First published on The Drum: 27/09/2011

When Rugby League legend Phil ‘Gus’ Gould stopped his on-air spruiking of sports betting for long enough to attack the Gillard Government’s responsible gambling laws on Friday night, he was blowing the opening whistle for what is looming as the match of the season.

Cash-Strapped Clubs versus Wilkie’s Wowsers shapes as a classic encounter, a contest where there can’t be any compromises, where a loss could spell death for one side, a victory worth self-evident, if ill-gotten, riches for the other.

Cash-Strapped Clubs, traditionally one of the principle sources of funding for NRL clubs, have been targeting New South Wales and Queensland Labor MPs for months claiming they would be driven to the wall if people were given the option of nominating a maximum losing amount before they hit the poker machines.

Now a number of AFL notables, several with strong Liberal Party ties, are parroting the dubious proposition that sporting clubs need the proceeds of problem gamblers to remain viable entities. Ignore the millions in broadcasting fees just secured; if people who can’t control their gambling are protected from themselves, the code itself is in peril.

Read more »

EMC’s Last Drinks campaign to tackle alcohol-fuelled violence has been recognised in the annual public relations industry awards.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 20/09/2011

Sex scandal! Now I have your attention, I want to talk about politics. That’s the show on TV where the woman with dyed red hair swaps insults with the boofhead in the suit.

These overpaid and out-of-touch liars run the country. But they never listen to us ordinary folk. While we are fed up with living costs and boats they just want to waste our money.

Labor’s hopeless: they stuffed up pink bats; wasted zonks in school halls; they can’t stop the boats and they want to bring in a big new tax on everything. And the other mob? Not much better: he says no to everything and wears budgie smugglers. I can’t stand either of them.

This is a pretty fair summary of the state of contemporary political debate; a series of swapped insults thrown at a disengaged electorate who has neither the time nor inclination to engage.

Read more »

Australians take enormous pride in the exploits of their sporting heroes – but the needs of grass roots community sporting organisations are often overlooked.  For Hurlstone Park Wanderers Football Club (HPW), in Sydney’s Inner West, its urgent need for improved facilities was a low priority for the local council.  Wet weather, overuse and poor drainage combined to see 40 per cent of HPW home matches cancelled during the 2011 season.

Read more »

Ever wanted to tell your boot camp instructor to shove it?

Ever wanted to say “I’ve had enough of this pre-dawn madness, I’m going on holidays”.  If so, maybe it’s time that you did.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 13/09/2011

With popular culture now having entered the prime ministerial bedroom, it’s hardly stepping over the line to offer a few suggestions on what our besieged leader should be getting out at the Yarralumla video shop.

While the poll numbers look like the stuff of a horror movie the PM can draw inspiration from an entire genre of survivalist films that dramatise real-life encounters with oblivion and celebrate the way the human spirit can rise to any challenge.

Most of these movies start with a moment of sunshine and light before fate strikes and the odds begin to stack up against the protagonist. So it is with this week’s Essential Report.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 06/09/2011

Australia is now officially a ‘patch-work’ economy, according to anyone trying to explain away massive mining profits amidst job losses and rising living costs elsewhere.

It’s a neat term because it has a sort of unthreatening, homely feel; just a series of patches, knitted together by the golden thread of trickle-down economics.

But if you were to map out our economy into sectors and ask people to rate their value, you would see something looking more like a ragged blanket being pulled in multiple directions by different interests.

Which is exactly what we have done in this week’s Essential Report – asking people to rate industries by their importance – as well as by how we think they are travelling.

Read more »