The mining tax is like that tricky stage at the end  of a long boozy Christmas lunch where everyone’s trying to dodge paying their share of the bill. Chances are they’ll still be arguing about it next Christmas.
This is the real reason they’re out to get Assange. Â As soon as cables start being written in chocolate on flaky pastry, things will calm down.
There is nothing more divisive in Australia than the way we treat refugees who come here in boats, so you’d hope that a tragedy like yesterday’s might result in a more thoughtful debate on the topic than we’ve seen so far. Of course, we all know that’s not going to happen, so good on our politicians for at least keeping it to themselves for a short period of time before the political point scoring begins.
There’s no doubt a balance exists between having a good time and a complete bloody shambles, and as I have two children and thus no idea what goes on outside the house after sunset any more perhaps heavy-handed bureaucracy is the way things get done these days, but it is sad to see a uniquely Hobart event get strangled in red tape like this.