Joh Bjelke-Petersen will have a state funeral today. Many say he shouldn’t including Nigel Powell and Wayne Sanderson. They’re both wrong. We owe it to ourselves to give him one. Deny him a state funeral, and we are one with him. Give him one, and we assert and affirm the values of liberal democracy. I […]

For a man who thinks we should all be working past the current retirement age of 65, Peter Costello seems to have a penchant for wanting to move the old and the wise on. Stories are that before her preselection he told 64 year old Victorian Senator Judith Troeth that she was too old for […]

Anyone remember seeing this in the Australian election? No, and neither did I. So why is alleged political mastermind Lynton Crosby allowing the other Howard, Tories’ leader Michael Howard, to use the line in the UK election? Look at the poster in this article. Perhaps Crosby doesn’t have as much influence as is alleged, or […]

In an earlier post I drew attention to the fact that all the commentary about Joh Bjelke-Petersen, favourable and unfavourable, concentrated on his contribution to politics, and not on his pre-political career in farming. Off the top of my head I knew about his contribution to brigalow scrub clearing, but this morning Radio National’s Breakfast […]

Many Queenslanders, particularly ALP voters, think that Peter Beattie has a lot in common with Joh Bjelke-Petersen, according to some of our yet to be published research work. Not a view I share. But I think Joh would approve of Beattie’s masterful move to appoint two committees to inquire into the Queensland health system rather […]

I see that Brian Laver, Dan O’Neil, Garry McLennan, and Sam Watson are planning to picket Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s funeral in Kingaroy next week. Joh would have approved. There are two men that I learnt more from about political campaigning than any others – Wayne Swan and Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Swan showed me what to do – […]

This letter from Ryan MHR Michael Johnson, demonstrates the secret of his success – being completely up-front and unconventional, not to mention monomaniacal. I can think of no other MP who could have written this letter. Essentially it is Johnson distributing his how-to-vote ticket for the coming Ryan Federal Electorate Council AGM. Most federal members […]

Curiously, in all the tributes to Joh Bjelke-Petersen, no-one has mentioned his significant contribution to Queensland agriculture. Press releases have lauded his long reign. They have credited him with starting Queensland’s coal industry. He is given the credit for the state’s tourism industry, and significantly raising the mean age by abolishing death duties. Joh was […]

WHEN you have observed politics for as long as I have – and participated in it – you get into the habit of comparing politicians, governments, and political eras. Some weeks ago I offered the view that the Honourable De Anne Kelly, Federal Minister of State for Veterans Affairs and Minister Assisting the Defence Minister, […]

Marion Maddox’s silly book God under Howard is so driven by her own personal demons and shibboleths that it misses the most obvious and successful religious “conspiracy” in Australia today – the Catholic ascendancy. Forget about evangelical, born-again protestants conspiring to conflate church and state, Catholics are in dominant positions of power everywhere. A good […]