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James5 - eco, social and legal justice in Melbourne and abroad
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James5 is a site about stuff that matters. Environmental friendliness, social justice and left-of-center politics is what you can hope to find here. Posts are on a wide range of topics including international law, trade, politics, development, aid, climat
Recent Posts Tagged With 'australia'
Gans on the Charter Moot
Gans has got his take on the recent Charter Moot on his blog. My team came runners up in the end, but I thought we did a great job. I’ve got a comment over there on what he said, but also should...
Everything that is wrong with the Olympics
This is insane: the Canadian winter Olympics organising committee is going crazy with trademarking. Banning unauthorised use of the Canadian anthem or ‘winter’. Every 4 years we have to go...
Interesting Charter Application to BAE Systems Case
Gans takes us through a wild ride of Charter interpretation in VCAT over the BAE Systems Case, which dealt with the USA’s discriminatory national security hiring policy. So we’ve got a bad...
What is Turnbull thinking?
Ok, Turnbull is obviously on a bit of “bipartisan” spree here, but why does he think Aussie banks need government money? Should I be making a run on the bank?Post from James5 What is Turnb...
Common Law Driver’s Licence?
Very funny post from Gans on “common law driver’s licences” and the freedom of movement under the Charter. UPMART, an “association for human rights and much, much more” t...
Gans on FuelWatch
Joshua Gans has his take on the doomed FuelWatch scheme. He seems to be saying that it will reduce prices by increasing competition, and that’s why the independents are against it. Post from Jam...
Free time for political advertisements during elections
Remember Sally Young’s book The Persauders? She also recently testified at an inquiry into political advertising at the last Federal Election, saying that TV stations should be required to give ...
Woolworths (Safeway) has a conscience over paper
Interesting example of corporate social responsibility over at Woolworths, they recently ended a contract with an Indonesian paper company due to concerns over the sustainability of the trees used. It...
Some industries need to fail
According to Peter Gallagher, the government (taxpayers) gave the car industry $1.1 billion last year. That means each “job saved” cost us $300,000. Not sure how he crunched the numbers (t...
ABC’s The Hollowmen on Foreign Relations
I’ve been very impressed with the new ABC series The Hollowmen. It’s a mockumentary style series set in the Prime Minister’s “Central Policy Unit”, a unit set up by the P...
US wanted to test nerve gas on Australians
This news is just insane. Back in the 1960sw the United States asked the Australian government if it could test some nerve gas, VX and Sarin, on 200 Australian diggers in Queensland. They had even alr...
Fixing the law school grade curve
Why do universities use letters or HDs or H1s? H1, H2A, H2B, H3, P, F - it all just means one more step to work out my percentage points. It’d be nice to know how average each mark is though. Di...
India’s rising middle class good for Australia
Interesting press release from Austrade on the growing Indian market for Australian food products. It seems the Indian Silicon Valley’s rising middle class is buying our goods. I thought it was ...
Gaps in tax system
Joshua Gans posts on the current gaps in Australia’s tax system. How I wish these would really be addressed and some actually innovative tax reform took place. Say no to income tax returns!SHARE...
Media get it wrong on Victorian Underbelly ‘ban’
Some teenage inmates got to see Underbelly at the Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre. Even though it was reported as a big controversy due to the “ban”, as Jeremy Gans points out - you are ...
Datamining with Devonthink Pro OFFICE
Last semester I once again was extremely grateful for having Devonthink to help me out with a research paper. For those that don’t know Devonthink is a personal database you keep on your Mac. Y...
Music versus the internet
So Australian musicians are crying poor. The Veronicas, Grinspoon and Powderfinger want us to believe they are living the hard life due to music piracy. While I’m in no way endorsing wholesale p...
Teaching Those Economist a Thing or Two About Rap
With all those economists constantly showing off their skillz, I was getting even more worried I had chosen the wrong degree. Thankfully the internet saved me, with two most excellent musical produc...
Energy Efficiency, Negawatts and White Certificates
I recently had a look at the Senate Committee Report on the National Market Driven Energy Efficiency Target Bill 2007 - a private members bill introduced by the Democrats. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title:...
Australia preparing ICJ case against Iran
How did I not hear about this sooner? Australia is preparing a case to take to the ICJ for Iran of inciting violence and denying the Jewish holocaust. Interesting time to be working for DFAT or the AG...
Middle/Upper-class welfare in the Swan budget
So the government’s setting up a scheme whereby first home buyers get extra money from the government if they start saving their money for a deposit. Sounds good. Problem is the government will ...
Gans on Australian Human Rights Legislation
Gans has some good, out of the box thoughts on implementing a human rights bill in Australia. It’s policy problem of wanting consultation, but with such a complex law the community doesn’t...
Gans on admissible evidence in Australia
Jeremy Gans is hilarious as always when reflecting on the approach of judges to evidence in Australia:He said that he would have done the usual Australian judicial thing in relation to the question of...
Fund it all with a HECS
Joshua Gans has a good proposal for funding some of the ideas from the 2020 summit. More ‘HECS like’ schemes of no interest loans paid back via a small tax that kicks in at a certain incom...
Volunteer to pay off HECS debt
One of the ideas from 2020 was to let students volunteer to pay off their HECS debt. Some problems have been identified but I think the main obstacle is making the payoff worth the effort. Unless the ...
Human Rights Charter limiting rights?
Gans post on how the Human Rights Charter may result in reduced rights highlights one of the issues the anti-Charter groups have been talking about. In this case, it’s judges saying that since t...