“This group refused to accept police direction, forced a breach in police lines and ran towards the main front entrance of Parliament House. “This group was supported by participants from the more general demonstration who were incited to join those involved in riotous conduct by a speaker from the official platform ... demonstrators used weapons, including a large hammer, a wheel brace, a steel trolley and a stanchion torn from the external doors to break open the internal doors ... so far about 90 personnel have reported injuries - including lacerations, sprains, and head and eye injuries. I understand one person required hospitalisation.” Read more

When my Italian grandmother moved to North Queensland in the 1950s, a German family lived across the road from her. According to family lore, my Nonna refused to even talk to this family for some time. Herreluctance explained by the presence of German troops in her Italian hometown just a few years prior. At some point, however, Nonna overcame that terrible history, introduced herself and her German neighbours became her best friends in town. I find it a great Australian story. People come here from all over the world. Sometimes they bring baggage with them of war and conflict. But new Australians eventually leave that baggage behind and we all become one people. Read more

The nation’s longest serving Deputy Prime Minister, Doug Anthony, died last week. Doug was a true stateman in the Aussie larrikin spirit. During a late session of Parliament, Doug and some other MPs began kicking a football - indoors! The football hit a painting shattering the glass inside. Doug described the aftermath, “There was a huge noise, it echoed all through King’s Hall. We swept up the broken glass and picked all the bits out of the frame and straightened the painting. It stayed like that for years before anyone noticed there was no glass in the frame!” Read more

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. It has been a tough year for many but Australia has thus far avoided the worst of the coronavirus, at least compared to other countries. We can be thankful for our wonderful health authorities. The CQ Health team, led by Steve Williamson, have been organised, professional and efficient. When an aged care nurse became infected in May, Steve’s team tested over 200 people within days. We should be thankful to all the nurses, doctors and other health workers that have been on the frontline this year. Read more

There have been too many statues torn down this year. So it was good to finish 2020 by unveiling a new statue of John "Black Jack" McEwen in Canberra last week. Read more

China buys so much of Australia's exports that it is hard to remember a time when our economy was not so connected with it. But it has not been this way for long. Just 20 years ago Australia exported $10 billion of goods to China, making up just 5 per cent of Australia's exports. Over the past year, we have exported $146 billion of goods to China, making up 40 per cent of our goods exports. This rapid increase has delivered enormous benefits to Australia in terms of jobs and new business opportunities. Yet as important as this relationship is our country was a pretty good place 20 years ago with barely any trade with China. If our trading relationship to China were to decline, I am confident that Australia would remain a pretty good place. Read more

Nobel-prize-winning economist Gary Becker argued that those who discriminate end up paying a price. If you employ only males, you miss out on highly skilled women. Your egalitarian competitors will then gain an advantage from a higher-skilled workforce. We are seeing another example of this insight in China’s recent discrimination against Australian beef, ­barley, wine and coal. Read more

When my wife decided she wanted a new clothesline this year, we thought we should buy the good-old, Aussie-invented Hills Hoist. Then we discovered that Hills Hoists are now Made in China. As they are made from galvanised steel, I suppose it made commercial sense for Hills to move production to where more than half of the world's steel is now produced. Australia is the world's largest exporter of iron ore and coking coal - the two key ingredients that go into making steel. Yet we are now a net importer of steel, something that should be more widely acknowledged as a cause for national shame. Modern times are known as the information age but it is steel that has unlocked the greatest economic advancement in history. Just 30 years ago, two of every three people in our region lived on less than US$1.90 per day. Today, less than 5 per cent of people live in such extreme poverty. Read more

If we could bottle hypocrisy and turn it into electricity, we would never have another blackout. Hypocrisy would be the ultimate renewable energy. I learnt this week of another example. There are high quality deposits of coking coal in New Zealand. A small company, Bathurst Resources, produces two million tonnes of coal a year, including the thermal coal for New Zealand’s five coal fired power stations. The New Zealand Prime Minister has made a big deal of being committed to action on climate change including by enshrining in law a commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2020. A little fact that New Zealand has done well to hide though is that Bathurst Resources has exemptions from NZ’s net zero target. Read more

At the start of the pandemic panic, toilet paper shelves were the first to go bare. But not long later, mince and meat departed the supermarket shelves. However, there were some products that remained stubbornly resistant to the bunker mentality. Vegie burgers and tofu shelves remained well stocked. There is a lot of hype about plant based protein but most people just prefer a big, juicy steak. Why then do so many in the beef sector play defence when there is massive support for their industry? Last week the ABC's Landline ran a story about beef's "social licence". A former industry leader claimed that beef is "emerging as agriculture's coal equivalent". This is a load of rubbish in terms of both substance and public support. Read more