ROSS FITZGERALD
In last Saturday’s state election, the Liberal National Party of Queensland has decisively ended the ALP’s nine year run in office.
This means that, in Queensland’s one-house parliament, LNP leader, the MLA for Broadwater on the Gold Coast, David Chrisafulli will be able to form government with a workable majority.
As readers of Pearls & Irritations may remember, on 21 October I predicted an anti-Labor swing in Queensland of up to 10%.
But the Queensland-wide swing of 7.3% is misleading.
The reason that there wasn’t an utter ALP wipe out was that, by …
Clean slate for prison reform in the ACTBy Andrew FraserOct 30, 2024
The Canberra community decided on 19 October to remove from its parliament the two most recent ministers for corrections, Mick Gentleman (Labor) and Emma Davidson (Green).
In mid-2023, Minister Gentleman chose not to act on the findings of the second and final report of Neil McAllister, the then independent inspector of correctional services.
Instead, Gentleman went on the attack, suggesting not only that the report was wrong in its conclusion that ACT prison conditions were deteriorating but claiming also that there …
The biggest challenge remains for federal Labor to reconnect with regional Australia. Otherwise they are cactus electorally, and will go the same way as the Miles government, with lingering support in the cities but being electorally toxic elsewhere,” writes PROF ROSS FITZGERALD.
In Saturday’s state election, the Liberal National Party of Queensland decisively ended the ALP’s nine-year run in office. This means that, in Queensland’s one-house parliament, LNP leader, the MLA for Broadwater on the Gold Coast, David Crisafulli, will be able to form government with a workable majority.
As readers of …
November 5 1974, November 5 1975, November 5 1976
ROSS FITZGERALD
Why is 5 November the most important date in my calendar?
It’s not because November 5 is the date of the American election, in which Ronald Thump (my fictional creation in the Grafton Everest political satires) may win by a whisker.
It’s not because November 5 is the date of the Melbourne Cup, in which Francesco Guardi, trainer by Chris Waller is a good each-way bet.
It is actually because on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day) 1974, at the instigation of my long time …
“Let’s hope that the next ACT Minister for Corrections actually makes root and branch corrections to the odious conditions at the Alexander Maconochie Centre and to the inhumane treatment of David McBride,” says Prof Fitzgerald. Photo: Andrew Finch
“In between a mass of weasel words was this stark admission: ‘So far in the 2024-2025 financial year, three detainees have already died while in custody at the AMC’.”
So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of whistleblower David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander …
The treatment of detainees at the Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in CanberraROSS FITZGERALDOct 24, 2024
So far, the only media outlets courageous enough to publish my revelations about the inhumane treatment of David McBride and other inmates at the odious Alexander Maconochie Centre federal prison in Canberra have been Pearls and Irritations and Canberra’s City News.
On 22 October 2024, I finally received a response on behalf of Richard Glenn, Director-General ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate.
This followed my 25 September 2024 email in which I directed a number of questions …
by ROSS FITZGERALD
“In Queensland, Premier Stephen Miles and his ALP government are seen as weak, incompetent and overwhelmed. This is an electorally terminal combination,” writes PROF ROSS FITZGERALD.
In the forthcoming state election, my prediction is that Labor in Queensland will get hammered.
As it happens, Labor in Queensland is the name of a political history that I co-authored with Sigrid Thornton’s brother, Harold Thornton.
In the recent NT election there was a 23 per cent swing against the ALP.All signs indicate that, on Saturday, there will be a swing against Labor of …
Jack Iverson was, my father often told me, the finest bowler to whom he ever kept
By Ross Fitzgerald
Oct 19, 2024
Playing against England, in the home Ashes series of 1950–51, Iverson led the Australian bowling averages with 21 wickets at 15.24 runs per wicket. Bamboozling the Poms, in one Test he got 6 for 27. A little known fact is that Jack Iverson’s highest score in all five Tests was 1 not out.
A famous old club: A History of the Brighton Cricket Club by David King
ISBN 9780646977829
RRP: $85.00 (hb)
Reviewed by Ross …
This year the nimble Melbourne publisher Hybrid have taken a punt and released The Ascent of Everest, a boxed set of four Australian political satires.
All these fictions centre on Dr Professor Grafton Everest, whose first academic position, in the mid-1980s, was a lecturer in Life Skills and Hospitality at the ultra leftist University of Mangoland. At the same time, Grafton Everest was also assailed by the uber-right-wing government of the odious premier of Mangoland, Sir Otis Hoogstratten.
These days, in 2025, through no wish or effort of his own, Grafton has become …
“There should be a public inquiry, not just into the mistreatment of whistleblower David McBride, but also into serious allegations about the inhumane conditions other inmates face at the AMC,” says letter writer ANDREW WILLIAM HOPKINS.
The fact that Australian Army war crimes whistleblower David McBride has been granted a chance to appeal against his five years and eight months sentence at the dreadful Alexander Maconochie Centre prison in Canberra is long overdue.
It is important to understand that this occurred only because of the tireless efforts of Prof Ross Fitzgerald and …
This year the nimble Melbourne publisher Hybrid have taken a punt and released The Ascent of Everest, a boxed set of four Australian political satires.
All these fictions centre on Dr Professor Grafton Everest, whose first academic position, in the mid-1980s, was a lecturer in Life Skills and Hospitality at the ultra leftist University of Mangoland.
At the same time, Grafton Everest was also assailed by the uber-right-wing government of the odious premier of Mangoland, Sir Otis Hoogstratten.
These days, in 2025, through no wish or effort of his own, Grafton has become …
