http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/kevin-andrews/ Kevin Andrews is the Federal Member for Menzies in Victoria. He is a keen recreational cyclist. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:00:13 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cycling-through-history-to-the-tour-down-under/ Road cycling has been growing in popularity for the past few decades. This week’s Tour Down Under in South Australia is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people to roadside vantage points throughout the state to watch some of the best riders on the globe contest the opening event of the 2012 World Tour. Yet for the first few decades of competitive cycling, the track was the Mecca for large crowds of cycling fans. Beginning in Europe, but spreading quickly to the United States, Australia and elsewhere, the close action on the steeply banked velodromes captured the imagination of the public. Throughout the first three decades of last century, cycling tracks were built in major cities. In the US, track cycling became one of the most popular sports in the nation. As in Europe, sporting stars and celebrities of the era were regular faces in the stands. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cycling-through-history-to-the-tour-down-under/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/cycling-through-history-to-the-tour-down-under/#item7528 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:45:13 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nanny-state-calling-stumps-for-no-good-reason/ The news that a municipal council in Melbourne has banned local cricketers from playing the popular, fast-paced Twenty20 in more than 40 parks raises questions about the increasingly litigious and risk-averse culture in which we live today. According to reports, the Boroondara Council introduced the ban to minimize the risk of injury and property damage. Apparently one ball had shattered a car window. It is also a reminder of one of the most well known judgments in the English common law. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nanny-state-calling-stumps-for-no-good-reason/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nanny-state-calling-stumps-for-no-good-reason/#item7480 Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:45:48 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-new-true-blue-crew-of-aussie-champs/ It is one of the most anticipated events in Australian cycling. For decades, cyclists, coaches and supporters have dreamt of having a national team at the Tour de France and the other great European races. Now, 98 years after Don Kirkham and Snowy Munro became the first Aussies – and the first non-Europeans – to ride in the Tour de France, an Australian team will join the professional peleton. The first appearance of the Green Edge team this weekend at the Bay Criterium series in Victoria had been eagerly awaited for months. Although the Bay Crits are a warm-up series for the Australian Road Championships this week at Mt Buninyong, and the first of the World Tour races, the Santos Tour Down Under the following week in Adelaide, they have attracted the cream of the nation’s cyclists for two decades. As the first races for the summer season, it is fitting that the Green Edge riders are participating in the keenly contested circuit races at Geelong, Port Arlington and Williamstown. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-new-true-blue-crew-of-aussie-champs/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-new-true-blue-crew-of-aussie-champs/#item7461 Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:54:59 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-wooden-puppet-who-dreamed-of-becoming-pm/ In a democratic polity like Australia, there is a compact between the governing party and the governed people. Under it, the people make a choice and thereby give their consent to be governed after having been informed of the policies and platform of the respective parties. This information is provided in a variety of ways: through official party platforms, policy documents, media releases, communications to organisations and individuals, and media statements. Together, it constitutes the basis upon which the citizens make a choice at an election. Some of this material is vague and general, but much of it is detailed and precise. Parties make commitments to do – or not to do – certain things, knowing that their word will be relied upon by the people in casting their votes. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-wooden-puppet-who-dreamed-of-becoming-pm/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-wooden-puppet-who-dreamed-of-becoming-pm/#item7449 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:55:54 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australian-cycling-has-a-rich-and-exciting-history/ The Herald-Sun Tour is Australia’s oldest cycling stage race. As a child, I recall watching the Tour riders travel through the small country town of Rosedale in Gippsland where I grew-up. Sometimes there would be an intermediate sprint in the town. On other occasions we would watch the riders racing up the ridge adjoining our property. The Tour marked the revival of competitive cycling after the Second World War. For the first half of last century, track racing and one-day endurance events dominated the cycling calendar. Track racing was extremely popular, as thousands of people flocked to the wooden velodromes to witness closely fought races. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australian-cycling-has-a-rich-and-exciting-history/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/australian-cycling-has-a-rich-and-exciting-history/#item6924 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:55:09 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-green-job-created-is-3.7-jobs-destroyed-elsewhere/ Jobs are being lost, buildings are closing; hundreds of people are moving overseas. Australian manufacturing is facing a major slump, with thousands more jobs expected in light of the carbon tax policy - especially in places like the La Trobe Valley in Victoria. According to recent research from the Australian Trade and Industry Alliance, less than nine per cent of the one million manufacturing workforce are employed by firms that will receive compensation for the carbon tax. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-green-job-created-is-3.7-jobs-destroyed-elsewhere/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-green-job-created-is-3.7-jobs-destroyed-elsewhere/#item6754 Wed, 21 Sep 2011 18:40:35 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stable-families-stable-society-its-that-simple/ In 1998, the House of Representatives Legal and Constitutional Committee issued a report entitled To Have and To Hold about marriage and family in Australia. Writing the preface to the bipartisan report, I commented: “This report is about strengthening marital relationships. It is about preventing marital distress and the consequent breakdown of relationships. It arises from our concern for children; for their future, their happiness, and their ability to form their own loving and fulfilling relationships.” While the family continues as a human aspiration, there have been a series of changes in family patterns throughout the industrialised world that point to a decline in marriage and a weakening of family life. To Have and To Hold summarised these patterns: feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stable-families-stable-society-its-that-simple/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Stable-families-stable-society-its-that-simple/#item6650 Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:45:13 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-Britain-is-broken-and-how-it-might-be-fixed/ Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the late US senator, ambassador and statesman, caused widespread consternation when he released a report in 1965 about the disintegration of the negro family in America. Sub-titled ‘The case for national action’, Moynihan’s report argued that without jobs, negro men would become alienated as husbands and fathers, leading to family dysfunction and breakdown, increasing out-of-wedlock births and sole parenthood, declining education outcomes and entrenched poverty. “From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard, to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history; a community that allows a large number of men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationships to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future – that community asks for and gets chaos. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-Britain-is-broken-and-how-it-might-be-fixed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Why-Britain-is-broken-and-how-it-might-be-fixed/#item6502 Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:45:11 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tour-of-dreams-the-cycle-of-longing/ Australians have dreamt of winning the Tour de France for a century. Of all the world’s great individual sporting contests, it has until now remained outside our grasp. Edwin Flack claimed gold on the track at the first modern Olympics; our swimmers regularly beat the best in the pool; and our track cyclists often have dominated the velodrome. But until now cycling’s greatest challenge has escaped us. Ever since Don Kirkham and Snowy Munro contested the twelfth running of the ‘Grand Boucle’ in 1914, Australians have returned to France in search of victory. Kirkham, a 27-year-old dairy farmer from Carrum in Victoria, had won the Goulburn – Sydney classic in 1910 and 1911 before venturing to Europe three years later. Munro, also from Melbourne, rode a world record time to win the Warrnambool to Melbourne road race in 1909. Riding over the rough, unmade roads of France, the pair of Australians impressed the locals with their endurance. They eventually finished 17th and 20th respectively before returning to Australia to escape the ravages of the First World War feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tour-of-dreams-the-cycle-of-longing/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/tour-of-dreams-the-cycle-of-longing/#item6361 Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:55:49 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/aussies-are-serious-players-in-the-worlds-biggest-bike-race/ It is a cold, dark evening in wintry Melbourne. As the peak hour traffic thins, a group of cyclists gather at one end of the Kew Boulevard. Within the space of a few minutes, a group of 50 to 60 riders have gathered for the weekly ‘Tour de Burbs’ – an hour and a half high speed dash through the eastern suburbs adjacent to the Yarra River. With flashing red tail lights, they set off, reaching speeds of up to 50 to 60 km/h. At the rear are a few 15 and 16 year olds, light as jockeys, but already capable of staying with the older group. As they ride, their dreams are half a world away with the stars riding in the Tour de France. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Kevin Andrews) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/aussies-are-serious-players-in-the-worlds-biggest-bike-race/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/aussies-are-serious-players-in-the-worlds-biggest-bike-race/#item6216 Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:30:24 +0000 Kevin Andrews | Author bios | The Punch