Editorial

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

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

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

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

Kennett's sharp edge The first two weeks of the Victorian Kennett Liberal government have given a sharp edge to politics that even its powerful backers are worried about. The pro-Liberal Australian editorialised that Kennett had already

'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

Labor punished Now that Victorian Labor's calamitous 10-year rein is over, what are the lessons that need to be drawn from the experience? A big proportion of Victorian voters justifiably chose to punish the Labor Party for the disastrous

The sterling crisis The idea that it was possible to create a single currency by consent among competing capitalist powers in Europe was always a long shot. Now the bitter realities of the "free market" have been sheeted home to its own

Labor's sinking ship The parade of former prime ministers on the ABC's AM program last week was enough to show to what extent the political landscape has altered for the worse after 10 years of Labor dominance in state and federal parliaments.

Police raids on the Democrats Federal police raids on the Sydney headquarters of the NSW Democrats and the home of at least one senior Democrat raise some serious questions. What was the purpose of the excessive show of state force against

Baghdad and Washington The threat of a renewed US military attack on Iraq had appeared to recede when UN observers, departing from the script expected in Washington, declared their inspection mission in Iraq satisfactorily completed. UN

Accord Mark VII The ailing industrial relations tradition of relatively regular, if inadequate, national wage increases to keep wages within shouting distance of prices, and to force employers to share some of the fruits of productivity gains,