I must admit that Peter Beattie is onto something creative and the allegations at dinner parties that I am on some kind of commission by Queensland Government are false ;-) Still most families and businesses in this internet age are looking for a sea change and Queensland is more than perfect most of the time. UP North everything seems cheaper and with better maintained infrastructure, even the trains run on time. We never received a huge electricity bills in Brissie as we seem to get in Sydney. To boot, today a very small number of local taxpayers can afford to buy a piece of dirt in Sydney. The four years I spent in the land of queens and toads were the highlight years of my two daughters’ lives. They discovered love for swimming and the squad culture was all about fun not just drills. Most schools have swimming pools and in fact we started swimming with Jan at the Wilson School, a stone-throw across the road from a church Heather and Peter attend with their three sons. Sydney certainly is great at producing wild men and political parties, but it is rare to come across a political family of the Beattie caliber ;-) While I loved Brissie, my better half who was born and bred in Sydney likes to invade other capitals, such Adelaide, only on temporary basis. I must admit in 2004 Brisbane was starting to get just as congested as Sydney and teenagers are bored more in Queensland than in Sydney. As the big smog still offers more opportunities... If Brissie ends up with a better transport despite the population explosion and if it attracts more private sector businesses such as IT or creates institutions like NIDA - well sky could be the limit ... From little things big things grow and Queensland might be showing the 21st century way of living and working:
While NSW Premier Bob Carr was in Dubai and London during the week, Mr Beattie was in Sydney spruiking his state's lower taxes. The move will pitch Labor's two most successful state leaders into the political equivalent of the State of Origin battle. "We are the fastest growing state in Australia," Mr Beattie said after a high-powered corporate lunch in Phillip It's State against State
If you have little children or grown up then run Hundreds make cross-border dash every week
While Queensland spends money to lure business to the state, the world's best city, Sydney, does not need to do likewise Street We don't need to advertise: Refshauge
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Spies who didn't love me
I've been asking ASIO to show me my file for almost 40 years. Having been a teenage Bolshevik, it seemed reasonable to assume one existed.
Though only 16 years old when I became a card-carrying member of the Australian Communist Party, I hung around with many of the best-known comrades, wrote for the Commo newspaper, worked for various "front" organisations, signed all the angry petitions, marched on May Day, painted anti-war slogans in railway viaducts and often heard strange clicks on the phone. All this during the coldest years of the Cold War, when Prime Minister Robert Menzies had tried to ban the party
• Beware the Ides of March My brief flirtation with Marxism-Leninism far behind [Any reader with more than a cursory knowledge of intelligence has two choices with Robert Littell's new novel, Legends. Toss it across the room into the discard box for the next library sale, or, if you prefer, push reality away for a few hours and enjoy an interesting if very fantastical read. I suggest the American language needs a new word to describe such books, and so I just made one up: spy-fi Spy fiction, the true Red October hunt ; The United States should cut its losses, pull out of Iraq promptly and never again use its military might to build a nation according to its own values US should pull out of Iraq now: ex-CIA chief ; John Deutch writes in the New York Times that Iraq is a lost cause All is lost: Time to Pull Out. And Not Just From Iraq ; I have the honour of being the only Media Dragon who links to Tim Blair and Phillip Adams in the same commentariat Enlarging on the response to the London bombs ]
• · If their families did not know what they were planning, then how did the British secret service stand a chance? The London bombers have emerged as the West's worst nightmare, defying every stereotype and chilling the blood of those who thought they understood the psychology of the suicide bomber The Enemy within ; Could it happen here? Risks of abundant tolerance ; Londoners were joined by thousands around the world, from Bali to Bucharest and from Spain to Iraq and New York, who stood in solidarity and silence and defiance of the terrorists London united ; We're not promoting terrorism: bookshops
• · · The appointment of bureaucrat Paul O'Sullivan as head of ASIO was a rank insult to many well qualified people within the organisation ASIO appointment insulting: ex-spy ; French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere Terror team's Sydney mission
• · · · AUSTRALIA is unlikely to ever see a corporate crook spend as much time behind bars as Bernie Ebbers. Here, the crimes are a bit smaller and the sentences are a lot shorter Doing the crime but not time ; Once he was a star, but fast-forward to today and all has changed Vizard 'shunned' by corporate world ; Adler reduced to cleaning jail toilets
• · · · · Interview: Senator Amanda Vanstone ; From the Parliament of Australia, E-Brief: The detention and removal of asylum seekers ; Residents rally Against desalination plant ; Salt, brine and bitterness were in the air at Kurnell as more than 1000 people gathered to protest against the Government's plan Salt in the wounds: an angry suburb fights back
• · · · · · Costello dinner to rally support ; When Peter Costello carries on about how NSW taxpayers are being ripped off on state taxes, he's dead right. But it's him that's doing the ripping, not the State Government Costello piles insult on top of NSW's injury