- Details
- Written by: George Christensen
- Hits: 844
National First looks into how compulsory voting shackles true democracy.
Australia likes to pat itself on the back for being a model democracy. But there’s something deeply wrong about a system that punishes you for not voting. Worse still, that very system is dragging our politics into a swamp of apathy, bribery, and hollow promises.
-
Forcing Australians to vote is undemocratic and breeds political apathy.
-
It props up a broken system where major parties bribe disengaged voters.
-
Real debate is stifled, and genuine alternatives are crushed.
-
The media and institutions steer the public toward the same old choices.
-
Removing penalties for not voting could finally shake things up.
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Shaydee Lane
- Hits: 877
Read more: Children and Innocence - Bangles Beads and Broken Promises
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Shaydee Lane
- Hits: 849
While the new aces argue about the runway, the old crew still knows how to land a plane.
What if you could hold one single moment from your entire life, just one, to carry with you forever? Which one would it be? The answer may tell us more about who we are than any story we tell ourselves.
There’s a photograph in your mind, faded, perhaps, but alive...a moment from your past that never quite lets go. Maybe it’s the day you first rode a bike, the night you whispered secrets to a friend, or the first time you saw your newborn child. Why do these moments cling, while others vanish without a trace?
What moments shape us, and what will our children and grandchildren hold onto in a noisy world?
That is my question today. What memories are we leaving to our new generation? Lockdowns? Climate Change? Global Warming? Guilt? What have we allowed to happen?
Read more: The Flight of the Navigator - Old Pilots, New Aces, and Why Childhood Matters
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Monty
- Hits: 922
When a lifetime isn’t enough to be believed
I know a person... in her older years. She has a smartphone. She knows how to use it, She tries to keep up with the modern world..even when it changes faster than her knees can carry her. She can type faster than me and while she is drop dead gorgeous in my eyes, you can tell she is not 18 anymore.
She’s not stubborn. She’s not lost in the past.She’s just… older.
And this week, standing at her front door, she was asked to prove how old she was. Yes, by a delivery driver from the local adult beverage shop...... with a bottle of Irish whiskey I had ordered for her. What happened next was shocking. Welcome to E- Australia...
Read more: Expired IDs, Expired Lives? What turns older People into In Valids?
- Details
- Written by: Op-Ed Ratty News
- Hits: 780
RATTY NEWS SPECIAL BULLETIN
By Roderick “Whiskers” McNibble, Editor-in-Cheese
It has been a busy week here in Dusty Gulch.
It all began with a report I filed a few days ago but held back from publishing due to rising duck-threat levels and escalating biscuit security.
But now, with the town in open uproar and the smell of conspiracy wafting stronger than Maude Elphinstone’s curried egg sandwiches, I can at last reveal the events that have shaken Dusty Gulch to its very poultry-plucked core:
“Mayor Abduckted!”
Read more: DUCKS, DECEIT & DUSTY McFOOKIT: The Marmalade Coup
- View all
- Blog
- Hmmm....
-
Kashmir Still on the…
It is one of the great temptations of modern geopolitics: to stare at the latest…
129 hits
-
Power Moves: Is America…
When America “Runs” a Country, the World Should Pay Attention As 2026 stumbles out of…
325 hits
-
When Truth Had to…
There are moments in history when telling the truth plainly becomes dangerous - not because…
266 hits
-
The Memories that Make…
As a child, we spent our Christmas holidays at a remote coastal sheep farm in…
276 hits
-
Field Report Part One:…
From Dusty Gulch Part One of the Honklanistan Series By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble The lamingtons…
315 hits
-
The Price of Unity,…
When the bonds that hold us together are tested, the cost is often borne in…
328 hits
-
Dreamers, Witch Hunts, and…
In 1948, Preston Tucker dared to imagine a safer, smarter car - and paid dearly…
395 hits
-
The Future Is Not…
Leonard Cohen once said, “I’ve seen the future, brother: it is murder.” For a long…
398 hits
-
What I Thought I…
When I was a young girl, I wanted to be beautiful.Clever. Successful. Happy. As the years slip…
384 hits
-
We rebuilt a city…
On Christmas Eve 1974, Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia, destroying 70% of the city's homes…
384 hits
-
Sonic Pineapples Save Dusty…
By Our Special Correspondent (and Occasional Hero), Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble (Filed from the front row,…
331 hits
-
Lest We Forget The…
Only minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve, 1953, the engine driver of the Wellington to…
149 hits
-
Never Lived So Merrily:…
Samuel Pepys is probably one of the most famous diarists in history and his words…
445 hits
-
A Beer Carton, a…
A neighbour was telling me about her Christmas shopping expedition to Brisbane recently. She wanted…
481 hits
-
Starlink vs NBN: Outback…
Starlink vs NBN: An Outback Reality Check (With Bonus Waiting Music) One Outback resident tests…
437 hits
-
Australian Prime Minister Is…
Sadly, the beautiful country of Australia has become a bastion of progressivism. The country’s government…
193 hits
-
From Pedal Car to…
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by non animal means…
472 hits
-
Do We Still Love…
Do We Still Love our Nation to Fight For it? Reflections 81 years after the…
470 hits
-
Still No Sparkle: The…
Australia's Spirit at the Crossroads – Time to Shake Off the Mud At dawn, when…
446 hits
-
We are the Ball
Muddy, Battered, and Waiting for the Next Kick-Off After a rugby match, the ball always…
395 hits
-
Let the Paddock Decide
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Edition (Front Page) RUCTION AT THE GULCH OVAL: SETTLED THE…
581 hits
-
Bruce Ruxton - the…
Some men belong to history. Others belong to the national conscience. Bruce Ruxton was the latter.…
443 hits
-
Harold Holt - the…
The Prime Minister Who Disappeared There are many ways for a Prime Minister to leave…
514 hits
-
The Men We Chose…
From Whitlam to Bondi Beach, how moral evasion became cultural habit Australia has woken up…
521 hits
-
Comfortably Numb: Ten Years…
At 9:41am on Monday, 15 December 2014, Man Haron Monis forced Tori Johnson, the manager…
614 hits
-
Lindsay Fox - The…
Recent news in Australia has sparked debate: a ban on social media for under-16s. The…
500 hits
-
The Duck, the Diva…
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Scandal Edition By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble – Foreign Correspondent, Rodent…
466 hits
-
Has the ‘Woke’ movement…
Back in 1904, H. G. Wells published a short story called “The Country of the…
473 hits
-
Young Minds Under Siege:…
Education, often celebrated as a beacon of enlightenment and progress, can also become a potent…
478 hits
-
White Island - A…
On December 9, 2019, New Zealand's White Island erupted .claiming 22 lives and leaving survivors…
484 hits
-
Drawing Blood With Ink
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and nowhere is that truer than…
474 hits
-
Pearl Harbor - a…
Before the sun had fully risen over Hawaii, a chain reaction had begun — one…
557 hits