From Ross Gittins today: …Young parents, carers and students will be the target of a major shake up of the welfare system. Specifically, single parents with four children can get welfare payments of more than $52,000 a year if they don’t work, but less than $50,000 after tax if they work and receive the median
A fresh press release from One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts: Roberts expresses dismay at Bishop’s total lack of diplomacy Senator Malcolm Roberts has today expressed his utter dismay at Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s endorsement of the most corrupt and unsuitable candidate to ever seek the office of United States President, Hillary Clinton. “Secretary Clinton represents everything wrong
It’s happening everywhere and fast, from The Australian: Experts were last night unable to predict who would win the vacancy if Bob Day’s election as a Family First senator on July 2 was ruled invalid. Mr Day’s running mate, Kenyan-born Lucy Gichuhi, could be a contender while former Liberal senator Sean Edwards and former Labor
By Leith van Onselen Labor and The Greens were on the attack yesterday over former trade minister, Andrew Robb’s, appointment to the Chinese Landbridge Group – the owner of the 99-year lease over the Port of Darwin – just two month’s after he left parliament. From The Guardian: Robb’s consultancy was reportedly announced by the
Occasionally an article pops up that defines an era. Today we get such from Gideon Rachman at the FT: From Moscow to Manila, Beijing to Budapest, Ankara to Delhi, the nationalist “strongman” leader is back in fashion. If the US elects Donald Trump next week, it would be following an international trend, not leading it.
By Leith van Onselen Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s weekend address to the media revealed plans to amend the Migration Act to stop asylum seekers who arrive by boat from ever being granted residency in Australia: “…a harmonious multicultural society depends on the Australian Government being in control of its borders. And it depends on us
By Leith van Onselen There is a long history of Australian politicians going into well-paid private sector jobs after politics – often in the very industries that they used to regulate. But rarely has it been so blatantly spruiked as under this Coalition Government. Back in May, Tony Abbott gave a speech to Parliament where
From Domainfax: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has backed down from his total opposition to renewed examination of Australia’s race hate laws, conceding possible changes are a legitimate area of discussion for the Coalition. Previously ruling out any change to controversial provisions in section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, Mr Turnbull said on Friday the
By Leith van Onselen The Australian’s David Crowe has penned a great piece today on how housing has become a simmering time bomb that could sink the Coalition Government: It is more than a decade since Howard and his colleagues vowed to increase the supply of housing, but only now are some of those homes
The AFR has nice piece today on the inner working of Prime Minister Turnbull’s government: Turnbull appears to have learnt from his predecessors’ mistakes. He has reversed a trend that began under Kevin Rudd in 2007 and was continued by Tony Abbott and his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, from 2013. He has given up
Not that we didn’t know: Leaked government talking points suggest Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull remain at “war”, despite the two “working in the same direction” on reforming the NSW Liberal Party. A list of daily media messages prepared for an unnamed Coalition MP and obtained by Sky News on Thursday tells the MP to say that there
So, Australia, you want to dance with the devil, from The Australian: China’s crackdown on James Packer’s Crown Resorts has widened, with 10 Chinese organisers of junkets licensed by the casino operator to bring high rollers to its Australian properties now believed to be in custody. A day after 18 Crown employees in China were
The Great Disappointment is being hunted on leadership now. Here’s the poll: Here’s the story: Mr Turnbull laughed off a question about how it felt to be less popular than Mr Abbott when he spoke to reporters in Brisbane on Tuesday. …”The reason why Graham has been returned as mayor and the reason his LNP
When I first started writing about the Australian property bubble in 2003 I knew it was big. But even I didn’t think it would reach its current absurd proportions. The bubble has now engulfed not just our economy but our politics, our media, our social structure and entire strategic outlook. Not one of these is defensible
From Barclays: Rage is all the rage these days. Global media have taken notice of “voter rage” directed at the centre-right/centre-left establishment. What appears less well understood is that this voter rebellion, “the Politics of Rage”, spans nearly all advanced economies, has been taking place for more than a decade, is unparalleled in modern history,
From The Australian today: Voter satisfaction with Malcolm Turnbull’s performance as Prime Minister has sunk below 30 per cent for the first time, as Labor chalked up its third successive Newspoll lead of 52 to 48 per cent. The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, reveals Mr Turnbull’s satisfaction rating of 29 per cent
From Peter Martin comes the truth about this real estate captured government: The government is sitting on hundreds of pages of evidence and scores of submissions about housing affordability it is unable to use because it let its inquiry into the subject lapse. News of the quashed inquiry emerged as Treasurer Scott Morrison delivered a
From Peter Hartcher today: The former secretary of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese, makes the point that any undercutting of US alliances in the region would damage all of them. “Anything that weakens the alliance network in the Asia-Pacific weakens Australia’s position. That alliance network is important for the stability of
Bernard Salt can’t help himself. Like a moth to the flame he mocked youth anger again on the weekend: American singer Eydie Gormé had a hit on her hands in 1963 with Blame it on the Bossa Nova. “I was at a dance when he caught my eye / Standin’ all alone lookin’ sad and
Terry McCrann often poses the right questions and his latest does so on China: THERE’S a multi-billion dollar big message for James Packer in the arrest of the Crown Resorts team on the ground in China. There’s an even bigger message — which over time, will run into the trillions — for Australia in what happened.
From Domainfax: Australia just found out the price of blocking foreign investment. The NSW state government announced on Thursday it had sold a 50.4 per cent stake in Ausgrid to two local superannuation funds in a deal valuing the entire company, including debt, at about $20.8 billion. Two months earlier, the federal government barred NSW from accepting an offer
From the ABC: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his “separation” from the United States on Thursday, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks. Duterte made his comments in Beijing, where he is visiting with at least 200 business people to pave the way
From Domainfax: Malcolm Turnbull has publicly contradicted his predecessor, Tony Abbott, declaring the former prime minister’s office had been aware of negotiations in 2015 to trade a Senate vote for a change in gun laws. The Prime Minister’s comments drew an audible gasp from members in the House of Representatives and, after a week in which
From The Australian: Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm has ramped up his claims the government betrayed him by reneging on an alleged deal over the Adler lever-action shotgun and has argued that lifting the import ban would not have watered down John Howard’s National Firearms Agreement. Senator Leyonhjelm has also released an email that he
At The Australian we find useless: A political storm over “guns for votes” has forced Malcolm Turnbull to rule out weakening import bans on lethal weapons after the release of emails showing the government raised the prospect of phasing out a ban on a controversial shotgun in return for a key vote in the Senate. The
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has called Australia’s politicians to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal for fears that it would destroy jobs, increase economic inequality and drive up health costs. From The Guardian: The Australian Council of Trade Unions appeared before the joint standing committee on treaties
From The Australian: At least 10 Queensland seats are at risk of falling to One Nation at the next state election, with LNP electorates most vulnerable. An analysis by The Australian of the performance of Pauline Hanson’s party at the July federal election — where it contested 12 lower house seats — identifies the hot
From the ABC: South Australian Family First senator Bob Day has confirmed he is leaving the Senate as his building company goes into liquidation. Senator Day has confirmed his departure is related to his troubled building company, Home Australia. Senator Day told the ABC that “it has been a privilege, but would be untenable to
Hoocoodanode at The Australian: Support for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has risen fourfold across the nation since the election and almost doubled to 10 per cent in Queensland, Newspoll shows. Newspoll surveys taken exclusively for The Australian since the July 2 election reveal support in the House of Representatives for One Nation has climbed
WA has anew political party for its election, via the AFR: Internal polling conducted by WA Chamber of Mines and Energy has affirmed the iron ore miners’ collective view that their public standing is nowhere near as parlous as the state’s political classes, among others, might imagine. …They were also asked to rank the mining’s
