It’s a bit hard to see how Indonesia can oppose the Australian government buying fishing boats to stop asylum seekers, at the same time as it wants to buy 1.5 million hectares of grazing land to grow beef for its domestic market.

Surely there ought to be no impediment to […] Continue Reading…

There’s 60 per cent more sea ice in the Arctic this year than there was last year, which means claims that the Arctic would be ice free in summer by 2013 were ridiculously over blown.

It does not mean, however, that this happened because of a “chilly Arctic summer”.

Rather the […] Continue Reading…

With all due respect to Bill Glasson, who was a great candidate, the best result for the Liberal Party out of this election was not winning Griffith.

They get to win the election in a landslide, and their opponents get mired in the mud of Nightmare on Norman Crescent as […] Continue Reading…

Clive Palmer’s tapped into a vein of public discontent showing his abilities in mining go beyond the mineral. But Clive’s skills as a miner are probably as much as a financier as a prospector – he leverages his veins. How does he intend to leverage his political vein?

It seems […] Continue Reading…

Apparently the Kevin 2013 version comes with a backbone. Fair enough, but if its going to be his new offensive weapon he should use it on someone other than himself.

Kevin’s latest stunt is to say that Labor will block the Liberals from abolishing the carbon tax because it is […] Continue Reading…

Kevin Rudd announced yesterday that he would build a very fast train between Melbourne and Brisbane by 2035. As the idea first surfaced in 1984, it would be a promise 61 years in the honouring. He must feel very safe from leadership challenges to make such a longterm commitment.

Which made […] Continue Reading…

Lily Fontana is currently getting a crash course in public relations and social media. She is the freelance make-up artist whose status update on Facebook has provided the most succinct commentary on last night’s Bronco Leagues Club People’s Forum debate between K Rudd and T Abbott.

Here it is in its […] Continue Reading…

It appears that Kevin Rudd’s industry of the future might very well be shelf-company manufacture in the Northern Territory.

Adopting a suggestion from Gina Reinhardt, Rudd has promised to make the NT a special economic zone where companies will pay a third less company tax.

Following in the failed decentralisation foot-steps […] Continue Reading…

Immediately after last night’s debate I scored it a draw. Rudd was more fluent and less reliable, Abbott more wooden, but more “fair dinkum”.

Others scored it a win to Abbott, including even the SMH online poll.

But it could have been a narrow victory to Rudd, and still be a […] Continue Reading…