Ken Henry inspires Ross Gittins' four big bugs

In Four big bugs threaten our comfort zone Ross Gittins, the Sydney Morning Herald's economics writer, expresses a deeply pessimistic view on some of the challenges facing Australia, including climate change. The story is worth reading.

I am far more optimistic than Mr Gittins, although I have pointed to some of the same issues in trying to argue for the need for new approaches. As you might expect given my argument yesterday in The Rudd Government's longer term success or failure - straws in the wind, my core concern lies the capacity of an over-rigid system to respond.

I have also argued a number of times that people are actually asking the wrong questions, not recognising the conflicts built into current attitudes and approaches.