There are three big challenges we face right now - or three “C’s” - COVID, Climate Change and China. We will get on top of Covid eventually even though it could be with us forever thanks to the Chinese Communist Party. Read more

Monday’s The AFR View accused me and others in the Nationals for the party “repeating its own past mistakes” and returning to the McEwen-like “protection all round” policies that “encouraged the idea that farmers should always look to governments to underwrite their incomes”. There was just a slight irony. Those pushing for carbon credits for farmers want vast new government-backed programs that “underwrite” the incomes of farmers. The Australian Financial Review’s editorial supports policies that are much closer to its description of McEwenism than anything Barnaby Joyce, I or other Nationals support. Read more

When you read the Labor party’s review of the 2019 election, parts of it seem straight from the script of a David Attenborough documentary. The well-meaning authors describe how people in areas like Central Queensland feel “alienated from the political process, they are too busy working and caring for their families to be concerned with issues they consider irrelevant to their lives”. Read more

China's illegal trade sanctions have had a major impact on our agricultural and resource exports since the coronavirus escaped from Wuhan. China is now targeting our tourism exports too, and specifically the Great Barrier Reef. In two weeks, 21 countries will meet (online) for a conference hosted in Fuzhou, China, which could have a major impact on our economy. In draft documents prepared for the 44th session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), it is recommended that the Great Barrier Reef be placed on the "in danger" list. Read more

During the past 10 years, Australia’s foreign policy has become dominated by the notion that we benefit from a “rules-based international order”. This has allowed a myth to grow that our relative economic prosperity is thanks to this international order, and the compliance of others to these rules. But these rules have never helped Australia economically to any large degree. The trade rules in the initial Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade made no progress on helping Australia’s agricultural exports to access overseas markets. Read more

Michael McCormack was our nation’s 19th deputy prime minister. While he lost that title this week, no one can take away his membership of this select club and the service he provided to the nation. Michael is a man of impeccable integrity. He worked hard as deputy prime minister. He was a regular visitor to Central Queensland. He was recently here to inspect progress on the Rookwood Weir, one of many projects he got moving as infrastructure minister.   Read more

During the past 10 years, Australia’s foreign policy has become dominated by the notion that we benefit from a “rules-based international order”. This has allowed a myth to grow that our relative economic prosperity is thanks to this international order, and the compliance of others to these rules. But these rules have never helped Australia economically to any large degree. The trade rules in the initial Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade made no progress on helping Australia’s agricultural exports to access overseas markets. Read more

When Shakespeare wrote the Merchant of Venice, England had separate courts for the administration of the law and equity. The court of law judged matters on the basis of the ‘common law’ or precedent of England. The Court of Equity (or Chancery) made decisions when the strict application of the common law would lead to harshness or inequity. Shylock, a moneylender in the Merchant of Venice, demanded the strict application of the law, “to have the due and forfeit of my bond”, in his demand for a pound of flesh, when Antonio couldn’t repay a loan. Antonio’s wife, Portia, pleaded for mercy against the strict application of the law, saying in a famous speech, that mercy “blesseth him that gives and him that takes”. Read more

We are constantly told to “listen to the science”. The problem is science can’t talk to us directly, we are told the science by scientists who are human, just like you and me. Last year, scientists told us that any suggestions that the coronavirus came from a lab in Wuhan was a “conspiracy theory”. In a joint letter in the Lancet journal, 27 virologists wrote that: “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin” and  that scientists “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife”. Read more

Last week 500,000 Queenslanders lost power at a moment’s notice. People got stuck in elevators and traffic chaos ensued. The cause of the power loss was an explosion at the Callide coal-fired power station. Fortunately, no one was injured by the massive blast. And, the power loss lasted only a few hours because other coal fired power stations could ramp up output to replace that lost by Callide. Read more