By Leith van Onselen One of the most disturbing trends from this Coalition Government is the blatant extent to which they are willing to jettison sound policy or offer political favours for campaign donations or other forms of remuneration. Throughout the post-election period, we have witnessed the so-called “ginger group” of conservative MPs rally against
Are you really going to let Pauline Hanson lead the national debate on immigration, Malcolm? From The Australian: It began two weeks ago with a jocular offer to share a halal snack pack, and ended on Monday night with feisty debate and harsh words. Labor senator Sam Dastyari and Queensland’s One Nation party leader Pauline
It’s the biggest gubmint since Malcolm Fraser with 23 Cabinet positions and another seven outer ministries, courtesy of The Australian: As well as the usual portfolios, there’s a: Minister for H2O Minister for Pork Minister for White Coats Minister for Bucolics Minister for Gina Minister for Shielas Minister for Painting Minister for Piss-ant Islands Minister for Terror
By Leith van Onselen I’ve read some weird analysis in my time. But few beat Labor state secretary Kosmos Samaras’ effort, whereby he has tried to argue that Melbourne’s housing bubble spells bad news for Labor because it performed badly in electorates where the median house price is above $700,000. From The Canberra Times: Labor voters
From card carrying loon-ponder Andrew Bolt: WHY have jihadist terrorists made France Europe’s bloodiest battlefield? Simple answer: Because France let in the most Muslims. This link between immigration policies and terrorism largely explains why the French are the greatest victims of Europe’s jihadists. It also explains why we are fools not to change our own
By Leith van Onselen Fairfax’s Ross Gittins has done a nice job today dissecting the dangerous shift within the Coalition whereby the conservative right has hijacked the policy agenda: Malcolm Turnbull’s biggest enemies are inside his own government, not outside. If he’s to make sufficient progress with controlling the budget and reforming the economy to
I hope you’re watching this, Nick Xenophon, from the AFR: Cast your mind back to last year and you’ll remember the self-styled mining magnate-of-the-people and Fortescue Metals chairman was railing against local competitors Rio Tinto and BHP for increasing iron ore production. It was a threat to the long-term future of the industry! Twiggy squealed. The
From the ABC: Australia’s youngest ever member of parliament says political parties need to get more young people elected. Wyatt Roy was 20 when he won the Queensland electorate of Longman for the Liberal National Party in 2010. He lost the seat at this month’s election. Mr Roy said it is important that Australia’s diversity
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
By Leith van Onselen The Coalition white-anting against the party’s announced superannuation reforms rolls-on today, with former minister Eric Abetz continuing to lead a backbench assault against the changes, blaming the policy for the Coalition’s poor electoral showing. From The ABC: “When you have had such a big kick up the pants, as we have
From the AFR: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed fears that a sudden slump in government revenue would trigger a cut in the AAA, saying the forecasts in the May budget remain solid. Speaking after Fitch Ratings on Tuesday warned the failure of the Coalition government to win a strong electoral mandate could worsen internal
By Leith van Onselen Fairfax’s Mark Kenny has reported today the Opposition leader Bill Shorten has appointed respected political strategist, Andrew Thomas, as his new chief of staff as he seeks to make high-tempo campaigning a permanent feature of this electoral term: Fairfax Media understands the appointment is part of a new high-energy approach to
By Leith van Onselen One of the few areas where there seems to be bipartisan support is the belief that Australia should move towards an electronic voting system, which would allow a faster dissemination of results. From The ABC: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten have endorsed electronic voting for future elections…
Cross-posted from Independent Australia: There are many with questions to answer after the election — but the mainstream media has the most pressing posers, writes managing editor Dave Donovan. EVEN IF the Coalition manage a narrow majority in this election, there are still many people with a lot of hard questions to answer. The ones with the
From the Ministry of Dirt (A.K.A. Office of the Chief Economist, Department of Industry) today in its Resources and Energy Quarterly: Forecast weakness in iron ore prices is expected to put downward pressure on Australia’s iron ore export earnings, despite robust growth in volumes. Australia’s export volumes are forecast to reach 852 million tonnes in
By Leith van Onselen Sometime the mavericks speak the most sense. Yesterday, independent MP Bob Katter threw his support behind the Coalition, but called for curbs to Australia’s immigration intake, stronger controls on foreign ownership, and a banking Royal Commission. From ABC Radio: LOUISE YAXLEY: Bob Katter isn’t the kingmaker yet, but he is talking
The ABC has given another seat to the Coalition, taking its count to 73 versus Labor’s 66: There are six seats still in doubt with Labor ahead in five and the Coalition in one: If they fall as predicted above, then the final count will be: Coalition: 74 Labor: 71 Others: 5 However, the seat
By Leith van Onselen The fallout within the Coalition over Saturday’s poor election result rolls-on, with a ‘rising star’ of the Liberal Party and member for the seat of Canning, Andrew Hastie, criticising policies such as the company tax cut and the ‘innovation agenda’ because they had little relevance to ordinary Australians. From The Australian:
From the ABC: Current count has Lib 74, Lab 72. The AFR ejaculates its headlines prematurely: Malcolm Turnbull is assured of forming government – possibly in his own right – after two more seats fell the Coalition’s way and it two others swung its way. With the Coalition now sitting on 72 seats, which is four short of
From the ABC: Libs now in front for 74 seats, Lab 71…
Hot off the press: Conservative senator Cory Bernardi is in talks to break away from the Liberal Party to become the figurehead for a conservative party which would hoover up all the right-wing votes Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is accused of bleeding in his disastrous election campaign. “Bernardi is actively seeking this job,” a Liberal
Malcolm Turnbull is Mediscared, from Phil Coorey at the AFR: The federal Coalition accepts it must compromise on its 10-year company tax cut plan and Malcolm Turnbull has raised expectations of a retreat on cuts to Medicare as he took full responsibility for Saturday’s election outcome and vowed to heed the message sent by voters. …Mr Turnbull said the election result had sent a clear message that “there
Where we’re at: Where we’re going: On track for Coalition 73, Labor 72. Indies 5.
By Leith van Onselen With Pauline Hanson’s election to the Australian Senate and her daft warnings of “terrorism on our streets” and suburbs “swamped by Asians”, I thought it would be useful to examine her party’s, One Nation’s, actual immigration policies. Below are the key extracts of this immigration policy, along with my commentary: One
By Leith van Onselen I wrote this morning how several Coalition MPs are pressuring Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison to wind-back their announced superannuation reforms, arguing that it cost the party dearly at weekend’s election. Well, Treasurer Morrison has hit back insisting there was “no correlation” between the wealthy electorates hardest hit by the Government’s
From the ABC comes the latest count: And undecided seats: If it plays out as it is now then that’ll be Libs 72, Lab 72. This is anybody’s election.
The sequel few want to see, The Hansoning 2, is well underway now with Domainfax pushing the polarisation of debate along nicely: “If Ms Hanson insists on working against a multicultural Australia, or adhere to the rejection of a race or a religion, yes, Australia’s development and ability to attract investment could be a problem,” developer B1 Group chairman and
By Leith van Onselen Stephen Koukoulas (aka “the Kouk”) has penned a good piece mounting the case that Labor shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, was the MVP of this election campaign. From The Guardian: The champions of the 2016 election are the shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, and his economic team. They treated the electorate with respect
From Gotti today: If Malcolm Turnbull remains as Prime Minister after the 2016 poll, he must start to use his knowledge of what works in the corporate world, the world he left to go into politics. Corporations that succeed make sure that underperforming executives are given other jobs or discarded and star performers are moved into vital
The epic Andrew Bolt weekend dummy spit is worth another look today: It is not just the entertainment value that makes this video valuable. It captures perfectly the attitude of the Liberal Party’s uber-conservative rump, a tail that now spectacularly wags the dog through the sheer extremity of its passions. Witness, did Malcolm Turnbull destroy
