A slightly edited version of this article appeared in today’s Sunday Mail. Before this election campaign started Queensland voters were interested in changing government. But that was before the Liberals changed leaders and State Governor Quentin Bryce rang the opening bell. Now I’m not sure that is still the case. On Team Beattie’s side of […]

Bruce Flegg’s “gaffe” about who would lead a Coalition government is not accidental – believe it or not it appears to be part of the coalition’s strategy. What wasn’t part of the coalition’s strategy was that “Would-be Caesar”, Michael Caltabiano, would use the opportunity it presented to undermine his newly elected leader to add civil […]

John Howard didn’t believe in the immigration bill that he’s just withdrawn from the Senate. That’s a possible interpretation of his behaviour. Back in June I predicted that he was preparing to step back from the legislation. In the end, he pushed it far enough to convince everyone, including the Indonesians, that he was serious, […]

The Queensland election campaign is on, and it’s not much of a contest. Peter Beattie has a plan for the future which involves providing enough water by 2011 to meet the needs of south-east Queensland in 2006. At the same time he has a plan for population growth which will see another million people in […]

Ultimately it was Queensland’s drought that did for ex-Queensland Liberal Leader, Bob Quinn, using the agency of a mythical “gender-bending” fish. If it wasn’t for the drought, Toowoomba would most likely not have been voting on whether to drink recycled sewage as a solution to its water problem. And if it wasn’t for the vote, […]

The lates push to ban junk food advertising appears to be at least partly based on an unsustainable interpretation of fairly mundane research by the Cancer Council NSW. I can’t be quite sure of this, because incredibly in this day and age the research doesn’t appear to be up on the Council’s website. However, this […]

Peter Beattie’s “threat” to hold an election on recycling sewage for drinking water is a classic Beattie gambit. Take a problem for which you are responsible, or at least share the guilt, pick an aspect of the issue that your opponents can’t or won’t deal with, announce yourself as the only person who can fix […]

Just when Labor appeared to be getting its act together Beazley decides to run off on an extraneous excursion on uranium mining. John Howard must be happy. Howard has elevated the debate on nuclear power for a number of reasons, one of which is undoubtedly that it raises strong passions amongst the paranoid left. It’s […]

Observing the shambolic, some would say comical, efforts by the parliamentary, and media, supporters of Peter Costello to extricate John Howard from the Prime Ministership took my mind back to the last genuinely successful transition of Prime Ministers during the term of a Government in Australia. Exactly forty years and six months ago, Sir Robert […]

“Bomber” could present a problem for the Queensland Coalition. Not “Bomber” Beazley, but affable Queensland TV sports commentator Chris Bombolas. He has nominated for, and will receive, ALP preselection for the marginal Liberal seat of Chatsworth, slimly held by Liberal leadership aspirant, Michael Caltabiano. Chatsworth was won by the Liberals in a byelection at the […]