Just a couple o’ things

So there’s a couple of things that I want to write about that have annoyed me ever-so-slightly.

First things first: This fantastically poorly thought out article by Barry Cohen. Now admittedly I haven’t read anything else Barry has written – I was in fact unaware of his existence until now – but I can only hope that as a former Labor Minister anything else he has written is far more logical and lacking in utter tripe.

GST Coalition

So unless you live under a rock, don’t watch or read the news, don’t use the Internet or  have no contact with another human being… or aren’t from Australia you will most likely be unaware of a certain Coalition of Big Businesses (Myer, David Jones, Borders and Harvey Norman¹) pushing for the expansion of the GST (that’s’ the Goods and Services Tax for the people playing at home) to include all imported purchases made online. Sounds a bit odd really, generally businesses want less not more tax.

The Horse has (finally) bolted

Do you not live in Victoria? Do you not pay attention to the news? Do you, in fact, live under a rock?

If you answered yes to some of these questions you may not be aware but Ted Baillieu has (some say surprisingly) won the recent Victorian Election ousting Former Premier John Brumby and the Labor party. Brumby suffered a large 6.6 swing against him allowing Baillieu (and his Nationals friends) to get to the magical Forty-Five seats needed to form Government, leaving Brumby with a measly Forty-One seats.

Open Source Public Education

Public Education has transformed society and has been transformed over time, but the core belief that education should be open to all has remained. Currently Public Education is going through what could be the most profound transformation in it’s history. Increasingly computers and computer software are becoming a larger and larger part of education in schools. Computers and computing software have the potential to increase the amount of students completing their school years by providing new and innovative ways of learning, creating enriching experiences by increasing the enjoyableness of schooling which will obviously facilitate improved learning.

Richard Stallman

I met Software Freedom founder, evangelist and co-creator of the GNU, Richard Stallman today.

Minority Governments – What are they?

Lately there has been a bit of talk  about Minority Governments. I’ve been asked about them a little too, so to the best of my ability I’ll explain what they are.

A Hung Parliament and You – What the heck is happening?

Some questions I’ve been asked lately:

What is a Hung Parliament?

It means that no party won enough seats in the House of Representatives to form a majority government. So Labor and the Coalition will need to negotiate with the three (possibly four) independents and the lone Greens member to form a Coalition Government.