© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

A modest proposal to import politicians

TIME to get rid of that silly section in the Constitution that says Australian federal parliamentarians can’t hold citizenship of foreign nations. Not because so many of our pollies seem to come from other lands and it's sad to think of losing them because they may have forgotten to renounce their alternative allegiances. No, we need to ditch that silly rule because of the tremendous economic advantages. Over the past couple of decades of globalisation Australia has benefited, so big business says, from exporting just about every job imaginable. I get a shock now if I…

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Read more about the article Dinny O’Brien’s legendary Newcastle pawnshop
Dinny O'Brien's pawnshop in Hunter Street, Newcastle.

Dinny O’Brien’s legendary Newcastle pawnshop

DINNY O'Brien was a Newcastle legend in his lifetime, and even today his name conjures memories for many who recall his landmark pawnshop on Hunter Street. He and his wife Margaret had five sons and a daughter. I interviewed Tom O'Brien some years ago, when he was aged 94 and the last survivor of Dinny's children. Tom was deeply proud of the business his father built, and which sustained generations of the extended family in good years and bad. One of very few photos of Dinny O'Brien. Dinny lived originally at Largs, and his first business…

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Boomers v Millennials: who’s robbing who?

YOUNG people have been robbed by older generations, some political and media prawns love to assert. How do they figure this? It’s because old households have more wealth than younger ones, and because many younger people are wondering forlornly whether they will ever be able to afford to buy homes of their own. According to some commentators this is the fault of oldies, who are selfishly sitting around taking up space in the cities and the burbs that could be occupied by the young, if only they’d get out of the way. I don’t know whether…

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