Turned to writing at 60, reckon that'll do for the next 30 years, then I'll become a musician - after that, who knows, maybe a wizard...

Gina Rinehart company found greenwashing. What’s the scam?
Hancock Prospecting has been found to breach the national advertiser’s code by making unsubstantiated claims about ‘green gas’. What’s the scam? The scam is how the Gina Rinehart-owned company ran a recruitment ad in The Australian last October claiming that “Our...

What’s the scam with Nine’s “Panel of Experts”? Red alert, it’s ASPI
The backlash over Nine Entertainment’s “Reds Under the Beds” campaign continues as they defend their stories by pointing to “panel of experts”. Who are these experts? Most of them are connected to the pro-war think tank ASPI (Australian Strategic Policy Institute)...

Carbon credits and offsets – What’s the scam?
As the Labor Government seeks to get the “Safeguard Mechanism” through Parliament, the opposition to it is getting louder both inside and outside of Parliament. It’s complicated, they say. Or is it? What is the scam behind carbon offsets and credits? When wanting to...

Warmongers vs appeasers – the China media frenzy is the threat
Echoing the “reds under the beds” scare campaigns of the fifties, Nine Media mastheads want us to believe that war with China is imminent. Elsewhere, we are led to believe that China is a model citizen of the world and means no harm to anyone. Both positions belie the...

Stuart Robert – loyal Robodebt slayer
In his appearance at the Robodebt Royal Commission yesterday, Stuart Robert wants us to believe that not only was he the one that finally put a stop to the illegalities of income averaging, but that he knew it was wrong all along. However, the pesky Westminster system...

Ambulance chasers Slater & Gordon win a shiny takeover bid. What’s the scam?
Long-suffering shareholders of law firm Slater & Gordon may soon be out of their misery, with private equity vultures honing in for a buy-out. What’s the scam? The scam is private equity ain’t there for the justice Your Honour; there is profit to be had exploiting...

NBN Co admits to significant competition impacts
“NBN Co needs to be a monopoly wholesale provider for it to be economically viable”. This was the view espoused by Dr Ziggy Switkowski after being appointed chairman of NBN Co by the Coalition in 2013 to implement its ‘Faster, Affordable, Sooner” version of the NBN....

Surely the NBN Co writedown is nigh
The debate over the value of NBN Co is back in the headlines. This was triggered by NBN Co’s offer in its latest Special Access Undertaking variation to cap its ability to recover losses it has made on its investment in building and operating the network. These losses...

Sustainable Investment in Regional Broadband – submission to Productivity Commission
The Productivity Commission is inquiring into Australia’s Data and Digitial Dividend. I have made a submission on ‘Investing in Regional Digital Infrastructure’ and below are my introductory remarks to the commission’s public hearing held on 7 November 2022. The...

TPG and Optus fight just the latest drama over Australia’s bush telegraph
The ‘bush telegraph’ is the colloquial term for how information is informally transmitted around the rural and outback regions of Australia. It is also an appropriate description of how Australia’s telecommunications infrastructure has not kept up to date with the...