Kookaburra, ARR.News

There has been much tut-tutting and pursed lip condemnation of the recent anti-lockdown protests in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane but almost no analysis of why the protests occurred ... Where is the politician prepared to come out, listen to and discuss their problems with the protestors? Sending pontificating condemnatory "statements" from afar only creates more anger. Rather than quenching the fires of dissent, the response being suggested by the NSW Government may indeed fan further flames of rebellion.

The opening quotation of Henry Lawson’s ‘Ode to Peter Lalor’ sets the tone for what is to come in this rollicking tale set in colonial Australia at the height of the gold rush in the mid nineteenth century. The themes of mateship, danger, struggle against authority and the enticement of that precious metal – gold – are all there.

This is a beautifully presented and illustrated book which is a timely reminder to older children and to adolescents of the need to be aware of bullies and how they can attack a young person’s self-esteem in order to gain control over their emotions – sometimes with devastating consequences.

Did you know that a kangaroo can leap nine metres in a single bound, about the length of a school bus!? Or the perhaps implausible way in which the town of Alice Springs got its name?

Sadly, it has become painfully clear that our political leaders have lost the capacity, and even, it would seem, the willingness, to compare the impacts of varying public policy positions. The evidence of this is in the crude lockdowns which provide an opportunity for politicians and bureaucrats to look like they are 'doing something' and that they are 'in control' when in fact neither proposition is correct.

Many Australians appear to be living in a fool’s paradise believing that they can continue to shut out the world whilst running up mountains of debt and participating in a property bubble which will one day explode. For those Australians, and there are many of them, who do not subscribe to the apparently dominant mind-set, these are deeply worrying times. Far more worrying than concern about what will inevitably be a transitory virus is the probability that our way of life will have been changed forever – for the worse.

Kookaburra has been watching with dark humour the gyrations around the News Media Bargaining Code. Much pomp and circumstance surrounded the Federal Government's announcement of its intention to rush into the fray and to become the St. George to the Google and Facebook dragons, protecting the sacred rights of Australian publishers to be supported in one way or another by ... government ... in return for ... favourable coverage perhaps?

Bad decisions are made when people are in a panic and a lot of bad decisions have been made since the advent of Covid-19. Indeed, the responses to Covid-19 seem to have been driven by a desire to 'look tough and organised', as exemplified by the myriad of often 'extreme' lockdowns and the closure of our international borders. Generally unknown-about public health regulations lurking in obscure Acts of the Parliaments around Australia have armed politicians and health bureaucrats with previously unheard of amounts of power over our daily lives.

Reinforcing the need for some long term planning rather than short term solutions for the alternative crossing over the Blue Mountains ...

The Bells Line of Road, which provides the alternative route over the Blue Mountains to the Central West from Sydney, will be closed indefinitely due to landslides caused by the recent heavy rains. This is a timely reminder of the many years of inaction on building the long overdue Bells Line Expressway ... One of the last roles held by the the recently departed former Leader of the National Party in NSW, Ian Armstrong, was as Chairman of the Bells Line Expressway Action Group. As Mr. Armstrong said in 2010 - "the road was built for a previous age".