This weekend marks the 10 year anniversary of the ABC’s Four Corners documentary on live cattle that devastated many people and businesses in Central Queensland. The documentary uncovered shocking mistreatment of cattle, exported from Australia to Indonesia. The animal cruelty was from a limited number of  rudimentary abattoirs, none of which were the direct responsibility of the Australian cattle industry. Read more

The biggest economic news in Australia last week was the handing down of the budget. The budget confirmed the enormous debt that the federal government has racked up in the fight against coronavirus. Before Covid, Australian Government debt was expected to hit $650 billion next financial year. Now it has almost doubled to over $1.2 trillion. Read more

We have sacrificed a lot to protect life over the past year. We shut down shops and schools, we have closed our borders and it remains illegal to leave Australia without permission. I have been pleasantly surprised by how willing Australians have been to protect life even when the costs have been large and those who were most at risk of coronavirus, elderly Australians, only made up a small share of our overall population. Read more

In 1934 as managing director of BHP, Essington Lewis travelled to Japan, he was concerned that Japan was headed to war. So on his return, Lewis immediately drew up plans for BHP to start stockpiling raw materials and to manufacture munitions to improve Australia’s defence. Read more

A couple of years ago I travelled up to Ayr to speak to a throng of angry cane farmers facing an unfair negotiating position against the multinational sugar refiner, Wilmar. We were in the federal seat of Dawson, held by George Christensen. The farmers wanted us, as federal government representatives, to regulate so they would have a more balanced negotiating position. The Queensland government had previously regulated the space until the Beattie government had deregulated theindustry. Read more

In Exodus, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, tells him that he is trying to do too much at once. Jethro tells Moses that “you will wear yourselves out, because the task is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.” It is a trap that we fall into too often in modern times. We try to make someone or something do too many things. Some stark examples are evident this week. Read more

Prince Philip’s passing feels like it is the end of a generation but I hope that his spirit of duty, service and loyalty is more widespread than we think. I am an optimist given the genuine outpouring of grief and respect for a man whose life was more about the how than the what. Prince Philip made no breakthrough inventions, he did not employ thousands through business, and he wasn’t a leader of a nation or party. He is an everyday man’s hero, however, because he approached the sacrifices he made with the good humour of an everyday, down to-earth man. Read more

Last week my six-year-old son came home from school crying. He claimed he had been ‘scammed’ by the school because he had failed to win a prize in an Easter raffle. In his view he had paid to enter, so he should have got something in exchange! An easy trap for young players but we have no such excuse if we continue to fall for China’s climate scam. Read more

I met my wife doing Edmund Rice Camps with the Christian Brothers. We spent university holidays with disadvantaged children on camps. We would try to instil a sense of belonging among kids whose everyday life was full of turmoil. I remember one camp where we embarked on long and arduous bushwalks. I led a group of boys who couldn't stop whingeing the whole time. They wanted their PlayStations, they wanted to go to McDonalds, it was probably easier to move a container ship stuck in the Suez Canal than to get them up and walk another mile.  Read more

Last year I had to get some teeth out. The dentist sat me down and took me through the risks of getting the local anaesthetic, including that I could die. I had the choice and I went ahead. Sometime this year I will probably get the coronavirus vaccine. Like all medical treatments there will be some risk but, again, it should be my choice. There is enormous social pressure for everyone to get the coronavirus vaccine. That is understandable given the costs of lockdowns and restrictions over the past year. But in the rush to put COVID behind us we should protect the principle that each individual should have a choice over their own health. Read more