great news, page-12

I know what I will be watching on the night of May 13 and read about it the next morning - the federal budget. Our economy is going thru a critical period, with inflation and its associated ills affecting all of us, more particularly the poor. The new Labor government's first budget will set the tone on how it plans to manage the economy and will probably set the pattern of its behaviour for the next two succeeding budgets prior to the next election.

Just an observation: when Whitlam came into power, his government preferred to use "federal" instead of "commonwealth" to describe the national government. When Fraser won, they switched back to "commonwealth". Not sure what the Hawke government preferred, but with Howard, he eventually settled for "federal". And now, surprise, Rudd has switched back to "commonwealth".

I personally prefer "commonwealth" as Australia is a federation of sovereign states coming together for the creation and sharing of "common wealth" and for common good. That is my take on that idea.