intractable issue.

Private sector businesses should be free to have whatever legal working practices they wish.

But it should a different story in the public sector, where government bosses, both local and national, have an extra responsibility to help train the next generation of administrators and officials.

Junior civil servants and council staff benefit enormously from being in the office, meeting peers and watching their superiors operate.

It allows for a freer flow of ideas, for problems to be solved more quickly and for managers to assess strengths and weaknesses of their teams and address those points accordingly.

Taxpayers deserve to know that their hard-earned cash that props up the state is being spent on this kind of diligent leadership, as they are the ones who will feel the benefits (or the detriments if not addressed).

That we are now discovering such flagrant abuses of the system is maddening, but it is hardly surprising.

If so many in the public sector have so little to do in the day that they can fill whole other jobs, then perhaps this also tells us about how bloated these organisations have become.

You would have hoped that staff would be in the office, eager to show their bosses how hard they work for the public; for those without that zeal to show such contempt for those who pay their wages shows how much scope there is for widespread reform.

Alternatively, of course, we could embrace more part-time jobs, with pay to reflect it, and encourage civil servants and officials to have other work that positively enhances their abilities.

I passionately believe MPs ought to have second jobs, too. If the MP for Richmond, N Yorks, is able to hold down a second job (in his case at least properly declared) as First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, backbenchers should be encouraged to learn about what is happening in the worlds of business, charity and elsewhere.

Maybe then they would spend less time coming up with pointless laws banning smoking, or campaigning to block essential new houses. They might even learn a thing or two in the process, as well.

With an AI revolution around the corner, the last thing workshy officials in local government should be doing is highlighting how irrelevant their jobs actually are.