WHEN Julia Gillard launched the Labor government’s response to the Gonski report she said her centrepiece was an “an extra $14.5 billion in public investment over the next six years”.
Whether the Prime Minister actually plans on spending this money or not is largely becoming irrelevant – chances are that both she and her loyal deputy, Wayne Swan, will be looking for new jobs come September 15.

According to opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey, the promise of “extra” funding was essentially “a slipshod attempt to bribe more Australians into voting for a …

MEDICINAL use of cannabis should be permitted in Australia.
In 2013, we should not still be merely discussing this possibility. On Wednesday, a NSW parliamentary committee, chaired by Nationals upper house MP Sarah Mitchell, unanimously recommended that medicinal cannabis be permitted for some people with certain terminal conditions.

At present, 18 states in the US allow medical marijuana and a further 10 are considering it. Apart from providing genuine alternatives to existing medicines, this approach has kick-started a plethora of scientific research on cannabis by an industry that has until recently been …

JULIA Gillard is desperately searching for a legacy to establish her place in history beyond the fact that she is the first woman to hold the prime ministership.
As matters stand, she is destined to be remembered as the Labor leader who knifed a popular but flawed leader in Kevin Rudd, lost Labor’s majority at the 2010 election and then (if current polls are any indication) led Labor to its worst ever loss at the 2013 election.

The deterioration in the nation’s finances under Gillard’s watch and her failure to balance the …