Booze and Violence

Watching the last instalment of the Howard Year’s tonight, I was struck by the comment that the problem in the indigenous community was due to the “violence they’d been subjected to and it was, it was report without number of how alcohol was at the heart of the destruction of these Communities”. And then I thought back to comments made in the program by former cabinet members.

Howard’s End: Join the Tallyroom Spectators

Posted by Kevin Rennie

The National Tallyroom in Canberra on election night 2007 was a rowdy, raucous place. The crowd were after scalps, none more so than the Prime Minister John Howard’s. Every time one of the TV monitors showed the latest counting in the PM’s electorate of Bennelong or the ALP candidate Maxine McKew, there was loud cheering and screaming.

Economy XXII

Hindsight is a marvellous thing. Economists are very good and explaining why certain things have happened in the past, however try asking one to predict what’s going to happen in the future and you may as well ask your grandmother.

Six months ago most economists everywhere were predicting that the Australian dollar would reach parity with the US dollar by now. Woops, got that one wrong didn’t they?