I think most of us can agree that the standard of public debate in Australia has declined during the past few decades.
Under Liberal prime minister John Howard, we had a considered and rational response to the Port Arthur massacre. We also had considerable elements of maturity in the 1998 discussion of the GST.
Under Labor PMs Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, we had tax summits that actually meant something. Moreover, we had an informed debate about what fundamental economic and fiscal changes could mean for families, for business and for the …
Grafton Everest is a rotund, larger-than-life political larrikin from Australia’s northernmost state and has been thrust to the balance of power in the national Parliament thanks to some dubious preference whispering.
Sound familiar?
The brainchild of Griffith University history and politics emeritus professor Ross Fitzgerald, Grafton Everest from the fictional Australian state of “Mangoland first appeared in 1986 in the form of ‘Pushed from the Wings: An Entertainment.’
“I was at Griffith University during the worst periods of the Joh regime and volume two of my history of Queensland got pulped. I got …
University reform is not one size fits all. We really do need to recognise the special role that regional universities play in regional and remote Australia. Failure to do so will fail the regional economies that drive the Australian economy whether it be through traditional exports from agriculture, mining and tourism or growing ones like renewable energy, niche market advanced engineering and value added food and tourism products.
Regional Australia is difficult to service because populations are relatively small and thinly spread over large areas. It contrasts with more densely-packed …
Many historians are interested in the progress of social movements, some of which are dubbed inevitable. However, that ducks the question of timing.
Becoming a republic and same-sex marriage are said to be inevitable in Australia. But why have they not happened already?
Despite the defeat in the 1999 referendum, 62 per cent of Australians in 2001 still favoured a republic. In 2012, after the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, 58 per cent wanted to retain the monarchy. And this week the Australian Republican Movement announced that 51 per cent of Australians — a …
People were puffing away on cigarettes for hundreds of years before anyone twigged to the dangers. In the West, we initially weren’t smoking that much but, as the 20th century progressed, so our ÂÂtobacco habit increased.
By the middle of the century most Australian men smoked but few women did.
Although it had been suspected cigarette smoking was harmful, the seriousness of this risk was ÂÂunconfirmed until researcher Richard Doll in Britain conducted his landmark 1952 study.
The importance of Doll’s study into the risks of smoking was quickly recognised. Iain Macleod, then …
Despite bipartisan Labor and Liberal Party support, the highly respected president of the Victorian upper house, Bruce Atkinson — a long-serving member of the Liberal Party — voted against the Victorian Criminal Organisations Control Amendment (Unlawful Associations) Bill 2015. Nonetheless, it was passed on Thursday, October 8, in the Legislative Council of Victoria.
So why did this senior Liberal MP stand with Fiona Patten from the Australian Sex Party and members of the Greens to oppose this law?
Atkinson’s position was akin to crossing the floor, but many saw it for what …
Bumbling Mangoland academic, Professor Dr Grafton Everest, has been elected to the Australian Senate, without really knowing why, and due to the influx of weird independents, finds himself holding the balance of power. Despite this, his personal life is a train wreck. A prostatectomy has left him impotent, his daughter is staging a theatrical event with an outlaw motorcycle gang and he suspects his wife is planning to have him put to sleep. On top of it all, Australia is facing natural disaster from Tectonic Change. Can Grafton save his …
I have just returned from the continental US, and from New York in particular. As a result I can confirm — unambiguously and once and for all — that the US economy is back with a vengeance.
Unemployment in the US sits at just above 5 per cent. Most countries in the world would kill to have that jobless rate.
Jobs have been created in the US in every month on a net basis for the past five years. This is a huge achievement
US consumer spending is up — and that’s a …
Art tends to imitate life in the latest novel featuring one of the most shambolic and hilarious figures in Australian fiction.
Grafton Everest, the protagonist (we can’t say hero) of a string of satires by historian and novelist Ross Fitzgerald is loved and loathed in equal measure.
In Fitzgerald’s new book, ‘Going Out Backwards : A Grafton Everest Adventure’, co-written with comedy legend Ian McFayden, Professor Dr Grafton Everest. the bumbling Mangoland academic has been elected to the Australian Senate, without really knowing why and he finds himself …
A satirical writing duo offers this sardonic take on a certain well-known TV panel show
Ross Fitzgerald & Ian McFadyen
“Good evening and welcome to QED, Roger began with great verve. “Tonight, two controversial issues that are currently a headache for the government — education and the environment. And so commenced the discussion.
Although Professor Dr Grafton Everest found QED tedious to watch, he discovered that being on the show was like being on a runaway train. Every time you formulated something to say on a topic, the discussion moved on to something …
What to do about e-cigarettes is currently an extremely controversial issue in the areas of public health and addictions policy.
There is no doubt that Action on Smoking and Health Australia (ASH) and some tobacco control advocates, who were remarkably effective in reducing smoking in Australia, have been deeply traumatised by Big Tobacco’s unscrupulous behaviour.
Although ASH Australia, a national health group established in 1994 to reduce diseases, disabilities and premature deaths caused by tobacco products, closed in 2013, it continues to rally support through its website.
In May this year, Celeste Poulton, …
