Posts by Paul Williams
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..but have yet to see much good spoken of PPPs anywhere they have been tried. Just a complex way of transferring public money into private pockets.
Sacha, there's mixed experience with toll road PPPs in Sydney - some ok, some terrible... tolled roads are part of (I think) pretty much all routes into/out of Sydney and aside from the failed Cross City Tunnel, I wonder if anyone knows who is getting which toll - government or merchant banks?
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Emma, a lovely piece as ever. I've not had a significant health scare but imagine how hard it is to not let it overwhelm you and hope for good news. Very pleased you got the good news quick.
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The shame! But it's a testimony to the class of the PAS readership that somebody pointed this out to me discreetly via email rather than exposing me to the public humiliation that I most assuredly deserved.
You're lucky pal, I was sooo going to tell the whole group... then where'd you be aye?
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Lance: I never ever use your cow because it sucks, but let me tell you what your cow is like. Problem #1, it doesn't give enough milk.
People who actually use PA: Um dude? That's a horse.
Oh f*ck it! I was over at Lance's blog wanking on about incommensurability and now I'm totally trumped by Emma's comedy genius!
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Thank you Clayton Weatherston and Don Brash.
Ummm, really...
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There's a place for short posts, and a place for long ones. But either way, the length of a post should be determined by what you have to say, not by arbitrary restrictions based on the short attention span of business consultants.
Precisely.
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Lance's post just made me go all 'really? You're complaining about that? REALLY?'
Ditto but then I found myself seriously pissed off at some of the comments Lance's piece illicited. Bryan Spondre's particularly. I resent the conclusion that somehow PAS is difficient becuase it doesn't cohere to some standardised concept of a blog. That being a preference for short, banal and/or inflammatory posts.
Pah! I love you. As you were.
Oh and what Jackie said too.
And though I'd rather there weren't threaded conversations, it'd be good if my reply could be saved as I move back in a conversation to copy and quote an earlier comment...
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Further to George's heretical comments, there's also a surprising reversal in some leading Australian economists thinking about the impact of changes to the minimum wages.
On the one hand, you have the argument that decreasing the minimum wage has a negligable impact on labour participation rates since so few are on the minimum wage. On the other hand, there's an argument that increasing the minimum wage may improve productivity if it displaces what would otherwise sustainable low-wage, low-productivity work (this might be of little comfort to workers in textile, clothing and footwear however).
Also, while we're comparing Australian and NZ responses to productivity concerns, you might appreciate the contrast between NZ capping funding for tertiary enrolments, at the very point Australia is uncapping them in universities and massively increasing funding for what's called vocational education and training. There's a wealth of research showing the very positive returns for investments in education and training including one that shows a $6.40 (NPV) return for every dollar invested. Odd then that National have cut spending...
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Not really. I don't much care for the English either
I'm conflicted.
As a seven year resident in Australia (though neither a permanent resident nor citizen), I really should support the Aussies... and I might, were it not for the fact that they're an arrogant bunch led by a moaning captain (I'd except Hussey from that general characterisation, perhaps Katich too).
But then, I can't barrack for the Poms, I just can't as they're an equally arrogant bunch full of nobs and toffs like Pietersen... he really is a git, might be the biggest of the lot of them...
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And he deserved it. I hope somewhere Stephen Donald, who stood up and played, despite the shellacking he took in the media last week, also got one.
In-bloody-deed. That bloke copped way too much crap from the French/Italy tests and did well against the Aussies. He made the odd error but kicked well, passed well, ran to the line... Cowan too deserves praise for his work (though I still love Piri...)