I launched this blog in January last year. To date there have been 285 posts, just over 5 a week.

I hope you have found some pearls and been irritated from time to time. Thank you for your support.

I have enjoyed putting together stories that I believe are important for Australias future.

I now prefer blogging to speeches and interviews.

A feature of the blog has been the support of guest bloggers. This has introduced a range of people with interesting ideas and views. As a result, the blog is becoming more like an e-magazine.

I am a beginner in blogging, as you will have noticed, but Susie has been a great help. We have made changes, including a better weekly summary with lists of posts. Much remains to be done.

We have appointed a blog manager which will leave me with more time to work on content.

The traffic is increasing steadily. In February last year, the first full month of the blog, the number of visits (not hits) to the blog was 7063 In December last year visits had increased to 33,539. In February last year 14,132 pages were read. This has increased to 84,873 in December. The increase has been steady with almost 1,200 readers of the blog each day this month despite the holidays. Many of the readers are friends and contacts but include a considerable number in the media, churches and NGO communities.

I hope we can be more influential in the years ahead. Your help in suggestions and passing posts and emails to friends is much appreciated.