The Age, June 5, 2009

Telling consumers where a product comes from makes sense.

MR CREAN, are you for or against free market economics ?

Minister for Trade Simon Crean is a committed free trader. He is the architect of a number of new and pending free trade agreements with China, Vietnam and the ASEAN countries. He is an inveterate opponent of protectionism.

This is an admirable philosophical position in a world beset by mercantilist strategies pursued by countries that also protest that they believe in free trade. Crean is obviously singing from the right trade hymn book. It is a difficult position in a world where industrial economies have been devastated by the actions of some sections of the financial services sector that certainly haven’t followed the commandment of providing perfect knowledge to the market.

The Age, May 15, 2009

THE ritual is over for another year. We have a $58 billion budget deficit and unemployment will rise to a million people. Treasury forecasting has been undertaken as far ahead as 2012-13, when we are supposed to have a government debt of $188 billion. In 12 months we have moved from a budget-projected surplus of $21 billion and 2.75 per cent growth in GDP to a huge deficit.

The Age, April 21, 2009

Endless repetition renders a word meaningless, not true.

WE ALWAYS seem to be searching for the Chosen One. The last candidate was free-market economics. We know where that false idol led us. The next cab off the rank is innovation. The Government and every academic and business think tank are busy telling us that innovation will lead us to salvation.

Innovation is one of those words that can mean something different, or nothing at all, to each person.