As Health Minister in the Howard government, I’d given much thought to a potential pandemic. In those days, our fear was a readily transmissible version of avian flu, a poultry disease with a 30 per cent plus case fatality rate for those who caught it, typically chicken farmers living cheek-by-jowl with their birds. In response,…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… It’s an honour to be at a conference such as this, that brings people together, from different countries, to work for the betterment of mankind, based on all that we have in common. It’s so fitting that we meet here in India, the world’s largest democracy – also one of the world’s oldest democracies…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Originally published in The Australian Probably not a single death in human history will be as widely felt as that of Queen Elizabeth II. Thanks to television, that was just coming into its own at the start of her reign, there’d hardly be anyone, anywhere unfamiliar with her. Unlike mere celebrities, she’s been consequential;…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Originally published in The Australian Andrew Morton, The Queen, Hardie Grant, ISBN 9781789294644, $32-99 At one level, this is an extraordinarily well-informed and reasonably sympathetic account of our Queen’s life. At another level it’s an incredibly detailed and relentlessly unsparing chronicle of one family’s crises. I suppose that’s to be expected from the author…
E&OE……………………….…………………………………………………………………………… Originally published in the Spectator Jim Molan, Danger On Our Doorstep, HarperCollins, ISBN 9781460762608, $34-99 This is not the book for anyone complacent about the China challenge yet it should be compulsory reading for everyone concerned for our country’s future. Very few have seen more of war, and the preparations for war, or thought…