So today I want to talk about something fun… because I figured I’d bored everybody enough talking about broadband policy and wind turbines.

Drugs are a really interesting part of modern society. Over the last hundred years we’ve developed this majestic double standard on intoxication. A great confusion on what’s good and bad in regards to the substances we put in our body. The thing that has perplexed me for a long time is the refusal by our society to talk about them. We’ve developed a moral objection to the idea of these substances while simultaneously indulging in them on a very regular basis.

So I want to talk about two things in this post.

1: Why we refuse to talk about drugs and why we have developed this strange, completely hollow moral objection to them.

and;

2: Why current drug policy is completely insane!

Before I go on I want it on record that I am actually not...

As parliament has been in winter recess, I too have taken some time to recoup and recharge. This is the reason posts have not been as free flowing as they were in the preceding months. But after significant amounts of procrastination I’ve dragged myself back to the keyboard as I’ve felt my rage against terrible governance has reached the point of bubbling over (again).

So what is it that has enticed me back to the ways of the keyboard warrior? Of all things, it is the comments of an executive of an obscure Singaporean telecommunications company that has inspired me. Now I know allot of you guys and girls aren’t tech heads, so allot of this will probably seem like ancient greek to you. But I want to talk about the NBN… because it’s something we as a nation never really talked about.

But more importantly, I want to talk about what the NBN was, and what it has become, and a theory I have...

I really do have to give thanks to this current government. They seem intent on providing me with a neverending stream of topics to write my slightly rant-filled blog posts on.

So what are we looking at this week? Well I was going to write a piece on the instability in the Chinese stock markets and the indirect implications these have on the Chinese government, but then good old Tone just had to go and throw something in my lap. That new topic is the recent ban the government has put on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) investing in both wind farms and household solar. This ban is such a slap in the face for the idea of balanced policy that I couldn’t help but cover the topic.

But first, some background.

The CEFC is a government owned organisation established by the Australian Government in 2012 (under the previous Labor government). The corporation was established with the...

As some of you may know, on Wednesday the 1st of July a piece of legislation came into force called the Australian Border Force Act. This act was designed to facilitate several initiatives in regards to Australia’s border protection scheme, one of which has Australia’s human rights advocates terrified and ashamed.

Human rights abuses within Australian detention facilities have been reported for years, going as far back as the notorious ‘children behind bars’ saga of the Howard government. Both major parties have been complicit in this ongoing fiasco with Labor attempting to claim the moral high ground under the Rudd government by ending off-shore detention, before reintroducing the policy in 2012 under the Gillard government. Some people say the ends justify the means, some say they don’t, and some say Australia is actually in breach of human rights obligations. However, this post is...

So after doing some interesting calculations tonight on the current housing affordability crisis in some area’s of Australia I came to a very interesting conclusion. Sydney has hit the wall, prices are so rampantly out of control, so driven by speculation, and so dependent on continued value increases that the market can do nothing but turn.

So lets have a look

Recent statements by the treasurer have been copping a lot of criticism, some of it legitimate, some of it unfair, but all of it missing the point. The treasurer claims that with a decent job Australian property markets, although tough to enter, are still ultimately affordable due to the ready availability of cheap credit owing to our historically low-interest-rate.

Now lets ignore the fact that this historically low-interest-rate is exactly what’s fueling the rampant speculation in the Sydney housing market; and lets ignore...

In case you missed it, this is part 2 of a two-part series on Australia’s super system. Make sure you read part 1 before heading onto this section.

Up until now I’ve left out the key point of this whole article… why am I even looking at such a seemingly marginal issue such as superannuation tax concessions?

Three points will demonstrate exactly why.

1: The current federal deficit is nearly $50 billion /year

2: Superannuation tax concessions cost the government between $30 - 42 billion /year.

3: They are completely pointless because they primarily assist high-income earner while ignoring low-income earners who will still need the age pension when they retire.

Why is this? Well, based upon compulsory savings of 9-12% of a minimum wage income, these people (who struggle to afford voluntary contributions) will not save enough with their compulsory super contributions alone, for an...

Ok, so this one is going to dig a little deeper into some topics.
Fair warning, there will be some serious numbers in here… so be prepared (maybe even prepared to read it twice).

Some people will say it’s crazy and arrogant to think you can solve one of a nation’s major fiscal problem’s in the contents of a single blog post… but the reality is that most political problem’s actually have quite simple answers. Why is that? Economies of scale. Issues that seem marginal on face value become serious $$ when scaled up to an economy of 25 million people. Don’t worry, this will make sense with time.

Before I continue any further I want it noted that I do have tertiary qualification in this area… otherwise most people who read this will simply dismiss it as the uneducated ramblings of another pissed off “lunatic leftie”.

So without further adieu… ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

During my last post I spoke only briefly about my respect for those who have, rightly or wrongly, fought and died in an effort to defend this country and the culture we have built. Over the decades, men and woman have seen what they believed was a threat to the Australian way of life and have put their lives on the line to defeat this threat. These people were, in my eyes, heroes. A hero is someone who puts the good of the group before the good of themselves. And so this post is going to be about heroes.

It’s been an interesting few weeks for me. I’ve seen an awful lot of the dead be called heroes and an awful lot of the living be called villains. Now what has been particularly interesting is that in only one of these cases has the title been deserved… and in the other two it’s almost like it should have been reversed.

There’s something I’ve come to notice all to clearly over the...

So ANZAC day this year was a bit of a phenomenon to me. It was polarizing… It demonstrated to me two aspects of modern society so far apart, so opposite, that comprehension of them both frustrates and confuses me.

First of all I want to get the negative out of the way nice and fast because I want to end this one on a positive note for once.

So without further adieu, a few questions about respect.

First up… can someone please tell me when the f..k did ANZAC day become an excuse to get drunk at seven in the morning and spend the day making a complete ass out of yourself? Do I mind this shit on Australia day? look not really. If that is how you want to celebrate this nation of ours then that’s fine, go for it.

But ANZAC day is different.

Let’s start with the fact that Australia’s blatant alcohol problem started long after WWI. Let’s move onto the fact that the dickheads most of these...