whingers and more whingers

walk-P1090350Several decades on my first visit to London the bus we were on had reason to be delayed. Most people understood what was happening and why the delay had happened. But not so one couple. They became very agitated and complained very loudly that this was not good enough. Apparently because of the delay the sky was about to fall and all manner of disasters were to strike us all!

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Witches both mad and bad: a loaded word with an ugly history

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From The Conversation, Michelle Smith, Deakin University

Over the weekend, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton inadvertently sent a text message calling journalist Samantha Maiden a “mad f—ing witch” to Maiden herself, rather than his intended recipient, fellow MP Jamie Briggs.

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Blue Poles at the museum

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There is talk in the art world about the National Gallery of Australia’s (NGA) changes to their permanent collection galleries and how this has included the movement of the famous Jackson Pollock painting, Blue Poles, from its long historic position downstairs to the upstairs galleries.

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Urban development leadership

Kingston-P1020129When Jon Stanhope commented on his disappointment – or was it frustration – with the lack of the ACT Government’s achievement in delivering on social housing, it struck a note with anyone who likewise considers that the LDA/directorate is focused on land sales at the expense of urban development and issues such as social housing.

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Quarterly Essay: Political Amnesia

Reviews: Quarterly Essay 60 — Political Amnesia

How we forgot how to govern, Laura Tingle, November 2015

qe60This is a recommended read for those with any sort of interest in how Australia has been and continues to be manged by the political ruling classes for the last couple of decades. I cannot say that anything Laura Tingle wrote about was shocking news, given my own experiences of dealing with governments and their bureaucracies,  but her insights and observations are definitely worth the read.

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Marie Coleman and Turnbull’s FTB

I suspect that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is still locked into appeasing those on the far right that this country needs to reduce its spending on the social welfare programs. There is little evidence that the Turnbull government is looking to have the top wealthy few and big business pay their share of taxes and thus increase the revenue.

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Kingston Arts Precinct

There’s was a recent announcement that the government is calling for developers to put forward proposals to develop part of the Kingston Foreshore site as an arts precinct.

One wonders what their perception and concept of what is art precinct. Then there will be the issues that the government is looking for a commercial entity to propose an arts precinct.

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