Cassidy: Jetlag excuse up there with Tony’s greatest gaffesTony Abbott has said some crazy things over the years but his recent excuse that he was too jet-lagged to visit Afghanistan is up there with his very best/worst. It’s all the more strange given Abbott is passionate about Australian soldiers, writes Barrie Cassidy.
October, 2010
must read 
Silvester: Women are sluts and men are morons?
The latest alleged sexual assault incident involving two Collingwood footballers has reignited the “she was asking for it” argument. Do we say the same thing about young men bashed while hanging around notorious night spots? asks John Silvester.
The Dragons: a deserving Premier led by the finest coach Australia’s ever produced
Rugby league has changed a lot over the last twenty years, from five-metre rules to part time players. One thing remains the same though: Wayne Bennett is a winner, says Nick Tedeschi.
Ben Johnson: Yes I took steroids, but my drink was spiked
Sprinter Ben Johnson is notorious in sport for being busted as a drug cheat at the 1988 Olympics. But his new autobiography will reveal how he was framed with a spiked drink because of sponsors, says Johnson.
Media briefs: On the water drip … Devine’s back
There’s some strange media management going on in relation to the release of the long-awaited Murray-Darling Basin Authority draft plan for the MDB. Plus, moderation filter fails Bolt and other media news of the day.
The Pies’ accused: why, this time, hasn’t the media named them?
Collingwood President Eddie McGuire could hardly have foreseen the blizzard of bad PR (read: rape allegations) that has cast a pall over the Pies’ celebrations. The big question is: why haven’t the media named the alleged perpetrators?
The Samuel swipe: business partners turn rats on sinking DFO
Rich list entrepreneurs David Goldberger and David Wieland have launched an extraordinary public attack against ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel, calling for an inquiry into what their former business partner knew about the problems at shopping centre chain DFO.
A skiing holiday booked and it was all downhill from there
If you are making a purchase on the internet, there are sometimes greater risks attaching to the purchaser than if they are buying a product or service from a business with a shop-front.
Call off the razor gang and fix the safety net: welfare groups
Treasury’s brief to the incoming government calls for broad-scale welfare reform, among other cost-cutting measures. But welfare groups say the reforms outlined in the so-called Red Book are ineffective and risk discriminating against some of the most marginal people in the community, writes Jane Vashti Ryan.
What lay behind the Villawood
protests?
Are immigration detainees risking their lives under the belief protests will be rewarded? The government is keen to send the signal that they won’t be after a recent spate of protests at the Villawood Detention Centre.
In smoggy Tianjin, ‘structural imbalance’ is the hot topic
Day two of UN climate talks in heavily-polluted Tianjin fittingly started with a side event on coal use in China. Burning coal and the “structural imbalance” of energy use is the hot topic, writes Owen Pascoe, who is at the talks for the Australian Conservation Foundation.
Kohler: the globe is awash with new money
Wall Street has now taken a double-dip off the table. It’s clear the market is removing deflation risk.
Guy Rundle: Rundle: why Afghanistan is the non-un-post-war-war
Is it possible that people can reason about war and peace as a moral and political decision, not as a technical specialist discourse?
Free TV bans second pro-euthanasia ad in a month
Commercials Advice, the watchdog set up by Free TV Australia to classify and approve television commercials, has banned another pro-euthanasia commercial for promoting suicide. The decision comes just weeks after the body refused classification for a controversial ad produced by right to die lobby group Exit International.
Info brokerage and citizenship: more reflections on Grog
Are public servants, on their own time, allowed to engage in what might be described as acts of journalism?
The murky — and costly — world of construction regulation
It’s not only the new Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) chief Leigh Johns who has some explaining to do. The costs are mounting, writes Ava Hubble.
The Media Monitors' Top 20: Afghanistan (and Wilkie) get the coverage
Andrew Wilkie brought up the Afghanistan war as a topic deserving extensive debate. and received the coverage for it.
Business missing out by not appointing women to boards
What is wrong with the boards of big business? Their competence in running companies is put in question by their poor record in selecting senior line managers and new board members.
Morning Market Report: Markets up, gold at record high
The gold price reached another record high, up $23.50 to $1340.30.
Daily Proposition: See a show that bridges the racial divide
Namatjira might just be as significant a bridge between blackfella and whitefella as the now fading memory of the march across the coathanger, or even the apology. It has all the ingredients for exemplifying what can be achieved, writes Lloyd Bradford Syke of Crikey theatre blog Curtain Call.
Political snippets: The IMF’s gloomy economic predictions
Hidden behind the somewhat bland title “Will it hurt? Macroeconomic effects of fiscal consolidation” released overnight by the IMF revealed some gloomy predictions of what will follow from the worldwide rush to reduce government budget deficits.
Video of the Day: An alternative economic future
A fascinating TED talk by Professor Tim Jackson on social psychology and the effect this has on the global economy and our environment. Do enterprises with ecological and social goals — and the development of a different concept of prosperity — hold the best prospects for our economic and social future?
