Moral majority?

I’ve written before about how annoying I find the rules about religious education in NSW public schools. In 1880, the NSW government established the Public Instruction Act, which introduced compulsory free education in NSW. In a compromise with the (non catholic) religious schools, the government also took over most of the poor, parish schools. As [...]

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Book Review: Immigrants - Your country needs them

Today’s book review is Immigrants - Your Country needs them, by Philippe Legrain. Legrain is a British journalist (but with a complex heritage involving Estonia, the US and France) who started writing this book just after the July 2005 terrorist attacks on London.
The book’s introduction is titled “It’s time for fresh thinking about immigration”, and it [...]

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The Rules

There was a story last week about how the new government has issued a directive that major statutory agencies (for example the CSIRO, ANSTO and Questacon) will not issue any “strategic media releases which relate to the Government’s key messages” unless they have been vetted by the government - specifically the office of Kim Carr, Minister [...]

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Jury again

One of the reasons (apart from general laziness) that I didn’t do Globlopomo is that I was called for Jury service for a month starting today. But I’m posting now because I got off.
I got as far as sitting in the jury box of a trial of someone for sexual assault. To my great relief, I [...]

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Senate voting

I’ve always been one of the 4% of voters (Antony Green) who voted “below the line” in the Senate*. Every person who admits to sharing this obscure habit always comes back to one reason, “I wanted to vote [XXX] last”.
So this year, with the release of the Senate ballot paper (NSW here), I thought I’d help [...]

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Iconic Objects

As I was idly browsing the Powerhouse museum today, I came across an iconic object - the guitar of Harry Vanda from the Easybeats. I’d only vaguely heard of the Easybeats, but according to Wikipedia, “They are widely regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s and were the first Australian rock and roll act [...]

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Jury Duty

I managed this week to avoid jury duty, mainly by politely begging them to give me an exemption because it was end-of-financial year (which is one of the three or four busiest weeks for me at work).
I do feel somewhat guilty about it. The jury system is a vital part of our legal system, and [...]

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In praise of Grey ghosts and parking meters

I think I’m one of the few people in Sydney whose spirits rise at the site of a grey ghost (parking police). I live in an area which is mixed - about 50% of my street is businesses, mostly advertising agencies and design studios. The whole street is residents parking only, with non residents only [...]

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The immigrant experience

I’m a pretty typical and untypical Sydneysider - I was born overseas (31% of Sydneysiders were) but I have lived here since I was 4 (many Sydneysiders, if they were born in Australia, came here from somewhere else).
I think of myself as Australian, but my parents think of themselves as New Zealanders, even though they’ve both [...]

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A vicious cycle(ing)

A few months ago, in Melbourne, a pedestrian was killed by a cyclist while crossing the road. It was early on a Saturday morning, when the local cyclists were out on their morning ride.  A friend told me that the cyclists on this ride are notorious for not obeying the road rules;  they effectively think of it [...]

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