It was distressing to witness the slow release of some of the remaining hostages from Gaza by sadistic Hamas terrorists, alongside the concurrent release of many serious criminals from Israeli jails in exchange. One wonders if this was truly the right move, but the Israelis were caught between a rock and a hard place due to the natural urge of the hostages’ loved ones to secure their safe return, regardless of the cost.

The question now is: where do we go from here? For starters, the ceasefire may not hold, but if it does, I believe Trump should use all his clout to bring the Israelis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis, and Gulf states together to devise a plan for rebuilding Gaza without Hamas. I wrote an earlier piece along those lines, so I won’t go into specifics again, but it can be done.

Historically, Egypt and Jordan have not wanted to permanently take in millions of Gazans. In terms of rebuilding Gaza, there is a ready pool of workers—the people of Gaza themselves—and if properly utilised in the reconstruction, they may develop a sense of ownership in the project, which in turn could discourage further terrorist attacks.

There is still unfinished business regarding the instigator of this war, Iran. Israel has yet to complete its retaliatory strike against Iran’s attack, and now that Trump is in office, the US should have no hesitation in providing Israel with the bunker-busting bombs it needs to destroy Iran’s soon-to-be-completed nuclear bomb project. Such action would not only prevent a very real threat of nuclear war but could also be the catalyst for ordinary Iranian citizens to rise up and change their ultra-strict clerical regime. Iran has a strong middle class who despise the regime. Trump has a good track record in the Middle East (the Abraham Accords), so there is some hope that he may be able to facilitate improvements there.

Locally, I see our very own senator Katy Gallagher stirring the pot and suggesting Albo’s extra 36,000 new public servants will all be sacked from Canberra based positions.

Well, for starters, there are only an extra 9,000 in Canberra, and when you cut the public service, you can do so through natural attrition. Some staff will also take the opportunity to accept a redundancy. 

When John Howard cut 10,000 federal positions in the ACT, the then-Carnell Government introduced schemes to grow the private sector through startup incentives, such as waiving rates and payroll tax for five years.

Between 1996 and 1999, 29 new businesses were established in Canberra, with only three eventually closing. By 1999, an additional 9,990 workers had found new jobs, and the Canberra economy boomed.

The fact is, Albo has created a lot of new jobs, but 70% of them are government jobs, most of which are not in frontline services and accordingly do little or nothing for the economy. The last thing we need is more diversity officers.