tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40813462026-03-29T16:03:20.284+10:00Random thoughts (when I get around to it) on politics and public discourse by David Havyatt. This blog is created in Google blogger and so that means they use cookies etc.David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.comBlogger1232125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-42739929471553638712026-03-17T11:21:00.003+10:002026-03-17T11:24:39.733+10:00

The 'drop' is a means of releasing government reports in such a way that journalists and community (or lobby) groups have the ability to consider the report to be able to comment on it at the time of release. You can tell there is a drop when the coverage refers to the report in the future tense (as in coverage on a Tuesday that reads 'The report to be released Tuesday.')This week we saw the drop

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-35380267368646886542026-03-09T09:02:00.002+10:002026-03-09T09:02:48.319+10:00

Jaded observers of the IT and innovation spaces may be looking askance at the forecasts of Data Centre requirements to fuel AI growth. The implications go beyond just data centre investors and extend to energy policy. The most recent example of the latter is the suggestion that the data centre electricity demand is sufficient to warrant lifting the 'ban' on nuclear energy in Australia.At least

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-67301567749808816342026-03-05T10:38:00.003+10:002026-03-05T10:38:58.668+10:00

Interesting report arising from the Energy Consumers Australia Foresighting Forum - is it time to give up on VPPs?The proposition that it is time was advanced by Lachlan Blackhall whose views are greatly respect. The question to be asked, however, was why we ever thought the VPP model made sense. Back in the days when Energy Networks Australia (ENA) was interested in broader policy issues

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-4872406455539013852026-02-24T07:33:00.002+10:002026-02-24T07:33:48.561+10:00

At its core, the neoliberalism was a change in public policy based on a faith in competitive markets as both a cost discipline on providers and the harbinger of the benefits of choice for consumers. It is true that neoliberalism was ultimately a culmination of decades of campaigning by think tanks all ultimately driven by the work of Fredrick Hayek. However, it was embraced by left-leaning

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-79329075735148068052026-02-09T14:07:00.000+10:002026-02-09T14:07:18.674+10:00

The capacity for the Collective of Energy Ministers* to commission reviews seems to have no bounds. The latest review – of AEMO’s governance arrangements – is yet another element of a piecemeal approach. The review terms of reference were announced on 5February on the basis of a decision apparently made at the December 2025 meeting of the collective.  However, the communique fromthat

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-60290066139568320362026-01-22T09:24:00.001+10:002026-01-22T09:24:21.758+10:00

Sooooo..hats off to Sussan Ley for not responding on the national day of mourrning  to the Nationals splitting. Littleproud himself could have left the press conference till tomorrow - his excuse that he wanted to get out early so we could prepare for 7:01pm is just a line developed once he realised his mistake.Classically no journalist seems to be interested in the detail of the Nationals

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-70973348988760511132026-01-05T08:30:00.000+10:002026-01-05T08:30:31.923+10:00

The question of whether the Federal Government should call a Royal Commission following the terrorist incident at Bondi has been dominating the news for many days. It is hard to fathom why this is so, but I have a very simple thesis. The first part is that the Government is correct in its assessment that there is little to be gained from a Royal Commission other than lining the pockets of a

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-49602926409263632442025-11-06T14:12:00.000+10:002025-11-06T14:12:54.423+10:00

Today's (5 November) issue of the email newsletter Future Campus begins:“Transformational change is the new normal, we just have to accept that,” ANU Interim VC Rebekah Brown told staff Tuesday. The word' transformation' has been all the go in Australia's public universities. At UTS it is 'curriculum transformation' , at UOW 'transformation' is the title of their change program.&

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-70341181271647199882025-10-08T07:36:00.000+10:002025-10-08T07:36:05.318+10:00

The Minister for Communications today introduced the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Triple Zero Custodian and Emergency Calling Powers) Bill 2025 into the Parliament. That this Bill has been introduced some 15 months after the Government response to the Bean report agreed to the recommendation to establish a Triple Zero Custodian noting it was "subject to further

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-29660373302769536052025-06-18T17:04:00.000+10:002025-06-18T17:04:38.241+10:00

In his opening address to Energy Week today, Chris Bowen has announced planned changes o the Default Market Offer to make it a price cap on all offers. Today, he argies, it usually only works as a benchmark. He observed 'The vast majority of billpayers, some 80%, could be getting a better deal. It’s difficult to defend the DMO, when the customer is required to do the deal hunting.'Fiddling with

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-39974769544393350502024-03-22T16:50:00.002+10:002024-03-22T16:50:27.786+10:00

A post on LinkedIn drew my atention to an ABC story about economics which has various economists talking about how economics must change. It focuses particularly on the views of one, Nobel laureate Angus Deaton. The thrust of the argument is that standard economics has made the rich richer and consigned millions in advance economies back into poverty. It cites Amartya Sen as suggesting that

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-39477758360984082072024-03-22T10:46:00.004+10:002024-03-22T10:46:40.854+10:00

The MP for Flynn, Colin Boyce, has launched a petition calling for a Senate inquiry into "big telcos", calling on telcos to "put people before profits". Radio news coverage said the following with the highlighted comment by the MP:A petition has been launched in a bid to improve regional telecommunications Flynn MP Colin Boyce, whose electorate stretches to Moore Park, is calling for a

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-31310639321776609752023-11-02T16:56:00.001+10:002023-11-02T16:56:18.122+10:00

It was always going to be the case that an unsuccessful outcome from the proposal to give indigenous Australians recognition in the constitution in the way they requested, the Voice, would be interpreted as if the question was more than just that.The Guardian tells us that John Howard is the latest. Speaking to a new right-wing group - the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) - Howard

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-88058720318603439502023-06-29T16:07:00.003+10:002023-06-29T16:07:27.047+10:00

The energy transition requires new electricity generation to replace the fossil fuel fleet (mostly coal in Australia) and meet growing demand arising from the electrification of the transportation and heating sectors. AEMO's modelling calls for significant new transmission assets to connect this generation, though some (including me) think AEMO is underestimating the potential for distribution

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-50341227209062508152023-06-25T13:09:00.002+10:002023-06-25T13:09:58.063+10:00

As the public consideration of how to vote in the forthcoming referendum on the Voice, the No campaign has latched onto a quote from Bob Hawke that reads:We are, and essentially we remain, a nation of immigrants a nation drawn from 130 nationalities in Australia there is no hierarchy of descent: there must be no privilege of origin. The commitment is all. The commitment to Australia is the only

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-74001370548692628832023-04-12T17:42:00.001+10:002023-04-12T17:42:59.834+10:00

Peter Dutton's first response to the proposed Voice was to ask how it would make the children subject to sexual violence safer.His argument for supporting the No case is that a national voice will achieve nothing, instead proposing regional and local voices and a mere symbolic constitutional recognition.  Today he visited Alice Springs and met with his own Senator Price and one

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-51122136497296798862022-08-12T17:53:00.001+10:002022-08-12T17:53:31.198+10:00

This post will get me into trouble with so many people who will tell me that I don't understand teaching and the dynamics of school education. So I am going to try to write it more as a series of questions or 'alternative propositions', rather than as dogmatic statements of fact. But knowing me, I will forget to do that. So as you read this please read anything I say as a proposition not a

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-12683261110996950522022-08-09T14:15:00.002+10:002022-08-09T14:15:25.801+10:00

The so-called Stage 3 Tax Cuts are a conundrum for the Albanese Government. As a reminder the cuts were legislated as part of a package in 2018 (hence Stage 3) and will cut the rate applying to incomes over $45,000 from 32.5 cents in the dollar to 30 cents and will extend that low rate all the way up to $200,000, abolishing an entire rung of the tax ladder paid by the highest earners.

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-70508603911074599732022-07-31T16:58:00.002+10:002022-07-31T16:58:52.288+10:00

I cannot match Prime Minister Albanese's eloquence in his speech at the Garma Festival that released his initial view of the constitutional question and provisions to give effect to the Voice requested by the Uluru Statement from the Heart. But I can respond to his invocation:All Australians have the chance to own this change, to be proud of it, to be counted and heard on the right side of

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-69969016943939231452022-05-28T17:25:00.001+10:002022-05-28T17:25:05.734+10:00

The rest of the world looks on in horror every time there is another mass shooting in the United States. Unfortunately, mass shooting is only one aspect of this carnage.Pew Research reports that in 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC. Suicides account for more than half of these deaths (54%

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-60716802052854142592022-05-23T17:13:00.001+10:002022-05-23T17:13:32.070+10:00

As we sit in the idle time between the excitement created by Saturday night and the accompanying electoral hangover of Sunday and the eventual return of the Writs and a return to the business of governing, every pundit has been out giving their explanation of the significance of the vote. Why should I be any different?My first observation is that the ALP's 2022 campaign only looked like a small

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-24431509655759892752022-03-15T05:43:00.001+10:002022-03-15T05:43:37.233+10:00

PM Scott Morrison went to the Central Coast yesterday to open a new facility of the University of Newcastle. After talking about the dream catcher that one of his daughters hung over their bed, he gave us, in one inspired moment of Prime Ministerial sludge, a commentary on his idea of a university.But for that to work, you've got to have a community base of infrastructure and services. And what

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-26509267007582508812022-03-13T05:38:00.000+10:002022-03-13T05:38:24.715+10:00

One way to view the role of government is that it delivers four fundamental securities; national, personal, economic and social. National security is the foremost protection, defending the citizenry from interference with their rights by another nation. Personal security is the analogue of this and includes defending citizens from infringement by other citizens. Economic security aims to provide

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-31657953157376805142022-02-22T06:28:00.004+10:002022-02-22T06:50:32.488+10:00

The National Electricity Market, or NEM, is the name given to the interconnected electricity grids of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT. It grew out of the micro-economic reform agenda of the Hawke government (though its initiation predated the Hilmer report). Progressively since the NEM began Energy Ministers meeting under a string of different

David Havyatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10843396871891422509noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4081346.post-21550301939724251302021-04-28T20:03:00.003+10:002021-04-28T20:03:24.062+10:00

Australia's National Broadband Network is not currently what it was planned to be. I was for many years up to my eyeballs in the policy issues. I was part of the discussions that initiated Labor thinking that structural reform of the industry should be achieved when a new access network was built (a proposition advanced at a Competitive Carriers Coalition and AAPT seminar in 2004). I was part of

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