FORMER Labor finance minister Peter Walsh has savaged the Prime Minister as an “economic illiterate” in the wake of the government’s decision to reject the Productivity Commission recommendations that would have slashed book prices. Mr Walsh, who remade the national economy in the 1980s with Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, is regarded as a tough and uncompromising economic reformer but one who never forgot Labor’s working-class roots. He slammed Kevin Rudd’s reform credentials and style of governing. “The Prime Minister is an economic illiterate,” he told The...

Not many things worthy lately of being posted. FORMER prime minister John Howard has launched an extraordinary attack on Kevin Rudd, accusing him of running a wasteful do-nothing government and mishandling the asylum seeker issue. In his first extensive interview since he left political life two years ago, Mr Howard criticised the Rudd Government over its emphasis on symbolism and high-level spending, The Sunday Telegraph reports. He also denied there was any firm deal for former treasurer Peter Costello to take over from him as Liberal Party leader and prime minister. And Mr Howard said Australia...

A small note; This isn’t the only teenager suicide in Australia due to bullying, and it surely wont be the last until the Australian government does something about it. There’s been school shootings in the USA and probably other places that lead to deaths, and suicides all in one. It wont be long until it might happen here as well. Here is the story: The mother of a NSW high school student who took his life after merciless bullying and beatings at school has made a heartfelt appeal for the inquest into his death to “make a difference”. Deputy NSW Coroner Malcolm MacPherson...