I watched Parliament Question Time yesterday on TV to see how new boy Mark Latham did. He played it straight on a day dominated by the FTA, and governemnt gloating. It was definitely Mark mark II, careful and calculated. John Howard is worried, you can tell from the hyper-aggressive body language. He jumps around like […]

So, after what the media tells us was a Herculean struggle, a free trade agreement between the US and Oz was signed. It is a lot less than was promised by the government and the impression lingers that George called John and put the pressure on. Not that I think George would really have any […]

Having just won Michigan and Washington in the latest democratic caucuses, it looks like John Kerry is a shoe in for Democrat presidential candidate in the next election. The bad news about this is that Kerry’s credentials as a senator do not suggest he’ll do much worthwhile as president, other than not be Bush. The […]

Labor leader Mark Latham is talking about reforming federal parliament. He wants an independent speaker in the House of Representatives and an end to Dorothy Dix’s. Well, that would make a start, anyway. Federal parliament is a scandal, which would be much more of a problem if it had much to do with actual government. […]

“Fifty million dead’, now there’s a headline. That’s how many chickens are estimated to have been killed in an effort to stop the Asian bird flu spreading. Interestingly, it is the same number of human beings who died in the great flu pandemic of 1918-19. No less than three per cent of the Australian population […]

Well, apparently we are having a federal election campaign. And of course it will be another of those presidential style contests – Iron Mark versus Honest John. PM Howard and Labor leader Latham are stomping around opposite ends of the country selling their particular political products, mostly it seems to school kids. How elections bring […]

The early indications that US politics was undergoing some kind of transformation, thanks to George Bush Jr, are diminishing as the selection of the Democrat presidential candidate proceeds. The argument was that Bush so polarised America (even many Republicans hate him) that it has stimulated US politics generally and the Democrats in particular. The rise […]

In his opening speech of the ALP federal convention, Mark Latham announced that he has appointed Lindsay Tanner, Shadow Minister for Telecommunications, as new Shadow Minister for Community Relationships. Tanner is in the ALP left – indeed he spoke strongly against the proposed asylum seeker policy put forward by Latham – and is perhaps Latham’s […]

Until recently I taught a unit in Futures Studies. One of the things you learn in such a ‘discipline’ is never to predict. So here is my prediction: before the year is out, George Bush Jr, Tony Blair and John Howard will all be out of office. But here’s the big caveat: this will only […]

The ALP national Conference was always going to be a major test for Mark Latham as new leader. What we have seen so far is Latham the Labor leader as opposed to Latham the ‘Third Way’ theorist. Like many others, I have not been excited by Latham’s efforts at adapting ‘Third Way’ ideas to Australia, […]