by Ross Fitzgerald and Rowan Dean.
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Australia’s current energy policy is close to being insane. We are the world’s largest coal exporter, but can’t manage to open any new coal-fired power stations here. Or worse, deliberately do not want to. We are one of the world’s biggest uranium exporters, but building a nuclear power station in Australia would be illegal. We will soon be the world’s largest gas exporter, but are about to build an import terminal because too much of our local production …

Why alcohol and drug problems continue to be so severe in Australia
by ROSS FITZGERALD
The idea that drug abuse is confined to illegal drugs is a mistaken one that is often magnified by the media.
The ravages of ice are terrible but the figures show that more than 90 per cent of deaths due to drugs are caused by the legal ones: tobacco and alcohol.
But don’t expect our mainstream media to remind us of that crucial fact. Alcohol is a pernicious drug that is socially acceptable, even as it destroys lives and …

PM MAY BEAT ALP YET LOSE HIS PARTY
by Ross Fitzgerald
Call it the historian’s instinct but, based on more than 40 years’ professional interest in Australian elections, I am starting to think that the government is likelier than not to be returned, especially if Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister is pitted against Bill Shorten as Opposition Leader.
Sure, the government has lost 33 Newspolls in a row to Labor, has a majority of …