Foreign maids can help reduce our child-care crisis in Australia
Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison threw a desperately-needed $1.6 billion lifeline to Australia’s childcare sector. The emergency support from our government was desperately needed to ensure child-care centres are able to keep their doors open as parents withdrew their children due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But it needs to remembered that, in normal times, this is an industry that can only operate provided there is a massive subsidy from the public purse, already costing almost $8 billion per year. And the irony is that despite …
Ahhh Corona! You aren't all that bad!
Why am I feeling a bit 'strange' as I listen to government and experts tell us about 'our pathway back?' Pathway back.... 'to what'? More noise; more pollution, more cars, more rudeness, more road-rage and bad tempered drivers, more visits to the service station to fill up, more fuel price increases, less caring about our neighbours, less quiet lunches; less time with our families because we are 'busy' again, and more buying of stuff we don't even need, and les s walks around our immediate neighbour…
A little less Beijing; a whole lot more Jakarta the future for Western Australia
Two critical issues now facing Australia due to the Covid-19 pandemic are firstly our deteriorating relationship with China, and secondly the USA and it’s chaotic political leadership during this crisis, including the dramatic economic implications that are now emerging. These two outcomes will coincide with China continuing to expand its activities in the South China Sea and possibly becoming more belligerent and aggressive, leaving Australia potentially even more politically isolated and economically vulnerable. In this environment…
Why I haven’t cancelled our June Bali holiday
Why I haven’t cancelled our June Bali holiday I had just finished a Skype-video interview with a major TV channel here in Perth, to warn West Australians that it will be ‘many months before we can sit on the beach in Bali again, and watch the sunset’, when my wife, Katherine challenged me: “But you still have not accepted Jetstar’s penalty-free offer to cancel our own Bali holiday planned for June, so what are you talking about?” It was confronting. And I had to confess to Katherine that I simply couldn’t bring myself to actually d…
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