Tag Archives
Mick Costa is not accused of any wrongdoing
I have to make clear, right at the start, that former Australian Water Holdings chairman (and sometime Labor Council Secretary, NSW treasurer, transport minister and police minister) Michael 'Mick' Costa is not accused of any wrongdoing. In fact, the picture painted in various balanced and responsible media accounts of the AWH affair is that he […]
Eddie and Arthur thought too small
Yes, as through this world I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen. - Woody Guthrie The ICAC inquiry into the Sydney Water Holdings scam makes fabulous reading. The distinct impression we’re getting is that here was a bunch of conscienceless pirates […]
We are all hostages when the wheels go up
There had always been something a little weird about the pilot. Whenever the subject of Captain Abbott came up, many people mentioned the male anorexia thing. “There’s gotta be something weird about a man who runs all those triathlons,” they’d say, and they’d speculate about self-punishment. There would usually be (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) some talk about […]
Last thoughts before the world ends (or maybe not)
I was down at Possum Point, which is not far from Batemans Bay, taking a few days off with Joadja and Jesse Dingo when the news filtered through that the Russians had invaded Ukraine. Or The Ukraine, as the world used to say until a few short years ago. Maybe “invade” isn’t quite the right […]
A life lost in vain
Last week the Afghan government released 65 suspected Taliban militants from prison. The US military, due to pull out of that benighted country by the end of this year, were outraged, of course. US officials said the detainees were “directly linked” to attacks that killed or wounded 32 NATO troops as well as 23 Afghan […]
Bullshit and blackmail: Abbott’s assault on the ABC
I watched a great doco on ABC TV the other night. Titled “88”, it was about the March for Justice, Freedom and Hope on Australia Day (or Invasion Day, as the Kooris say), 1988. The march was the largest protest event since the Vietnam Moratorium and more than 30,000 Aboriginal people took part, plus tens […]
We have seen the future and it squelches
Nick B. Possum: Private Eye I was sitting in the Brushtail Cafe with a cider, trying to keep cool, when Joadja came back from photographing the king tide down at Cooks River for Green Cross’s Witness King Tides project. She loaded her pics onto the laptop and we all crowded around to have a look. […]
Miracles of nature, rays of hope
Early Sunday morning, I was lurking in the artificial Casuarina forest above the big earth tank in Sydney Park, not far from the kiosk, peering through my binoculars at the construction site that will shortly be – Clover Moore tells me – Australia’s biggest urban stormwater recycling project, when somebody addressed me in a comic […]
Squirrels, rail links and the Spaceship of Opportunity
What with all the allegations of corrupt conduct surrounding parliamentarians, this old private eye has been kept pretty busy for the last couple of years doing contract work for ICAC and a certain newspaper. As a class of work it’s a cut above finding hidden assets or runaway kids. Privatisation and huge construction jobs are […]
Abbott had better watch his back
Character is destiny. Richard Nixon told Dr Hunter S. Thompson that one day when he gave him a lift to the airport. He was channelling Heraclitus of Ephesus, of course. With a vengeance, character caught up with Nixon, who, hideously disgraced, became the only U.S. president to resign in office. And Thompson – who famously […]
