It has been a wet summer for large parts of Queensland, and tragically so for many in the south east corner. We have not had massive falls in Central Queensland but there has been enough to get by. Soon though drought will return and we will need water stored in dams and weirs to see us through. Thankfully for us the Rookwood weir, that the Federal and State Governments are funding, will guarantee Central Queensland's water supplies. Read more

If we are ever to restore trust and respect in politicians we need more like Kimberley Kitching. Kimberley was a first term Labor Senator from Victoria. She made an enormous impact in not much time, and last week she sadly passed away from a heart attack at just 52 years old. Read more

We are all paying more for petrol because the free world has turned away from developing its resources. Instead, some countries have decided to get their resources from autocratic dictatorships. Now that some of those, like Russia, are acting like dictators we have a massive shortage of almost all key commodities including oil. There is the absurd situation that Europe is unified at opposing Russia's aggression yet it continues to import 40 per cent of its gas from Russia. And this gas is transported to Europe through pipelines that run over the Ukrainian battlefront. Given the higher oil prices, some estimates show that Europe might be paying Russia over $6 billion a week for gas now. Read more

It has been a tough few years for agricultural shows. Most shows were cancelled in 2020, a few were able to open last year, but the Brisbane EKKA got unlucky and was cancelled for 2 years running. The Federal Government has helped support shows, showmen and show-women. We have provided over $400,000 in assistance to shows from Yeppoon to Barcaldine, and from Mount Larcom to Alpha. And over $90 million has been provided in assistance around the country. Read more

It has been a tough week for many Queenslanders. I know people that have had their homes flooded for the second time in just over a decade and, more tragically, nine Queenslanders have lost their lives. Natural disasters bring out the best in our communities. Thousands of people have helped and our emergency services and defence forces have put themselves in harms way to save lives. For many though the next few months will be tough as the cameras leave and the clean up continues. Read more

The Ukrainian people helped end the Soviet Union. On 1 December 1991, they voted 92 per cent in favour of declaring independence from the USSR. One week later the Soviet Union was dissolved. Vladimir Putin called this event the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century. We should not be surprised that he ordered an invasion of the Donbas region of the Ukraine this week. Read more

This week the Chinese Communist Party's English language newspaper, The Global Times, published an article endorsing Labor leader Anthony Albanese as the preferred option for Australia's Prime Minister. On its Twitter page, The Global Times promoted the article by saying that Anthony Albanese "positively shines compared to Morrison." Read more

In 2020, Labor Senator Murray Watt claimed that the Liberal National Party's "inflammatory" rhetoric on China contributed to them banning our beef, barley and coal. Labor was happy to politicise our relationship with China when they thought it suited them. Now they are crying foul because there are serious questions arising about Labor's judgement on China. Read more

The world is full of contradictions. To live a truly free life, you need to show discipline to earn a living and provide for yourself. To get healthy you need to make your body feel pain through exercise. To deliver a nation peace and security, we are best to prepare for war. And to live in a harmonious society that gets along we need to respect the right of people to discriminate about who they associate with. Ironically, a tolerance for division creates unity, or in other words, good fences make for good neighbours. Read more

The Winter Olympics does not normally generate a lot of hype in Australia but there is even less than normal chatter about the latest games due to start this week. That is because this year's Winter Olympics are in China, an increasingly pariah state from the rest of the world. Read more