My comments on the French National Assembly criminilising vaccine debate

The Week in 60 Minutes, Spectator TV, 21 February 2024

My political commentary on The Week in 60 Minutes, Spectator TV, Episode 4, 2024 with Alexandra Marshall. This week we discussed the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the state of US southern border security, the French ban on dissenting voices on vaccines, and Australia's archaic industrial relations laws.

Below is a snippet from our discussion of France's vaccine debate gag order:

France has passed a law that could see people faced with severe fines & even a 3 year prison sentence if they criticise the MRNA vaccines.

"Anything that silences debate means that our system of liberal democracy doesn't work properly. Governments seem to be doing this as their… pic.twitter.com/j5qDMM3MqM

— ADH TV (@adhtvaus) February 22, 2024

It's Time to Remove the Prohibition on Nuclear

 It's time to remove the prohibition on nuclear energy [CC0]

If we're serious about net zero, we need to lift nuclear prohibition

The push for renewables is taking longer and costing more than planned. The federal government must remove the prohibition on nuclear if we are to achieve net zero. Nuclear must be part of the mix.

In my latest article in the Canberra Times, I argue that it's time to lift the prohibition on nuclear:https://t.co/p0KHL7if5n

— Le Flâneur Politique (@FlaneurPolitiq) February 20, 2024

The Institutional Origins of Canada’s Telecommunications Mosaic

Bell payphones at the Montreal Bus Station, 6th July 2007

Context: This is a work in progress article that stems from my PhD research over a decade ago. The paper suffers from numerous conceptual issues that remain unresolved and I am keen for feedback from the PPN group to progress my ideas. Alyssa Attioli, current graduand of the University of Canberra, has been working as a co-author on the paper.

With Alyssa Attioli at PPN2024

Abstract: The paper argues that the political circumstances leading up to Canadian Confederation resulted in a significant and lasting impact upon the institutional origins of Canada’s telecommunications market that persisted into the 21st century. It does so by first outlining the ideas and institutional dynamism that flowed from political rivalries in the lead-up to Confederation and coincided with the deployment of the telegraph. Second, the article discusses how commercial disputes created separate telegraph and telephone industries that embedded Canada’s unique telecommunications mosaic. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance of considering the local and regional imperative, and the legacies created by the original rationale, in developing national telecommunications policy. Canada’s approach sits somewhere between the private ownership model adopted by the United States and the public ownership model adopted in Australia. The major lesson from Canada is that, where diverse circumstances exist, addressing local and regional political imperatives can provide opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked by attempts to provide a standardised national solution in the delivery of telecommunications services to citizens.

The slides from our presentation are available below: