Tuesday, February 23, 2016

PUNCHING ABOVE OUR WEIGHT

The big statement back in the 1980's was always that we (Australia) were "punching above our weight". It was true then and is probably still true now.

The only difference is that the past thirty years have seen us relegated down a couple of divisions.

Back then we were a medium/heavyweight. Today we're very much one in one of the lighter competitions.

That's fine. The point is to recognise it, as our ASEAN friends do. So when China occupies and creates islands in the South China Sea, we may be very unhappy about it; we may choose to protest verbally; but sending airplanes and ships? Really?

What's the point, as I asked in this piece in today's Canberra Times . . .

courtesy, CSIS


Thursday, February 11, 2016

HAS MALCOLM LOST THE PLOT?


No, actually. 

Despite some of the headlines about "Chaos in the Government" and the latest Morgan Poll (Morgan - does this normally wildly inaccurate poll still have credibility for precision?) marking the government down by less than the polls margin of error, I reckon Turnbull's just not operating the way we in the media are used to. 

My wife, Cath McGrath, had a go at this in a column for SBS yesterday . . . 

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/02/10/comment-australian-political-journos-and-junkies-are-addicted-drama 

My own take is slightly different . . . 

Starting to Blog again . . .




RAAF KC30 and Super Hornets taking off from Al Minbad, 2014

Aaah, I've been away.

Too busy to post, I thought.

But now I've finally come to realise I'm not posting for you, but for myself . . . to keep my own thoughts in order.

So I better make doing this a part of my normal day's activity again. It just requires a bit of discipline.