It Begins With a Test

This week in Parliament is a contest between Abbott trying to gain an advantage over Labor by characterizing the Gillard Government as breaking an electoral promise and Gillard allowing Abbott to adopt the position of being the bully. Just so long as the Labor Government doesn't lose the initiative on policy formation Abbott will be shown up as a bully and Gillard a leader.
This will be a long grinding test where Abbott will have to keep shifting his focus and Gillard will have to keep "moving forward" or lose. He will be handicapped by both his manner and the need to keep refueling on issues of integrity and competence. Gillard will have to deal with the competing interests of the Independents who will be like cats; self-centered and unco-operative.
Stay tuned...



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Location:Sydney

Those awful Boat People are coming still - A long term psychosis

Why are we afraid of boat people really? Long sea journeys, routine law enforcement & prohibitive expense mean that we will never have the same problem with illegal immigration as Italy, Germany, Spain or England. Yet the hot, urgent fear of "boat people" motivates Australia to detain people for long periods, impose off-shore processing and cause significant mental trauma. The response is out of proportion to any real danger.

Risks to public health and infiltration by terrorists can be controlled by routine screening. Really we can exclude most people coming here as potential terrorists. How many middle class family groups seeking refuge are likely to be intent on doing harm?

However, out of a strange cultural quirk Australians react to migration with apprehension and, in the case of boat people, fear. White Australia policies dating back before Federation have been a feature of public policy in our country. As a result that successive governments spend inordinate amounts of money on imprisoning people who are fleeing persecution or economic hardship in harsh conditions for long periods of time in remote locations far from sources of support of advice.

How can we turn around public opinion which grows out of a deep cultural peculiarity? We need leadership from all our political parties. Will Julia Gillard be able to meet this challenge or is she going to be like Howard, like Abbott?

James Pope

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Location:Sydney

I remember seeing the moon landing with a group of fellow 11 year olds in a crowded school room but it didn't happen the way I recall it or so I am told. We were not where I think we were, I wasn't with the people I remember were with me and we didn't see what I recall seeing.


My memory is vivid through regular exercise and reinforced by numerous viewings of TV footage of Armstrong & Aldrin but the memory I have is irrecoverably polluted by other peoples depictions of the event.

My memory is a sham. It is an artifact formed out subsequent expression and the art of others.

Every day in the courts in Australia and throughout the "Western" world judges and magistrates assess the relative merits of witnesses and choose a version of the incidents in question according to who is credible. It is vital function of the judicial officer but it is in function, in many ways, like a real time book reviewer assessing the merits of  different fictional accounts but people are jailed or loose fortunes as a consequence.

The unspoken truth is that little or no allowance is made by all too many judical officers for the different personality traits which can affect the way a witness presents in court. Some people are argumentative by nature and seem to ne uncooperative in the witness box. Other witnesses are uncomfortable with authority or intimidated by the educated vocabulary of the court and do not give their evidence in a convincing manner. Still others have English as a second language or have such a limited vocabulary as native English speakers that they are so clumsy in expression that they are incapable if accurately express what they saw.

Nevertheless, the courts plug on with the responses by individual judicial officers to the variability of witness presentation being wildly unpredictable.

Western justice systems are sophisticated but in need of "upgrading" to allow for contemporary understanding of memory and expression.

James Pope