Articles

  • That Idiot, Tibor

    Those familiar with The Simpsons will have seen an episode in which Marge gets a job at Homer's work. Homer advises her before she starts there to blame anything that goes wrong on a foreign employee named Tibor – and, sure enough, as the episode progresses there are plenty of times that he is blamed, despite very little actually being his fault.

     

    Exit American popular culture and enter Australian politics. Kevin Rudd has been ignominiously dumped as leader of the Labor party and also, therefore, as Prime Minister. The Labor party has had a number of policies that were ...

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  • The Honest Politician

    People are a funny lot. We're always on about how our politicians are dishonest and unprincipled. There is a perception that they have only their own interests at heart and are more than willing to dip into the the country's money to serve their own ends.

    Unfortunately, these perceptions are often correct. Rodney Hide took his girlfriend to the UK to attend her brother's wedding, and claimed it all as a business trip. Hone Harawira also left an official conference early so that he could take his wife to Paris, then took offence when it was suggested that he had ...

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  • Israel, Turkey and Moral Relativity

    Sometimes one of the hardest things in life is to stand up to one of your friends and tell him that his attitude or behaviour is unacceptable. I have to admit that there have been times when, to my shame, I have failed to do this. I realise that morality by concensus is totally wrong. Doing something that everyone else and justifying it by saying that others are worse may be convenient, but it doesn't make the actions right. Nonetheless, as bad as my own actions may be, others' are far worse. It is hard up to stand up to ...

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  • Compulsory Voting

    Australia is one of the few countries in the world where voting is compulsory for all those who are eligible to. Like so many things in life, this sounds like a good idea at first, but soon turns out to be a very poor one, on both theoretical and practical grounds.

    The practical grounds relate to the world that we live in. In an ideal world, all people would be politically aware and well informed, and would be in a position to vote wisely. In the world in which we live, many people haven't heard of more than about five ...

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  • Student Politics

    I'm a big fan of democracy – not because it is a good option, but because it is less bad than anything else. It doesn't always always return the candidate that I would like, but the people are entitled to their say.

    Left-wing student politicians are also big fans of democracy, but not because of the principles involved, but because it is the only way that they will ever get control. For many people in this position, democracy is a means to an end, not a highly held ideal. Once it no longer gives them power, it is not such ...

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