In November 1938, wharfies at Port Kembla bravely refused to load the ship *Dalfram* with pig iron destined for Japan in protest about the invasion of Manchuria. The pig iron had come from the Port Kembla steelworks, near Wollongong, which is an indelible part of Australian history. It should also be part of our future although that is at risk. The coal mine that supplies the Port Kembla steelworks has not been able to get approval to extend and is now slated to close in 2028. The owner of the steelworks, Bluescope, says that it would cost up to $100 million to import coal from elsewhere threatening its long term viability. Read more

When Australia became a nation in 1901, the average Australian had to work for 18 minutes to earn a loaf of bread. By 2019, thanks largely to technological innovation, that loaf cost just 4 minutes of work. Over the last 3 years things have gone backwards. It now takes 4 minutes and 21 seconds of work to earn your daily bread. Read more

While distracting us with Scott Morrison's ministerial appointments over the past few weeks, the new Labor government has announced a $3 billion carbon tax on Central Queensland's industries. Labor does not call it a carbon tax they instead use the Orwellian term "safeguard mechanism". But former Labor MP, Joel Fitzgibbon, described it right when he called it a carbon tax in February. Last week, the new Government released a discussion paper on how this new carbon tax would work. Read more

It is (kind of) official. The coronavirus pandemic is over. After more than 2 years of lockdowns, isolation and mandates, the US Health experts - at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (or CDC) - removed almost all remaining coronavirus restrictions there. As they said "there is significantly less risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death compared to earlier in the pandemic." Most importantly, the new CDC guidance says that "unvaccinated people now have the same guidance as vaccinated people." Read more

First, the good news. Wages in the private sector have grown by the fastest rate in 10 years, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released this week. Private-sector wages, including bonuses, are up 3.1 per cent over the past year. But the bad news outweighs the good. Inflation is running at 6.1 per cent and so “real” wages, after accounting for inflation, have dropped by their largest amount on record. Read more

In 1872, a Victorian farmer imported a bull from England that was later diagnosed with foot and mouth disease. Only two farms ended up being contaminated and the disease outbreak was quickly eliminated. Australia has been foot and mouth disease free for the subsequent 150 years. We have to do all we can to keep it that way. Read more

The physicist Niels Bohr once remarked that an expert is someone who has made every known mistake in a narrow field. As if to prove his point, in early 2021, a team of German economists predicted that the coronavirus might finally kill off coal. In a paper published in Nature magazine they claimed that "the economic repercussions of the pandemic have led to a very pronounced reduction of fossil-fuel-based power generation, illustrating the risks of stranded assets in coal power generation." Read more

In the real world, Australia faces major gas shortages next year despite being the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in the world. In the fake world of Parliament House, we are debating what are our emissions targets should be in eight years’ time. Read more

Last weekend I attended a meeting of over 100 Yeppoon residents concerned about rising crime levels. I heard stories about people's homes being invaded while they were there. Someone recounted how young juveniles laughed at the prospect that they could be arrested, knowing that they faced just a slap on the wrist. Another couple had a car stolen at 2 am and the assailants broadcast it live on Snapchat. Even with this self-incriminating evidence they are not behind bars. Read more

In Evelyn Waugh’s classic satire Black Mischief, the fictional African country of Azania welcomes an English delegation from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, at a gala dinner. In the after-dinner speech, given by the Azanian Minister for the Interior, it becomes clear that there is a slight misunderstanding about the Society’s objectives: ‘It is my privilege and delight this evening to welcome with open arms of brotherly love to our city Dame Mildred Porch and Miss Tin, two ladies renowned throughout the famous country of Europe for their great cruelty to animals. We Azanians are a proud and ancient nation, but we have much to learn from the white people of the West and North. We too, in our small way, are cruel to our animals…’At this point, Waugh explains that the Minister ‘digressed at some length to recount with hideous detail what he had himself once done with a woodman’s axe to a wild boar’. Read more