The yearning for strong leadership is more about strength of purpose - clarity of vision - than about merely 'getting tough'.

So, if falling crime rates coincide with the rise of violent video games and increasing violence on TV and at the cinema, should we conclude that media violence is causing the drop in crime rates?

It is the misfortune of contemporary leaders, across the whole spectrum of Australian life, that the community's demand for strong leadership is growing in direct proportion to our lack of confidence in ourselves. The end of this century is an unusually difficult time to be a leader in Australia.

Parents should be encouraged to read to their children, and teachers should be equipped with all available techniques for teaching literacy, so the varying needs and capacities of individual kids can be taken into account.

One reason we resist making deliberate choices is that choice equals change and most of us, feeling the world is unpredictable enough, try to minimise the trauma of change in our personal lives.

Although we love the idea of choice - our culture almost worships it - we seek refuge in the familiar and the comfortable.

On average, Australians watch more than three hours of television a day, compared with 12 minutes a day spent by the average couple talking to each other.