LAST September, with some fanfare, Julia Gillard promised by mid-2012 she would present a white paper on Australia in the Asian century. We are still waiting.
There is speculation its chairman Ken Henry and his team prepared a draft but it was sent back for a rework.
Whatever its fate, the federal government’s blueprint is a keenly sought addition to Australia’s engagement with Asia. This is because, effectively, Australia has no choice but to bet its future on the Asian century.
With two decades of economic instability looming in Europe and the US, …

STATE of Origin football is long dead in the Australian Football League. A thriving national competition and the reluctance of clubs to share top players for what seemed to be a near meaningless pursuit saw the state versus state exhibition brought to an end.
This is in stark contrast to the National Rugby League, where representative competition remains the pinnacle of the sport.
The AFL and its clubs are right in ignoring calls to resurrect state-based representative football and tonight at ANZ Stadium, when my beloved team, the mighty Collingwood, clash with …

AT some point soon the penny will drop for most of the federal Labor caucus. Julia Gillard will not be leading them out of the wilderness into which she has taken them.
Like a doomed traveller lost in the desert, the Prime Minister is on a constant search for the oasis that might deliver her from danger, but her flawed judgment constantly takes her off in pursuit of yet another mirage.
Thus far, Gillard’s dispirited colleagues have trudged along behind her, glumly content with her constant reassurances that things will soon turn …