Paul Murray

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Turnbull shows his true colours

The true measure of Malcolm Turnbull's untenable leadership of the Liberal Party is that 35 of his colleagues preferred the prospect of the completely unelectable Kevin Andrews taking them to the next poll.It is hard to imagine a less attractive...
Thu, November 26, 2009, 4:00 pm WST
Rort attempts do not help Sri Lankan cause

If the protestations of some asylum seekers and refugee advocates are to be believed, the world is standing by idly as a monstrous regime in Sri Lanka persecutes its citizens.The Sri Lankan Government is daily painted in the media as a murderous...
Tue, November 24, 2009, 4:00 pm WST
Sobering thoughts in teen drinking debate

It's a statement of the bleeding obvious that laws don't necessarily solve the problems they are designed to address.While obvious, it's still often lost in the debates about curing society's ills.Concern about binge drinking, especially during the...
Sat, November 21, 2009, 8:00 am WST
Crawford report gives rich sports a free kick

Can anyone honestly see our Prime Minister turning down the chance to bask in the reflected glow of Olympic glory? No. I didn't think so.On that basis, we can probably forget the key recommendation of this...
Thu, November 19, 2009, 4:23 pm WST
Time to hold the entertainment industry to account

The outpouring of community concern over the violent attacks on young people in Perth's northern suburbs has made sad reading.Sad for two reasons. The first is the obvious damage that has been done from such mindless violence, much of which will affect...
Wed, October 28, 2009, 3:56 pm WST
Green can be brown when it comes to dead trees

We've got a street tree on our verge that's dying.That it's on the verge of death is not disputed. The local city council, which is responsible for the land between our home and the road, concedes the tree is definitely on the way out.It's a peppermint,...
Fri, October 23, 2009, 9:45 am WST
A close encounter with the Media Watch humour police

It's official. You can add women drivers to the list of things that are no longer acceptably the stuff of humour.That particular edict was handed down last night by no lesser authority than the ABC's Media Watch, the corporation's self-appointed arbiter...
Tue, October 13, 2009, 10:31 am WST
Why defend Roman Polanski?

It's difficult to understand why anyone would want to defend Roman Polanski.The fact that a host of luminaries from the film industry is seeking to do so after his arrest in Switzerland on a 32-year-old child sex charge says a lot about the double...
Tue, September 29, 2009, 10:24 am WST
Talk green, act brown - that's China

Some media outlets are telling us today that China is now going to lead the world in tackling climate change.It would be nice if it were true. Unfortunately, it can't be.China clearly had to come up with something before the world climate summit in...
Wed, September 23, 2009, 9:59 am WST
Kanye, Taylor and Beyonce at the MTV VMAs

The good, the bad and the ugly of popular culture were on show at this MTV video music awards.Serial pest Kanye West paraded the arrogant, disrespectful and misogynistic attitudes that characterise much of rap and hip hop when he humiliated 19-year-old...
Tue, September 15, 2009, 10:01 am WST
Mandatory reporting of child abuse works

This is National Child Protection Week.So there should be some sense of relief in the figures released by the WA police showing a 50 per cent increase in charges for child sex abuse since mandatory reporting was introduced.But that comes with some anger...
Tue, September 8, 2009, 11:46 am WST
Why did Holding walk alone?

Now that all the cheering has died down about a politician being saved from a mountain top it's time for someone to say that he is a prat.Victorian Water Minister Tim Holding went into what was obviously a dangerous situation without the single most...
Thu, September 3, 2009, 10:31 am WST
Della Bosca dalliance must be seen through leadership prism

If Rome was Sydney, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would have been out of a job years ago.The Italian stallion's dalliances are legendary and flagrant compared to the minor indiscretion that has caused NSW powerbroker John Della Bosca to fall...
Tue, September 1, 2009, 12:08 pm WST
Resources vow must see greens go a little brown

Our elected representatives have the ability to create their own reality within the peculiar political bubble they inhabit.This is often, but not always, done by that most powerful political tool: the promise. Political promises create expectations...
Mon, August 17, 2009, 12:26 pm WST
Green tape review will shake up the bureaucracy

The stage is set this week for a seismic battle between the WA Government's entrenched green bureaucracy and Premier Colin Barnett's desire to remove from the State's resources development industries what he sees as unnecessarily onerous...
Tue, August 11, 2009, 4:23 pm WST
Our bus drivers deserve better than this

The Public Transport Authority has taken a disgracefully long time to protect bus drivers from the mongrels who attack them. The assault that will rob driver Gerard Sin of the sight in one eye - and almost certainly his job - is just the latest...
Wed, August 5, 2009, 11:48 am WST
Does anyone care if sport stars cheat?

Does anyone care any more if elite sports stars cheat?The decision of the international swimming federation to allow new-generation polyurethane suits that have been behind a spate of recent records suggests that the answer is now officially...
Mon, July 27, 2009, 10:01 am WST
Is your pay rise more important than your job?

Well, it didn't take long.On the day that John Howard's unpopular workplace laws were officially swept aside, the unions have launched a push for wage rises of up to 6 per cent in industries already reeling from the global financial crisis.At a time...
Tue, July 14, 2009, 3:03 pm WST