Opinion

Jeff Corbett

Exploiting young workers

Posted: 03 Jul 09 | The unpaid trialling of prospective young employees has become a grey area because it has become a common practice, but for those who know of the blatant and callous exploitation in this so-called trialling it is no grey area. |

Comments (40)

Solar rort

Posted: 02 Jul 09 | It is very likely we paid most of the cost of installing the household's solar system, and from the beginning of next year we the non-solar public will be paying an extortionate price for the excess product of a solar system we paid for. |

Comments (24)

Shooters' blood lust

Posted: 01 Jul 09 | Not one of the shooters says he hunts birds or animals because it is fun, because there's a satisfaction to be had killing a bird or animal, because the death rattles somehow satisfy a primeval urge. |

Comments (119)

Responsible drunks

Posted: 30 Jun 09 | There is uncertainty as to what amounts to intoxication, although I remember a licensing sergeant saying to me a couple of years ago that it was not rocket science. |

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The loneliness of age

Posted: 29 Jun 09 | The problem of loneliness in old age is compounded when age and retirement join forces, when the perception that age is undesirable mixes with the perception that retired people don't contribute. |

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National park shooters

Posted: 26 Jun 09 | The expanded list of birds and animals The Shooters' party wants to kill in national parks and elsewhere includes four species of kangaroo, 11 species of ducks, quail, the galah, the purple swamphen, the sulphur-crested cockatoo, two species of ibis, and the black swan! |

Comments (119)

Hospital smokers

Posted: 25 Jun 09 | Smokers have become the new public contemptibles, and I believe the motives behind those railing against them are questionable. |

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Willy on gangs

Posted: 24 Jun 09 | I'm well aware of the enticements for young people of gang membership but I'd never thought of it in terms of status, respect and role. |

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Storm versus flood insurance

Posted: 23 Jun 09 | The difference for insurance purposes between storm and flood damage has always been a difficulty, and an insurance company with a unique record of goodwill in the Hunter, NRMA Insurance, has missed an opportunity to make it less difficult. |

Comments (34)

A fling with prostitutes

Posted: 19 Jun 09 | Fling is a stand-out as the new, non-derogatory word. Prostitutes would be flings, and a brothel would be a flingarium. A fling is an uplifting dalliance, a release from inhibition, something that even moralists and wives would abide. |

Comments (32)

Racism or culturism?

Posted: 18 Jun 09 | At the base of it all is stereotyping, and it is inevitable that just as we generalise much of our experience we will stereotype people of various cultures. |

Comments (16)

Hurtling towards calamity

Posted: 17 Jun 09 | Australians and people of other developed nations seem to have a mental block when it comes to the unsustainability of our way of life. Even small changes are seen as too hard. And government-enforced change is precarious in a democracy. |

Comments (61)

Misunderstood bikies

Posted: 16 Jun 09 | The United Motorcycle Council of NSW has launched the most extraordinary public relations campaign you and I are ever likely to encounter. |

Comments (38)

Diminished parents

Posted: 15 Jun 09 | The path is littered with small events, perhaps the confiscation of a phone, even the permanent confiscation of a phone, internet access rules, careful computer positioning, unannounced monitoring of computers, and banning of social-network sites. But we've lost the war. |

Comments (13)