Monday mornings in Court Seven, Southport Magistrate’s Court on Queensland’s Gold Coast, is where the rubber hits the road for the local traffic-offence recalcitrant. (more…)
Gary Moorhead
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A tale of two poles
In a recent interview with Victorian Health Minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, Melbourne ABC presenter, Raf Epstein, led off with a classic “gotcha” question: (more…)
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Trust governments with AI? Perhaps not, when there is a revenue stream involved
International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, was recently quoted in the Guardian (Tuesday 16/1/24) saying that “in most scenarios artificial intelligence (AI) would probably worsen overall inequality across the global economy and could stoke social tensions without political intervention”. (more…)
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(Un)common sense in the National Electricity Market grid design
In a recent (21 October) edition of Pearls and Irritations, Roger Beale suggested (amongst other things) that the Commonwealth should “seize sole control of the national electricity market” (the NEM) to bring stability to the energy transition and stop the states going their own way. (more…)
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Too late to avoid an electricity transition catastrophe?
About two years ago, I wrote an article for Pearls and Irritations (December 1, 2020) suggesting Australia was tracking to repeat and reap the mixed railway gauges folly of the Nineteenth Century in our handling of the transition from fossil fuel to renewable electricity generation. (more…)
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Dentists, overtreatment and policy deficiencies
A recent article in Pearls and Wisdom discussed the issue of “overtreatment” (the provision of unnecessary or low priority care) in dentistry and the associated issue of the conflict between ethics and profits.
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“The most lamentable engineering disaster in Australia”…?
Echoes of one of the great public policy failures of this nation are starting to grow louder. (more…)
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“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone…..” Like manufacturing!
As part of the post-COVID recovery, the Morrison Government has announced a “package” to revive manufacturing. But why does manufacturing need to be revived?
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Hydrogen, but not for the Hindenburg
In Mafia folklore, when faced with an existential crisis, the mobsters would “go to the mattresses” a euphemism for dropping everything to engage in a life and death struggle with their enemies.
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It’s a gas, gas, gas.
With the Federal Government announcement of a gas-lead recovery (and as a potential centrepiece having the large coal-fired power station, Liddell in NSW, replaced by gas generation) Australians can now have both lower emissions and lower energy prices. High fives all round.
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Managing Perception: what’s real and what’s not
How much should we, as a nation, stress about how others perceive us – and what can we do about it?
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The perils of privatisation and outsourcing.
Waste of government money is the inevitable consequence of government’s funding the private sector to deliver a public good. (more…)