I see that the Snowy 2.0 giant boring machine Florence, weighing 2400 tonnes and measuring 143 metres in length and 11 metres in diameter, is stuck again. It was stuck in soft ground between October 2022 and December 2023. It is now stuck in hard ground. Goldilocks-like, the machine only thrives in ground which is…

Jim Chalmers had a piece in The Monthly in February 2023 “Capitalism after the crises,” in which he invented a new form of capitalism; namely, “values-based capitalism.” Before Jim’s new form of capitalism we have had inclusive capitalism, conscious capitalism, cooperative capitalism and stakeholder capitalism (courtesy of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum). Thus Jim is…

Inflation is a terrible thing. It impacts people and businesses differently in ways difficult to control and manage. It robs people of their savings, particularly those on the wrong side of 60 years who are holding their savings in banks or in other fixed-income forms. It increases the cost of living for those who can…

AEMO has had to urgently update and reissue its ironically titled yearly report Electricity Statement of Opportunities. Opportunities, to be clear, which are contingent on destroying Australia’s reliable and cheap energy and replacing it with unreliable and expensive energy.  However, apparently building renewables and battery storage has not gone as speedily as planned. The report issued…

Christianity isn’t as straightforward as I once thought it was. Ignorance is bliss they say. I am not sure about that but the more you learn about Christianity the more complex it gets. True, Christ’s death on the cross and His  physical resurrection, and the grace this brought, are true unchanging tenets of the faith.…

Australia voted for the non-existent Palestinian state to be accorded (almost) full membership of the UN. Even the UK didn’t go that far, abstaining, along with 24 other countries. Eight honourable countries voted with Israel to oppose the resolution – the USA, Hungary, PNG, Nauru, Micronesia, Palau, the Czech Republic and Argentina. Australia was part of…

There is a well-known duopoly model in economics which explores what happens when two ice cream sellers occupy a beach. The two ice cream sellers will tend to congregate at the centre of the beach. If either of them were to move they would give their competitor an advantage in being closer to a larger…

Still maybe suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome, Tanya Plibersek will make the most of this new opportunity to trip the light fantastic. Hint: we should be concerned. She’s in charge of saving critters and all kinds of plant life; of resuscitating nature. The “initiative” is called Nature Positive. The goal: to halt and reverse the…

There is one part in Homage to Catalonia when George Orwell observes that for a time he and his socialist comrades-in-arms in the Spanish civil war enjoyed true brotherhood. Socialism is an ideal where people share each other’s troubles and joys and each other’s worldly goods. You can understand its attraction. It’s just not compatible…

Our obsessive minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen seems intent on ridding Oz of manufacturing. All unintentional mind. Collateral damage, as it were, from demolishing foul CO2-spewing coal-power stations, and marginalising and driving out its fellow pollutants oil and natural gas. Incidentally, history will thank him because it will be written current-day university…