The increasingly shrill debate over the proposal to allow the parallel importation of books is the Australian chattering classes’ latest ideological battle.
Ever since the Rudd government’s Productivity Commission handed down a report that suggested lifting the current Parallel Importation Restriction (PIR), the literary cultural warriors have been manning the barricades to defend the protected Australian publishing industry.
The usual suspects: Tim Winton, Tom Keneally and other left-leaning authors have been loudly proclaiming that allowing normal competition to rule the local market would sound the death knell for Australian literature.
But the key …

A RECENT decision in the NSW Land and Environment Court means developers and investors in that state (and potentially the nation) now have no idea where they stand.
The decision of judge David Lloyd on August31 exposes land developers in NSW to crippling uncertainty.
Perhaps more worrying is the fact that the state Labor government and the planning minister in particular immediately signalled that they would not challenge the decision. The handling of this crucial planning matter highlights the weakness of the government, which does not appear to have the courage to …

Alcohol abuse and misuse is increasing “exponentially”, with the number of young women indulging in binge drinking increasing by 200 per cent since 2000, the co-author of a new book on the role of alcohol in Australia warns.
Speaking at the launch of Under the Influence at Annandale Galleries, in Sydney’s inner west on Wednesday night, co-author Professor Ross Fitzgerald referred to a finding by NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione that a violent city like Los Angeles has fewer alcohol-related assaults than Newcastle and Sydney.
“Faced with the reality that tens of …

THREE weeks ago I wondered if there was something wrong with the Canberra press gallery. Despite a growing list of problems in the programs for which she has been responsible, their infatuation with Julia Gillard seemed to know no bounds.
A remarkable demonstration of political acrobatics last week by the Deputy Prime Minister proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. First was the backdown on youth allowance, an admission that country kids can’t be expected to live at home while attending university. Then there was the duck-and-weave on …

In a secular country like Australia it is ironic that Catholic schools are mainly funded by the state. Even in America, where religion pervades politics, state aid to religious schools is constitutionally forbidden. Yet the fact remains that most Catholic school provision in English-speaking countries is fully publicly funded.
Australian Catholic school funding is a complex work in progress. Although socially liberal and committed to serve a public function, Australian Catholic schools are virtually uniquely private sector schools, drawing from the Commonwealth and states funds without which they would be unsustainable.
The …

SOME of Australia’s most successful politicians have come back from opinion poll ratings as dismal as Malcolm Turnbull’s.
Jeff Kennett was an opinion poll cellar-dweller for much of his time as Victorian opposition leader, and John Howard woke up one morning to a 1989 Bulletin magazine cover: “Mr 18 per cent. Why does this man bother?” Both Kennett and Howard, however, needed a second stint as opposition leader to hit their straps, and it’s unlikely that Turnbull would stay in the parliament unless he came far closer to winning next year’s …

In a relatively secular country like Australia it is ironic that one of the main educational providers is the Catholic Church. And funding by the state allows this religious school system to function, which could be seen as compromising the separation between church and state.
Even rabidly religious America eschews this practice, since state aid to religious schools is constitutionally forbidden. The fact is that Catholic school provision in many English-speaking countries is largely a matter of public educational provision, a product of the Reformation settlement, which favoured an established Church …

JULIA Gillard is the darling of the Canberra press gallery. This makes some sense: she is erudite and sometimes funny in question time, a welcome break from the tedium of our Prime Minister’s mangled bureaucratese. She is also “the woman most likely”, a potential female prime minister in a city obsessed with the symbolism of such potential.
But increasingly concerns are growing in the education sector that she may be out of her depth when it comes to delivering in her very large portfolio areas. On last week’s Q&A program on …

When a person has committed a crime so serious that society decides to incarcerate them for it, the main aspect of that punishment is generally a loss of liberty.
Without the freedom to associate, people can’t offend against the general public anymore and hopefully they learn how painful it is to be kept away from society so they will think twice about committing that offence when they get out.
But what is the effect of cutting off all access and information about sex and sexuality to prisoners? This is the key topic …

A NATION in which alcohol was once the local currency was bound to have problems with the consumption and culture of booze.
We’ve come a lot further than rum and the rebellion it provoked, but the debate over the alcopop tax shows that we are a nation in denial. It skirted the central issues and primarily focused on the effectiveness of taxes, ignoring the elephant in the room.
In a fundamental cultural shift, cigarette smokers are now pariahs, but binge and out-of-control drinkers are often tolerated, to the disadvantage of countless …

PETER Garrett must be the most conflicted man in federal parliament. The former Midnight Oil frontman, a protest singer in his day, once opposed the US defence alliance but now finds himself forced to support it. The politician who once hated everything nuclear now approves new uranium mines.
Presumably Garrett thought entering parliament would finally give him the chance to put his principles into practice. Instead he has discovered that the ALP was much more interested in profiting from his popularity than it was in embracing his values.
Garrett’s most successful day …