Protectionism

You really have to wonder how spectacularly insecure or under-endowed a bloke must be if he chooses to demonstrate his masculinity by shooting a majestic animal such as a giraffe or a hippo.

Yet these are the very people which the self-styled hard man from North Queensland, Bob “No Poofters” Katter, has surrounded himself with as he builds a support base for his fledgling Australia Party.

It is tempting to write Katter off as a harmless nut or an amusing novelty on the political landscape who will never exert any influence over policy. The polls suggest however that his party may poll strongly in his home state at a federal election.

Continue reading "Hard men? My latte is harder than Bob Katter" »

Imagine if the construction workers union, the CFMEU, issued a statement calling for Maoris and Islanders to be banned from working in the building industry. Or if the white-collar Australian Services Union demanded an end to all those pesky Indians stealing our jobs in IT.

They would be howled down as racist protectionists, accused of taking the nation back to the dark days of the White Australia Policy, offending the principles of inclusion and diversity by denying people from other countries a chance to settle and work here.

It might be 2011 but the actors and journalists’ union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, has this week launched a campaign which is the artistic equivalent of legislating to keep the kanaks off the canefields in the early 20th century.

Continue reading "Aussie actors unite - we grew here you flew here" »

The evidence that the Rudd Government is more concerned with presentation than substance is building daily.

This week, it had a chance to rebut that argument via a reform entirely consistent with its lofty claim to the genes of the Hawke/Keating governments.

The Productivity Commission had recommended the removal of parallel import restrictions on foreign published books.While this was a relatively minor matter in the larger scheme of things, it was nonetheless, a key test of those reform credentials. It would mean creating losers and taking on a vocal constituency - namely, the cultural/literary elites normally well disposed towards Labor.

Continue reading "The mounting evidence of Rudd’s style over substance" »