Perth light rail: getting on board
In November 2010, two seemingly unrelated events on opposite sides of the world set the stage for one of the most exciting developments to come to our city in many years.
18 February 2011
In November 2010, two seemingly unrelated events on opposite sides of the world set the stage for one of the most exciting developments to come to our city in many years.
“It is becoming unprecedentedly difficult for anyone, anyone at all, to keep a secret. In the age of the leak and the blog, of evidence extraction and link discovery, truths will either out or be outed, later if not sooner. “This is something I would bring to the attention of every diplomat, politician and corporate leader: the future, eventually, will find you out. The future, wielding unimaginable tools of transparency, will have its way with you. In the end, you will be seen to have done that which you did.” ~ William Gibson, “The Road to Oceania”, 2003
The historic and unusual election result of 2010 is an opportunity to hit the ‘reset’ button on the climate change debate and turn it in a more productive direction.
Dear potential investor, As you consider the wide range of places to put your hard earned cash as the Australian economy stages its tentative recovery, there are a couple of things to keep in mind about the uranium boom.
Judging from the extraordinary outpouring of editorial anguish over the Australian Greens’ cautionary uranium mining policies, it seems we might have hit a nerve. Ranging from simple name calling to paranoid hysteria, one thing missing has been any analysis – any at all – of why we believe the nuclear industry should be phased out.
“Does it worry you that you don’t talk any kind of sense?” ~ Agda, the Restaurant at the end of the Universe Every couple of months we get the opportunity to hold a discussion directly, on the record, with Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and the senior officials responsible for implementing the Government’s mandatory net filter scheme (#nocleanfeed, #openinternet). These opportunities come about as a result of the Senate Estimates Committee process which provides a valuable, if somewhat warped, window into the world of the Australian public service.
The Government has been strongly criticised this year for rolling out massive policy initiatives without properly thinking through the costing and institutional frameworks required to make them work. The $43 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) and the home insulation scheme are two examples of big picture budget items that proceeded at breakneck speed unhindered by the normal process of internal checks and balances. The tragic results are a matter of record in the case of home insulation; the jury is still on the fence with regards the NBN. But what happens when the reverse occurs – when a simple
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s proposed ‘solution’ to our sixty year radioactive waste legacy has lit the fuse on a major confrontation between the Australian Government and everyone else.
Isn’t it interesting that anyone who asks where the Liberal Party’s nuclear power stations will be constructed, is immediately accused of running a scare campaign?