REGULAR readers will know I have a low opinion of rugby league administrators – about as low as a snake’s belly! The latest scandal involving the NSW State of Origin player, Mark Gasnier, highlights two facts. Firstly, the game of rugby league, and its senior players in particular, have a serious alcohol problem that must […]

An analysis (RTF, 247 KB) of our poll into voter attitudes toward Latham and Howard provides further insight into why Latham is polling so strongly after the budget. Everyone has made up their mind about Howard, and most have made up their mind about Latham. At the moment, they are just waiting for the election. […]

Although Prime Minister John Howard and President George W Bush are in dire need of fashion tips, they have chosen to alienate members of the community that could take them from drab to fab, or at least from dull to less so, with public statements about protecting marriage from lesbians in lounge suits and gays […]

Conventional wisdom says that the abuses in Abu Ghraib prison damage the US position in Iraq. This wisdom may be true in the very short term, but may not be in the long-term. The US response to Abu Ghraib is already demonstrating the benefits of a western democratic system, and there is plenty of evidence […]

THE front page of today’s Adelaide Advertiser carries this headline, with accompanying colour photograph – “Travel rorts scandal engulfs Liberal MP”. The story is carried by just about every newspaper in Australia today, but The Advertiser story could hardly be more unfavourable for the Liberal MP concerned – Trish Draper, MP for the marginal SA […]

The thing that I hate most about Newspoll is when you know that they know but they’re not telling. This morning’s Newspoll results are interesting, but what they leave out is even more interesting. They appear to show that if an election were held tomorrow Labor would be heading for a decisive victory – 54% […]

NOWHERE is the electorate’s suspicion of, and contempt for, politicians, and politics, more pronounced than it is in regard to the “perks and privileges” of public office. The defeat of Merri Rose in the Queensland State Election only confirmed that politicians seen to be having a good time at public expense risk political oblivion. The […]

Wars often produce pictures that become emblematic and etched in our minds long after hostilities have ceased. While depictions of heroism and camaraderie are preferred because of the positive things they say about a people, ugly representations inform of our less salubrious qualities, regardless of whether we’re men, women, from the United States, the Middle […]

I am indebted to www.crikey.com.au for drawing attention to a speech in the NSW Parliament by the Labor MP for Bankstown, Tony Stewart. While it is very much a tongue-in-cheek effort, Mr Stewart implored the NSW Liberal Party to “take its politics back to Mosman and Vaucluse, and keep them out of Bankstown……….Bankstown is an […]

One group that consistently shows up in our research as being deeply dissatisfied with both political parties is separated and divorced males paying child support. Initial reactions to the budget suggest that voters are attracted by it, according to Roy Morgan’s latest poll . This is probably an announcement response coupled with many people calculating […]