As I age, my Republican sentiments are growing.
But in the last four years, so has my respect for their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Why?
They have a distinct mastery of their Continue reading
Category: Talk Nerdy to Me
My Two Cents: balancing the”me” in social media and Government
What is the place of social media in Government?
Is there one?
The use of individual-centric mediums can serve a purpose for Government Departments and similar formal institutions (I.e. the Police); but it is a more complex exercise than your average business.
Why use social media? Continue reading
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My Two Cents: Cleaning up after the ‘Spill’
Since 1971, there have been 17 Leadership spills – 12 have been successful (I.e. the leader of the party changed), 5 were unsuccessful; between both major parties – the Liberal Party of Australia (LPA) and the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
When it comes to spilled milk, there is no use crying over it; but this article will discuss the ‘watermark’ which spill motions have left on Australian Politics.
Spill Motion;
In Australian politics, a leadership spill is a declaration that the leadership of a Parliamentary party is vacant, and open for re-election. A spill may involve all leadership positions (Leader and Deputy Leader in both houses), or just the Leader.
Leadership spills have happened more times than I first thought. However there have been 7 in the last 7 years (since 2008), which leaves 10 ‘spills’ in 26 years before that (1971-2007). Off those figures, you could deduce that spills have gone from being every 2.6 years, to being (on average) every year.
So spills are not a recent phenomenon.
I observed some repeat offenders:
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My Two Cents: Can Tony Abbott improve his image mid-term?
“The (Abbott) government’s narrative is that they haven’t been able to do anything… There’s a negative story attached to the government. They must somehow shift the momentum. The mould will be set if they don’t do something soon and they will have a really, really hard time — and most likely will lose the next election.”
Source: ‘Tony Abbott’s knightmare could be fatal if his government fails to change tack‘
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My Two Cents: Political Legacy – Prime Minister Abbott
So I was thinking, as I so often do; I thought about Prime Minister Abbott, after my last entry about Prime Ministerial interviews – what will his legacy be?
I (over?) simplified John and Julia’s tenures into a series of bullet points as below:
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My Two Cents: Prime Ministerial Interviews – insightful, or egotistical?
We’ve had two former Prime Ministers do newsworthy interviews in late September, within the same week.
I would have thought the media would have spread them (a week?) apart for maximum impact, but the media seem to love a good adversarial matching – Liberal vs Labour – at any opportunity.
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My Two Cents: meeting the Hon. Stephen Smith
On Tuesday 30th of September, former Foreign, Trade and Defence Minister Stephen Smith spoke at the monthly branch meeting of the Australian Institute of International Affairs for WA. His speaking topic was “Continuity in Australian Foreign Policy”.
But what is “continuity in Australian Foreign Policy”? What on God’s green earth does that mean?!
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MH17: How to explain?
How to explain?
How to start.
Approximate translation: “In case it goes down, this is what it looks like”
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Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Pushing For Tougher International Action On Russia Over Ukraine
By Andrew Bolt ~
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott
The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott was the first leader to directly link the downing of MH17 to Russian aggression in Ukraine:
In an apparent swipe at Russia, Mr Abbott also told parliament: ”The bullying of small countries by big ones, the trampling of justice and decency in the pursuit of national aggrandisement, and reckless indifference to human life should have no place in our world.”
Barack Obama followed suit – demanding Europe be tougher on Russia (tougher, that is, that the US has been):
“This certainly will be a wake-up call for Europe and the world that there are consequences to an escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine; that it is not going to be localized, it is not going to be contained,” Obama told reporters.
The Dutch now harden up their stance against Russia – a little:
U.K…
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Global conflict – be there or be ‘square?’
I came across this Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon just now.
And I thought of the ‘Security Dilemma’ in International Relations. States will seek to ‘escalate’ in order to defend themselves; crudely simplified to this punnet square:
tangible.blog 
