Canning is a marginal seat with a deceptively safe Liberal Party majority due almost solely to the former member, Don Randall. If Labor can’t win this in a byelection there is something drastically wrong with them. Not only are the numbers their way, but the Liberal Campaign looks decidedly bone-headed if this article in The […]
Continue Reading...Posts in ‘Australian Politics’
Canning a bigger test of Shorten than Abbott
Saturday, August 29th, 2015ACTU case against Heydon boomerangs
Saturday, August 22nd, 2015As I understand it, the ACTU case against Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon is not that he is biased, but that an average person might think he was biased. Now I would have thought the only reason a royal commissioner should be stood aside is if there is a reasonable apprehension that he might be biased. […]
Continue Reading...Nothing tough about trade-him-in Tony anymore
Friday, March 20th, 2015Tony Abbott has been portrayed as too tough and unfeeling by his enemies for as long as he’s been in parliament. This is wrong. Despite his obvious exercise discipline what we’re seeing at the moment is a Pavlova – brittle on the outside and soft in. If Abbott were tough then he would not now […]
Continue Reading...Superannuation and home buyers
Tuesday, March 10th, 2015It’s amazing how many people have leapt in to criticise Hockey’s suggestion that young Australians should be able to tap into their super contributions to buy their first home, including this bad tempered contribution from former PM Paul Keating. Far from being a class envy attack on retirement savings, it could be the single best […]
Continue Reading...Dog whistles must be on special
Saturday, February 21st, 2015I’ve been shocked and disgusted by the racism incorporate in the reaction to the Hepatatitis A contaminated frozen berries sold by Nanna’s and used as a weapon by those seeking to advance restrictive trade practices. While plenty were keen to accuse John Howard of allegedly “dog whistling” to racists through his tough on illegal entrants […]
Continue Reading...Ferny Grove spanner still poised above the works
Monday, February 16th, 2015If the LNP challenges the ECQ’s decision in Ferny Grove and wins, it’s possible that the Palaszczuk government will be one of the shortest in Queensland’s history. But everyone seems to think there is no chance of the LNP mounting a challenge, or succeeding. Having been through the 1995 Mundingburra appeal I wouldn’t be so sure. The […]
Continue Reading...Trans-Pacific Partnership shows democratic deficit
Monday, January 26th, 2015It is easy to be blase about corruption in other places. No one thinks much of what passes for government in countries like Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, or other places that don’t think much of human rights. (Lots of things upset me about our PM’s ideology, but I sleep better at night knowing he doesn’t keep […]
Continue Reading...LNP running only half a campaign
Monday, January 19th, 2015I’m puzzled by the Queensland LNP campaign. It is leaving the Bligh government completely out of the frame. For example, yesterday’s campaign launch included an announcement of a pay down of $2 bn of debt on Seqwater leading to a $100 cut in water bills. Fair enough, if the utility has lower costs it should pass them […]
Continue Reading...Looking for a magic bullet
Tuesday, December 30th, 2014It’s almost unimaginable that Tony Abbott should be in this much polling strife this early in his career, but today’s Australian shows him facing a wipeout in the southern states based on analysis of Newspoll this year. The previous government was rejected because of its incompetence and dishonesty, but this government has been relatively competent and […]
Continue Reading...Ebola
Friday, October 31st, 2014I’m struck by the urgency with which some suggest Australia must send doctors to deal with the Ebola threat in West Africa. What is it about Australian doctors that makes them indispensable? Can’t doctors from other countries handle the threat as competently (or even more so) than those from Australia? Perhaps those countries not sending their airmen […]
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