From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 20 March
In 2013, following an historic public consultation on racial profiling practices within Victoria Police, a broad three-year plan to improve the treatment...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 13 March
I have, over the years, spent a total of months in the old USSR, and what is now the Russian Federation. It...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 6 March
In the first decade following World War Two there was a dearth of Australian children’s literature; consequently, baby boomers (1945-64) grew-up reading...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 27 February
I am salivating in anticipation of The Queen’s Jubilee Platinum Pudding competition!
AN official component of The Queen’s Jubilee celebrations, the pudding competition...From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 13 February
Are you one of those yobbos who boos sporting champions because you think it is funny and part of the experience?
I’VE got...From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 6 February
If, on opening your eyes first thing in the morning, and before pulling the doona back over your head, you immediately remember,...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 30 January
The ignominy suffered by the world’s number one tennis player, Novak Djokovic, is lamentable; a national disgrace. Anomalies notwithstanding, that it came...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 26 January
Once upon a time, in another century, women’s most popular knickers were cottontails, and men wore baggy, white underpants, called Y-fronts. Both...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 16 January
An army of Martians, visiting Ballarat as part of a reconnoitre for a proposed imminent invasion of Australia, could be forgiven for...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 9 January
Beer loomed large in the lives of kids who grew-up in the heat of the north-eastern goldfields of Western Australia, where the...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 2 January
When I think about it I shake my head incredulously. The notion is too absurd to be true! This year, 2022 marks...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 25 December
Christmas is that time of year when, around the world, Christians gather together in towering cathedrals and small parish churches, to celebrate...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 19 December
Victorian Senator David Van’s yobbish behaviour in the Federal Senate, and for which he later apologised, is an unsettling manifestation of power-drunk,...
Third parties in the health system
Over the last four weeks ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI has looked at different aspects of our health care. So far he’s discussed chronic disease,...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 12 December
“It’s un-Australian”, whatever that means? Erroneously, one hears it from politicians wanting to condemn a situation, or a happening, which does not...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 5 December
What the Australian test cricketer/wicketkeeper, Tim Paine, does in his private life is categorically none of our business. We have become a...
Health system funding and challenges
Over four weeks ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI is looking at different aspects of our health care. So far he’s discussed chronic disease and our...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 28 November
It used to be said that ‘manners maketh man’ - and women, in this egalitarian age. Somehow, somewhere, along the line, good...
The medical boom: hospitals post war
Over four weeks ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI is looking at different aspects of our health care. Last week it was chronic disease still to...
Whose health is it? Chronic disease
Over the next four weeks ROLAND ROCCHICCIOLI will take a look at different aspects of our health care including hospitals, the system...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 21 November
Patently, heavy fines are not enough to convince some people that dog ownership comes with the most serious of obligations. Flagrant breaches...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 14 November
War is not the opposite of peace. War is a breakdown of civilisation. War is what happens when language fails, and leaders...
From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 7 November
Elvis Presley was one of the first, and remains one of the few, truly international superstars. He, and the late Marilyn Monroe,...
Vale Bert Newton: Roland reflects
Albert Watson Newton AM, MBE (23 July 1938 – 30 October 2021)
THE death of Bert Newton marks the end of a...