Editorial

'Remembering' Vietnam Seventeen years after the April 30, 1975, liberation of Saigon, the world's first "television war" is again dominating the screens. This time the effect is to produce a new history of the first colonial war that the US and

Permanent unemployment The prospect facing up to 2 million people in this country that they might never again have a steady job, or a job at all, is becoming a more and more threatening reality. Last week the Reserve Bank and the Treasury

Endangered species: Back to square one To say the least, the draft Endangered Species Protection legislation adopted by Cabinet on October 27 is very inadequate. It will prove to be better than nothing at all only if it does not prevent

Keating's cynical ploy A desperate, irresponsible idea that has been floating in the political stratosphere for many months was finally brought to ground last week when Paul Keating blustered in parliament that Labor would not block the GST in

Telecom privatisation It was not surprising to read that the man who gave Sydney a white elephant at Darling Harbour and a leaky monorail is now following a much bigger quarry, the privatisation of Telecom. One of Labor's "mates", Laurie

Beyond the lesser evil The GST, John Hewson's industrial relations policy and Kennett's even more extreme version of the same, will drive many people to vote against the conservative Coalition at the next federal election. But this should not

Who else 'profits'? The first thing that needs to be said about the archaic High Court decision ruling the independent left MP for Wills, Phil Cleary, invalid for office is that it need not have been made. The court might instead have found in

A second chance The break-up of the former Soviet Union provides humanity with its second chance in a decade to rid the world of nuclear weapons. The first was in the mid-'80s, when Mikhail Gorbachev announced a sweeping, unilateral nuclear

Admit the boat people! Historically, times of economic downturn in Australia have brought increased calls for reduced or racially based immigration, as demagogic political forces seek to deflect popular anger from the real causes of the crisis.

Mysteries of the market From Moscow to Melbourne, we're told, the capitalist market will work miracles if left to carry out its work without interference. This is despite massive and growing evidence to the contrary. In Moscow, the market has