In 2016 all the lights went out in South Australia, the first time that had happened across an entire Australian state since the 1960s. In the aftermath, energy and resources ministers met to discuss what went wrong. Tony Marxsen, chairman of the Australian Energy Market Operator at the time, pointed to the fluorescent lights above us and explained that they were flicking on and off constantly, at a frequency of 50 hertz, but that this was unobservable to the human eye. Read more

In 1935, the chief general manager of BHP, Essington Lewis, visited Europe. He returned with the view that war was probable and that Australia must immediately strengthen its manufacturing industry. He and other Australian businesses, including General Motors Holden and Orica, established the Commonwealth Airport Corporation a year later. By 1937 a factory had been built in Port Melbourne and during the war the business would produce Australian made warplanes such as the Wirraway. The Allies won World War II not because we had the strongest military in 1939 but because we could build more planes, more boats and more tanks during the war. The cause of freedom won because the free economies had stronger and more efficient industrial economies. Read more

If there is an attribute that distinguishes an Australian it is our unique notion of a fair go. We don’t like double standards. We don’t like Johnny getting paid more than Jill for the same day’s work. Read more

Twenty per cent of jobs in Central Queensland rely on the agriculture, mining and manufacturing industries. That is double the rate for the rest of Australia, just 10 per cent of Australians are employed in these sectors. These industries are essential and we are realising just how essential during the coronavirus pandemic. Food has been kept on our shelves thanks to our farmers and our national wealth has held up because our mines are still running. Our manufacturing industries have responded by producing enormous quantities of hand sanitisers and life saving ventilators. We should take pride in the wealth that these industries produce for the nation from Central Queensland and the central role they have played in helping Australia respond to the coronavirus. Read more

When Australia was created in 1901, Rockhampton was the third biggest city in Queensland - 4 per cent of Queenslanders lived here. Today we are just the 8th biggest town and less than two per cent of Queenslanders live here. We should have a much larger population in Central Queensland given our abundant natural resources. The mighty Fitzroy River is the second largest water catchment on our east coast, behind only the Murray-Darling. Yet there is just one major dam in it (the Fairbairn at Emerald). The coal and gas resources inland of Rockhampton are some of the richest in the world yet most of the royalties from there ends up building rail lines and tunnels in Brisbane. Read more

As the biblical saying goes, you can’t serve two masters. For a decade we have been trying to con ourselves we could. We thought you could serve the master of ­climate change and keep a strong manufacturing sector. The data doesn’t lie. You can’t. While we have reduced our emissions by 5 per cent (largely by making it illegal for farmers to clear their own land), our manufacturing industry has gone backwards for the first time. During the past decade Australian manufacturing has declined in real, absolute terms. The 1990s and 2000s were not boom times for manu­facturing but the sector still managed to grow by 10 per cent each decade. Since 2010, it has shrunk by 5 per cent. Read more

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has come under pressure this week to explain the continuing closure of Queensland’s borders. The case for its ongoing closure seems weak given that new coronavirus cases have slowed to a trickle. But that is looking at the Premier’s decision through a health lens. Perhaps she has other reasons. For example, if the government can keep the borders shut past October, she can keep out Bob Brown and avoid a sequel to the widely-acclaimed, diesel-powered, Stop Adani convoy of last year’s election. Read more

Twiggy Forrest has done a great service to the nation. He was wrong to suggest that Australia should change its stance on an independent inquiry into the Wuhan coronavirus. But the Chinese threats of retribution over such an inquiry have turned a huge spotlight on to a major problem.. Chinese officials have suggested that they may buy less from Australia unless we drop our insistence on a transparent inquiry into the virus. Business leaders are concerned about the economic costs of potential Chinese retribution. If we have an economy that is so vulnerable to one country’s threatening demands, we had better work to reduce that vulnerability as soon as possible. Read more

Normally I waste many hours of my working day sitting in a big red chamber while something mistakenly called Question Time drags on. Like many things in government Question Time actually is the opposite of what it says, questions are not asked and answers are not given. It at least gives me time to reflect on some real questions. Like how are the lights on in this building when it is a still and cloudy day? Hasn’t the ACT declared that it is powered by 100 per cent renewable energy? Read more

In some respects, the Labor Party is as Australian as the Magic Pudding, both revel in fantasy. According to past Labor leaders, high public spending won’t raise taxes and, in any case, high taxes won’t damage economic growth. Now we have Labor’s greatest magic pudding yet, we can cut our carbon emissions to zero and no coal miner will lose their job. Read more