Monthly Archives: April 2005

Sometimes, those who write newspaper headlines have a little too much fun.

If I know you, and you’d like an invitation to gmail, drop me an email.

On May 5-7, the Asia-Pacific Davos group holds its annual Future Summit at Melbourne’s Crown Casino (venue for all good proletarian gatherings). ANU economist Glenn Withers and myself have written a paper on leadership and political structures, focusing on issues … Continue reading →

From Meredith Burgmann, president of the Legislative Council of NSW: The PRESIDENT: On 6 April 2005 I was asked to rule whether the term "boofhead" should be ruled out of order. I am generally in favour of the tradition of … Continue reading →

Yippee – Berlusconi has resigned! To celebrate, here’s a little piece I wrote for my Italian class last year on why I think the country can be so much better without him. Update, April 23: Doh! He’s formed a new … Continue reading →

The Monthly, a new magazine of ideas, is being started up by Morry Schwartz, the man who brought us the Quarterly Essay. Better yet, you can sign up for a free issue by going to their website before April 27.

In a report released today by the Washington DC-based Progressive Policy Institute, Sara Mead and I discuss the research showing that US teacher quality has fallen since the 1960s, and outline some strategies to tackle the problem. Top of our … Continue reading →

(Cross-posted at Vibewire’s Media & Democracy discussion) Here in Canberra, there often isn’t a lot going on in local politics. So we’ve been fortunate this week to have the Aidan Bruford affair, in which the environment adviser to the Chief … Continue reading →

(Cross-posted at Vibewire’s Media & Democracy discussion) While I’m a fan of student activism in any form, I often wonder about the balance of self-interested and altrusistic campaigns. To my mind, the finest hour for student activists aren’t the campaigns … Continue reading →

Ben Hills’ article in Saturday’s SMH on the "unique water" scam is pure gold.

For US readers of this blog, Imagining Australia is now listed on Amazon.com. Three hundred and twenty-four pages of fun-filled ideas for our future, just for parting with a little green note bearing the face of Andrew Jackson.

One of the odd things to me about the whole interest rates advertising affair is the general assumption that the Reserve Bank was taking an active step when it referred Liberal Party ads to the Australian Electoral Commission. But as … Continue reading →

In a delightful piece in the Boston Globe, Aussie expat Rebecca Hamilton argues that student activism isn’t dead. Her case study is a campaign she helped organise, to persuade Harvard to divest its investments in an especially dodgy company operating … Continue reading →

Looks like "skills shortages" could become the new dog-ate-my-homework excuse for governments everywhere, if this report is anything to go by.