Opinion

National Comment

The MP, the escort and a meeting in the Boardroom

Posted: 25 May 12 | A HIGH-CLASS escort has signed a statutory declaration alleging she had sex with the federal MP Craig Thomson. Last night Channel Nine's television program A Current Affair told viewers it had interviewed the woman on camera last week. |

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Alcohol warning labels shunned by industry despite research

Posted: 24 May 12 | THE alcohol industry is putting ''booze before babies'' by making false and misleading claims to a parliamentary inquiry into fetal alcohol disorders, a publicly-funded research body says. |

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Hearings keep Thomson in the spotlight

Posted: 23 May 12 | THE damage being inflicted on the government by the Craig Thomson affair shows no sign of abating with the MP referred to Parliament's privileges committee again yesterday - this time for allegedly misleading Parliament during his one-hour statement on Monday. |

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The world holds its breath as Europe struggles in the quicksand

Posted: 22 May 12 | THE immediate future of the global economy, including Australia, now depends on Europe, and whether it can restore confidence to markets. If European leaders can resolve their tangle of problems, growth is ahead of us. If they can't, all bets are off. |

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Latest intrigues are Oscar material

Posted: 21 May 12 | TO HAVE one scandal is bad for a government. To have two running simultaneously looks, to slightly misquote Oscar Wilde in another context, just too careless. |

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Torture causes long-term harm to more than just the initial victims

Posted: 18 May 12 | The battle for public acceptance of "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation as part of the "new normal" for statecraft after September 11 hangs in the balance. |

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Joke's worn off as films cue the stock Arab

Posted: 17 May 12 | I look forward to seeing The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest attempt at lampooning other cultures, which is released today. |

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I didn't vote for that

Posted: 15 May 12 | It’s getting exciting, isn’t it. Very dramatic, full of unexpected twists and turns. It’s the first thing we want to talk about when we get to work each day. |

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Our military strategies are indefensible

Posted: 15 May 12 | WE SHOULD thank Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan. Their budget cuts have destroyed the defence policy of the 2009 white paper, and that is a good thing because it was a bad policy. Now it is their job to do better, and create the defence policy Australia needs to be a middle power in the Asian century. That will not be easy. |

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Don't allow technology to get in the way of life

Posted: 14 May 12 | I was on a ferry crossing Sydney Harbour, sitting outside surrounded by wind, waves and spectacular views when I saw the young girl in front of me ask her father something. He sighed, nodded and handed over his smartphone. Next thing the girl's head was buried in it and the swish of the sea was interrupted by electronic squawks. |

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In Labor's death throes, Gillard might remake our politics

Posted: 11 May 12 | TUESDAY'S budget was much more interesting than first appears. It was deeply political. But in the best sense of the word. |

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The money for schools must come from parents

Posted: 10 May 12 | Exciting momentum was generated by the Gonski report on the funding of schools, but now the matter is wallowing in troubled waters. The impetus is in danger of being lost. Like a new toy without a battery, educators are left with a handful of promises. |

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Business slams scrapping of company tax cut

Posted: 09 May 12 | Business has slammed the government's decision to scrap $4.7 billion worth of company tax cuts and redistribute the revenue to households. |

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Get off Gillard's back, urges Westpac chief

Posted: 08 May 12 | WESTPAC chief executive Gail Kelly has urged other business leaders to work constructively with Prime Minister Julia Gillard and put aside the combative approach that some have taken to her minority government. |

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Is Gillard's grace enough to save her?

Posted: 07 May 12 | Somebody who knows Julia Gillard well and works closely with her once remarked that her greatest attribute was her outward calm. |

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Clubs stake new claims on pokies trials

Posted: 07 May 12 | CLUBS in the ACT that have agreed to a trial of mandatory precommitment on poker machines are now calling for the legislation to ensure the trial assesses the impact on the industry and contains a cost-benefit analysis, not just assessment of how well the scheme reduces problem gambling. |

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Abbott close to finishing line but we still need two in the race

Posted: 04 May 12 | IF THIS week's Newspoll primary vote of 27 per cent was replicated at an election, Labor would lose more than half its House of Representatives seats. That would be a catastrophe for it, but it would also make the political scales undesirably lopsided. |

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Hatred of women exists in the West as well as the Arab world

Posted: 03 May 12 | 'WOMEN have very little idea of how much men hate them,'' wrote Germaine Greer in The Female Eunuch. So outraged were men that wives reportedly took to concealing their copies by wrapping them in plain brown paper. |

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Jump off the policy pendulum

Posted: 02 May 12 | I like Americans. I have American friends, and I remember a trivial incident that endeared me to Americans forever. We were in a funicular going up one of the hills surrounding Lake Como in Italy, at close quarters with a group of Yanks. |

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Gillard should dump carbon tax, says Keneally

Posted: 02 May 12 | Former NSW premier Kristina Keneally says Julia Gillard should dump or "dial back" the carbon tax in a bid to save herself at the next election. |

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