Tanya Giles of the Herald Sun used Australia’s Freedom of Information law to find that the Victoria provincial government “has signed closet deals worth more than $55 million with scores of private companies without putting the lucrative jobs up for tender.” Secret deals worth $55m
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: The Human Race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television
Many Republicans came to Congress pledging to fight corruption. How quickly they forget
Unlike many observers who have gleefully exulted in Tom DeLay’s recent indictments, I think his guilt or innocence is almost beside the point, particularly since he’s still in the House wielding his considerable power.
• Beginning Of The End For The GOP [Dahrendorf: The politics of frustration Does extreme poverty breed violence and ultimately revolution? ; Andrew Fraser, apologised to State Parliament last night after an altercation with the Minister for Roads, Joe Tripodi, during which he manhandled the minister Minister and MP scuffle in chamber ; Fists and claws no more, even in bearpit ]
• · George Packer, The New Yorker Can Democrats Seize the Momen; After weeks of public anger the NSW Government has agreed to release Cross City Tunnel papers it said it could never make public because they were commercial-in-confidence Tunnel deal: the whole bloody thing will be made public ; Mayors peddle green message but revhead wants V8 ; The Government would rather tax renters and leave home owners and holiday owners untaxed than act according to principle. Property tax: how to balance the addiction
• · · Stephen Schwartz, TCS How Long Will the Media Get the Iraq Story Wrong? ; Justice Kirby has seen much change in his decade in the High Court From hostile politicians to homosexuality, we've come a long way
• · · · Henry Miller, Wall Street Journal We Are Ill-Prepared for a Flu Pandemic ; Cathy Young, Boston Globe The Problem of Poverty ; We keep getting richer without getting better off. Indeed, in some respects we're getting worse off Humans don't just need leisure time, they need time off work at the same time as their spouse and while their children aren't at school. That's why weekends were invented, particularly Sundays An efficient ride up the garden path ; Bring us in out of the cold, help us become real participants in Australian society and take our part. Don't leave us like lepers of the 21st century - untouchable and untouched NSW in the sin bin on mental health ; Irony of IR PR: Same job but one gets $4987 less than the other
• · · · · The Price of Low Expectations ; Nobody's asking about the ROI for each little initiative. What's at stake in analytical competition is not an application, but a corporate strategy. Assembling the right data, finding and using the right tools, and developing the right relationships between analysts and decision-makers all take time. Therefore, it makes sense to start pulling them together now Success Through Analytics: History seems to be on the side of the numbers
• · · · · · Hollywood history is made daily in Sydney, if you know where to look Sydney's reel estate ; An investigation by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation has failed to determine why a maintenance worker at Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor has recorded an unusually high dose of radiation Radiation leak feared at reactor