ALCOHOLICS Anonymous is the most successful self-help group in the world and by far the most successful agency in helping alcoholic men and women stop drinking, and stay stopped.
Yet its critics (and there are many) argue that there is no reliable empirical evidence to support the efficacy of AA and its 12-step program. This is not true.
While it is the case that AA itself keeps no records and that its only membership requirement is a desire to stop drinking, recent American studies show how and why regular attendance at AA …
DURING the last federal election a friend was having her hair cut at a local hairdressing salon. Flipping idly through a magazine, she came across a photograph of Julia Gillard. The young hairdresser (but of voting age) peered over her shoulder and asked sweetly Who is that? It may come as a surprise to our politicians, but many Australians would struggle to name the senior members of cabinet, some would even struggle, unless prompted, to name the Prime Minister or the Opposition Leader.
Yet opinion polls indicate that many people appear …
THE first female premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, and the first female prime minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, share one thing in common; they are both politically doomed. The only difference is that Bligh will almost certainly be defeated at a Queensland election in March, while Gillard will be replaced before the next federal election.
For Bligh, the timing of Gillard’s replacement is crucial. While Gillard remains Prime Minister she is dragging down Labor’s state vote in Queensland by 5 to 7 per cent. Yet while Labor is travelling badly under …
HAVING just been on the end of a less than ecstatic review of our political-sexual satire Fools’ Paradise, a friend reminded my co-author, Trevor Jordan, and myself of a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde.
The great playwright and poet allegedly opined that: “The artist’s opinion of the critic is rather like that of a telegraph pole’s opinion of a dog.”
Whether Wilde said this or not, it got me thinking about how best, as a writer, to deal with criticism. As those who know me know, my rule of thumb, and my …
ONE of the interesting side- effects of the Federal Parliament’s obsession with immigration and taxation issues this year has been that serious discussion of social policy has been sadly neglected. Especially around drugs. It’s been about 40 years since marijuana, LSD and heroin made their way into Australian society and about 30 years for cocaine and ecstasy. Methamphetamine has been with us for a little more than 15 years and in the past couple of years we’ve started to see the advent of synthetic analogue drugs such as Kronic.
Three inescapable …
WHEN Labor finally got its carbon tax through the lower house, the government rightly was quite relieved. But astute political watchers were taken aback, indeed amazed, at the level of self-congratulation and jubilation that followed.
It’s one thing to mark the passing of key legislation. Both political parties have done that: take as examples Mabo, Wik, the sale of Telstra and the GST. But the scenes witnessed when the carbon tax was narrowly passed through this federal parliament may prove quite damaging for Labor in time.
Seeing those images on the television …
JULIA Gillard’s recent announcement of a white paper to guide national responses to the rapid changes occurring in Asia is a small but noteworthy attempt to garner some credibility on foreign policy.
It’s also an attempt to make her own way, distinct from that of her predecessor, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd.
Policymakers in Australia in recent years generally have been slow to grasp the significance of the social and economic revolution under way to our north.
There are far-reaching consequences for the course of Asian history and for Australia’s future.
The need for long-term …
RECENTLY we have heard from a chorus of people all singing from the same economic song sheet: Australia needs a sovereign wealth fund.
It’s claimed that a sovereign wealth fund could provide the answer to a number of our country’s economic challenges. Its proponents argue that it can lock away the gains of the current mining boom for a rainy day; increase national savings; facilitate investment in offshore assets; put downward pressure on the Australian dollar; provide a source of foreign income; and reduce our current account deficit.
Those in favour of …
FORMER Federal Court judge, civil libertarian, human rights advocate and Living National Treasure Marcus Einfeld OA (since rescinded) made a big mistake when he was caught speeding in Sydney.
He claimed his car was driven at the time by a US-based Australian friend, feminist philosopher and author Teresa Brennan.
In fact Brennan had died three years earlier, the victim of a mysterious and suspicious hit-and-run accident.
Instead of ‘fessing up, Einfeld compounded this lie by then claiming that another Teresa Brennan, also US-based, also deceased, was driving his car. The resulting, highly …
Peace, for the party and ‘betterment of the whole world’
Clayton with his wife, Peace Joy Source: Supplied
FOUR days after the Soviet spymaster Walter Seddon Clayton died at 91 in Newcastle on October 22, 1997, I interviewed his wife.
In an interview published in Brisbane’s Courier-Mail on November 15, 1997, Peace Joy Clayton (nee Gowland), a committed communist, confided to me that to …
