Via The Australian: If a barnstorming tour of Australia whipping retirees into a Coalition-voting frenzy about Labor nabbing their franking credit cash can’t get you a spot in the ministry, what does it take? Tim Wilson, the newly returned member for Goldstein, raised howls of protest from the opposition with his extremely effective stint taking
Via The Guardian: Anthony Albanese will use his first day as opposition leader to travel to Queensland, pledging to reconnect with voters who turned away from the party and position Labor for victory in three years’ time. The first-order visit to Queensland comes as the party’s likely new deputy, Richard Marles, admitted he was “tone
As Labor tortures itself over which direction to take post-election failure, ScoMo knows exactly he is going, absolutely nowhere, via the AFR: Scott Morrison has stamped his authority on the government with a ministerial reshuffle that remarries climate change and energy, rewards his backers, and places a premium on stability by leaving key positions unchanged.
By Leith van Onselen It hasn’t taken long for soon to be new Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, to shatter hopes that he would follow the will of the electorate and pledge to lower Australia’s immigration intake back towards sensible historical levels: Over the weekend, Albanese explicitly threw his support behind Australia’s mass immigration ‘Big Australia’
Via The Australian: Scott Morrison will move rapidly to mark the Pacific as his top strategic priority, making an early trip to the Solomon Islands next week to counter growing Chinese influence over Australia’s regional neighbours. The visit comes as Beijing ramps up regional tensions with its attempts to lure the Solomons and other small
It’s kind of pathetic to watch the agony of the left as it fights its own failure still wearing a self-imposed straight jacket. Leftie media writhed through every excuse under the Sun: it was Murdoch’s fault says Rudd, wrote Bianca Hall working classes love their tax lurks, wrote David Crowe inner city globalisation winners lost
By Ross Elliott, cross-posted from New Geography: In a remarkable and most unexpected outcome, Australia’s conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison has retained the country’s leadership at the recent Australian Federal Parliamentary election (18 May, 2019). Morrison’s victory confounded a wide array of commentators, academics, advocacy groups, industry groups, all of the opinion polls, most of
From The ABC: Queensland MP Jim Chalmers has declared he will not run for the Labor leadership. Mr Chalmers wrote on Twitter that he had given the possibility very careful consideration, but had decided against it. “I spoke to Anthony Albanese this morning and told him I will enthusiastically support him and work tirelessly with
By Leith van Onselen The Morrison Government could potentially have 35 seats in the new Senate, which means it would require the support of only four crossbenchers to pass legislation in the upper house. The Liberal-National Party appears set to have three Queensland seats in the Senate, while Labor is likely to have just one.
Via The Australian comes Albo, new Labor leader in waiting: “The language used was terrible … unions and employers have a common interest. Successful businesses are a precondition for employing more workers, and that is obvious.” “There are common interests that are there … and if elected I would look for solutions, not arguments. We
From the New Daily: Anthony Albanese is set to be elected unopposed as Labor leader with Queenslander Jim Chalmers as his deputy as Chris Bowen prepares to pull out of the ballot. The New Daily has confirmed that challenger Chris Bowen is likely to pull out of the race before the ballot proceeds. The decision
Here is the untold story of how Australia saved ANZUS, via Reuters: In early 2018, in a complex of low-rise buildings in the Australian capital, a team of government hackers was engaging in a destructive digital war game. The operatives – agents of the Australian Signals Directorate, the nation’s top-secret eavesdropping agency – had been
Oh no, at the NYT: The Trump administration is considering limits to a Chinese video surveillance giant’s ability to buy American technology, people familiar with the matter said, the latest attempt to counter Beijing’s global economic ambitions. The move would effectively place the company, Hikvision, on a United States blacklist. It also would mark the
Chris Bowen via Domain today: “We need to remind ourselves how to talk to the base, which is not inner city,” Bowen says in an interview. “If you look at the election, wealthy areas swung to us and poorer areas swung away from us. “When you consider our agenda was fairly redistributive, that’s pretty extraordinary.
Via the AFR: Scott Morrison’s shock win in the federal election may have been delivered by the “battlers” – non-university educated voters in lower income brackets – and Christians. ANU professor Ben Phillips found that electorates with a lower percentage of persons with bachelor degrees and income greater than $100,000, and a higher percentage of
Via the Communist Party of China foghorn: The surprise victory of Australia’s Liberal National coalition on Saturday gives Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal Party a third term in government. But apart from delivering his campaign promises to the Australian people, of which he made few, Morrison may also need to recalibrate his country’s relations with
Via the AFR: Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who spent the day bunkered in meetings and planning his new cabinet, shot down suggestions that he should adopt policy beyond what he took to the election, including in the energy sector. This is despite calls from business and some in his own party to embrace a more
Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has just thrown his hat into the ring to contest Labor’s leadership, turning it into a three horse race between him, Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers. From The Australian: The Australian has confirmed Chris Bowen will run as the Right candidate for the Labor leadership… Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has brushed
Via The Australian comes Steve Bannon: Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon says Labor’s Bill Shorten “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” because he pandered to inner-city elites at the expense of ordinary Australian families. “It’s the little guy who is the backbone of civic society but who is not outspoken … they
The media drivel about the election is as widespread as it is wrong. ScoMo is not a saviour of anything. He lost LNP votes and was fantastically fortunate to regain them through preferences from people voting for change. Moreover he did so by promising to do nothing so what now can he do?. Let’s run
Cross-posted from Patreon: I’m sure like most of you – you are scratching your head to explain what happened last night, and how Bill Shorten lost the Federal Election (when only months ago most people thought he would romp it home in a landslide). Read on and enjoy my thoughts: 1. Climate Change isn’t the
By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s Chris Mitchell has penned a well argued article calling for the left to acknowledge its own media bias before throwing mud at the Murdoch press: Media bias is in the eye of the beholder — but if the beholder is a Twitter warrior, bias means anything not of the
Got give credit where it’s due, via Chris Joye: During the week I advised my investors, media colleagues and friends that it would not be surprising if Scott Morrison won the election comfortably. For months this column argued that the betting markets and political pundits were wrong in assuming ScoMo had no chance. Indeed, it
My day job is a mix of quantitative and fundamental investment analysis. What that essentially means is that I spend my time looking for situations where the numbers don’t match the narrative – and I can’t help but notice that in the Australian Federal election result the narrative and the numbers are miles apart. Scott
Day one and it is reading the tea leaves all wrong at The Guardian: Anthony Albanese is making a concerted play for the Labor leadership, declaring the party’s policy direction needs to change but signalling he would promote progressive values, as the count continues after Saturday night’s election. …He signalled it would be back to
Good news, via The Australian: The election result will not improve Australia’s relations with Beijing, says editor-in-chief of nationalist tabloid The Global Times, Hu Xijin, as analysts speculate that China is trying to pressure a new Morrison government to shift its position on issues such as Huawei. Since Australia banned Chinese company Huawei from supplying
From The ABC: The ABC election computer is predicting the Coalition has secured majority government with at least 77 seats, as the Liberals appear set to secure Bass, Chisholm, Boothby and Wentworth. Labor held Bass and Chisholm, while Wentworth was in the hands of independent Kerryn Phelps prior to the election. “As far as I’m
Leith and I are relieved. Despite MB having effectively written large swathes of Labor reform policy over the past decade, after the last few months neither of us could endorse the party. That was a warning to ourselves that we ignored in favour of polling, foolishly, given that art form is now completely in the dog house.
Via the ABC: Scott Morrison has earnt a permanent place as a Liberal Party legend — returning the Government in what was meant to be an unwinnable election for the Coalition. Mr Morrison smashed the doctrine that disunity will lead to electoral death. Despite three prime ministers in two terms of government, the Queensland swing
By Leith van Onselen Many of us were hoping in vain that a Shorten-led Labor Government would follow the will of the electorate and lower Australia’s immigration intake back to sensible historical levels: Sadly, the opposite is true. In February, Labor’s shadow immigration minister, Shayne Neumann, committed to a turbo charged migrant intake: Mr Neumann said
