Police Censoring Public Art

How many complaints about our city's awful billboard advertising do the police need to (illegally) remove them?

Scalping Subsidised Commonwealth Games Tickets

The anti-scalping laws for Commonwealth Games tickets suggests there is a thriving demand at above face-value prices. Yet the taxpayer subsidy on each ticket is probably between $500 and $800. In other words, laws were passed to stop people paying the fair price of the tickets! Surely this means the State Government - and Chairman Ron Walker - have botched the pricing?

No doubt their defenders would cry "affordability". Well, if they wanted to make the Games affordable for people on low-incomes then means-testing would have targeted these families. But I suspect many families would rather have kept the hundreds of dollars as cash rather than as cheaper tickets. Instead, the Victorian Government has ingeniously put families in the position of having to buy tickets to get their own money back. This bolsters attendance figures, which will be used to justify the whole endeavour. Pyramid marketing scammers would be proud!

Productive Healthcare

No doubt the Productivity Commission's report into Australia's healthcare will trigger the usual objections by the doctors' union. This is natural, as any union must put its members' interests first. However, I know enough doctors to believe that the vast majority are motivated by a deep-rooted sense of compassion and care. And they are not so naive as to ignore the costs of red tap, bureaucracy, pointless demarcation disputes and bully-boy tactics - often targeting junior doctors in the public hospitals - which they frequently encounter.

I believe Australia's medical fraternity will recognise the AMA's Choong-Siew Yong's remarks (referring to other health professionals as "doctor substitutes") for what they are. I call on doctors to see past their short-term interests and the institutional legacies of their profession; to embrace the contribution other healthcare workers can make; to honestly examine the report's recommendations and work to put the health outcomes of Australians first.

The Industry Assistance Scam

Kraft (and others) must be grateful for our gullible politicians. Who else would use our taxes to buy jobs - with investors pocketing a hefty margin?

VicRoads and the Segway

Hardly surprising that an omnipotent VicRoads seeks to bully Victoria Police over Segways - this safe, affordable, eco-friendly and humanised transport doesn't require glorious freeways!

Abortion Minimisation Through Cruelty

Warren Truss' remarks that medical abortions should be disallowed as "the easy way out" (The Age, 9/1/06) implies women should instead have to endure the relative trauma of surgical abortion. The unspoken rationale behind this cruel misogyny is that those dirty sluts need to be cut and made to bleed for their sins. What a disgrace from a supposed Christian!

The Value of Heritage

The essential work of heritage groups - controlling other people's stuff without actually buying it - can only have legitimacy if based on the broadest community support. Tom Harley, chairman of the Australian Heritage Council, implicitly acknowledges this when he justifies his group's activities by citing research that "92% of Australians value heritage as a core part of national identity".

I'm concerned that a tiny, cosy clique of well-connected and monied people are poorly placed to determine the community's interests. There is a real danger that these self-appointed guardians' values will be out of kilter with the broader community, resulting in waste, delays, corruption and other harms.

So rather than relying on bland motherhood statements about values, heritage lobbyists should get us to put our money where their mouth is. If they can't purchase and preserve particular assets through tin rattling and fund raising, then surely this is the fairest and most transparent signal from the community that we regard the property's heritage to be of little value?

What stronger claim to broad community support could there be than Australians ponying up to preserve the heritage that matters most to us?

The Wisdom of Packer

Kerry Packer minmised tax because governments "are not spending it that well that we should be donating extra." So, which wise and prudent investor will spend his billions instead? *cough* One.Tel *cough*