This is interesting from Crikey’s William Bowe: Even by the remarkable standards she has set for herself over the past two decades, the coming week looms as a significant time in the political life of Pauline Hanson. Since last year’s federal election, One Nation has built a momentum that seemed impervious to its familiar difficulties
From Andrew Bolt today: THE Liberals have learned nothing if they think they’ll be saved by a Malcolm Turnbull in skirts. Yet anonymous MPs now tell journalists that if Turnbull must go, Julie Bishop must take over. Yeah, right. Replacing Mr Harbourside Mansion with Ms Polo Carnival will surely make the one million battlers who’ve
With the news yesterday that the Do-nothing Malcolm government has taken Tony Abbott’s bait and recommitted to high immigration, we can officially mail out invitations to forthcoming marriage of Pauline Hanson and Peter Dutton. The future Mr and Mrs Trump lack charisma, couldn’t sell water to a dying man in the desert and their agenda
There were lots of reasons that Tony Abbott lost the support of the polity but the one that is probably most easily forgotten yet perhaps most salient was his political tin-ear. He had a terrible habit of making disastrous captain’s calls and doggedly holding to unpoular policies in the face of the obvious. Today we
From Jabba Christensen via The Australian: He noted that the National Party Constitution stated that one of the party’s objectives is the “maintenance of democracy and liberty.” “I have heard it stated that ‘this issue doesn’t create one job.’ Neither does the Omnibus Savings and Child Care Reform bill. But we’re still doing that,” Mr Christensen
Australia now has an economy designed point blank to kill governments. Here’s the chart that matters: Note two things: GDP is sliding inexorably but it’s still respectable over the stretch, but GDP per capita is relentlessly collapsing. This opens a major political economy chasm into which the past four governments have toppled never to return
Movement and quite rightly. The Do-nothing Government has woken to the nightmare of a Labor/union campaign against falling kids wages, via News: FOREIGN workers will be banned from taking jobs at McDonald’s, Hungry Jack’s and KFC in an unprecedented crackdown by the federal government. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has declared Aussie teenagers who want to
An excellent piece here from James Walter who is a professor of political science at Monash University via The Conversation. The Liberal Party is riven by internal bickering, with various camps claiming to speak for its “true” values and traditions. The contest is leading not to any prospect of unity or discipline, but to the party’s fragmentation.
Ah yes, the policy-making billionaire, via News: Speaking to news.com.au after reporting the company’s best ever half-year profit, Mr Harvey said Amazon was “not a good corporate citizen” and if Australia had a choice, it should stop the retailer coming in, “like Donald Trump not letting the Muslims in”. “They’re parasites, they just want to
Some good polling here for a dying Coalition if it can be bothered trying to live: Q. Do you approve or disapprove of property investors receiving tax deductions if the cost of buying and maintaining their investment properties is more than the revenue they receive from them (called negative gearing)? Total Vote Labor
From Jabba Christensen today: I have resigned as chief whip of the Nationals, effective 5pm this Thursday, March 2. I made the decision to resign because my continued outspokenness on a variety of issues was obviously incompatible with the position of party whip in the long term. It was my decision to resign and my
By Leith van Onselen Annabel Crabb penned a spirited article over the weekend asking why Millennials aren’t plotting a revolution against the unfair treatment they are receiving from the political class and older generations: Fair dinkum – at what point is the youth of Australia going to rise up in a bloody revolution and put
From The Bolt Report: The drumbeat rolls on at Domainfax: The event, at a bottle recycling plant in Canberra’s industrial precinct of Hume, would illustrate the government’s defining theme through to the next election: the “risks” of soaring electricity prices and plummeting reliability inherent in Labor’s renewables mix. Flanking Turnbull was his Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, and the ACT’s only federal Liberal,
Big George is in serious trouble but he has a solution, via The Australian: Queensland Nationals MP George Christensen has called for the swift construction of a high intensity low emissions coal fired power station in North Queensland and at least three new dams in his home state. He also said the government needed to
On Saturday I was reading the various pundits and their pretty useless takes on what Tony Abbott is up to, most of whom think he has ruined his chances of becoming PM again, when I found a much better take from The Guardian’s Katherine Murphy: Abbott wasn’t actually talking to the colleagues, which is probably wise,
Hoooodanode? From Newspoll: The Coalition has taken a battering from voters amid deepening tensions between Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott, with the government trailing Labor by 45 to 55 per cent in two-party terms as the Prime Minister suffers another blow to his personal standing. The latest Newspoll, taken exclusively for The Australian, reveals a
From Bernard Keane, doyen of the Fake Left today: Naturally all this will be seen through the prism of Turnbull versus Abbott. But Abbott is no longer the heir apparent — or challenger apparent — for many in the right. The mantle has fallen on the gormless shoulders of Peter Dutton, now viewed by many
From Domainfax: “I’m not going to be provoked,” Mr Turnbull told Melbourne radio station 3AW. “The fact is my government has a record of achievement. In the last six months or so since the election, we have achieved more with fewer seats in the Senate, in the House, than in the previous three years.” The
Almost exactly to the script forecast by MB, via The Australian: Tony Abbott says the Coalition risks a “drift to defeat” if it fails to lift its performance as he brazenly advocated ending subsidies for renewable energy, reducing immigration and abolishing the Human Rights Commission. In a bold speech launching a new book of essays,
From Peter van Onselen: Nationals MPs the nation over should worry that Liberals are testing the possibility of replacing their long-time Coalition partner with One Nation. What better place to trial the new relationship than in Western Australia: a government unlikely to win and a Nationals Party that unlike those of other states refuses to
From Rory Medcalfe and Angus Houston both of whom are worth listening to: Many Australians are troubled by Donald Trump and by the unpredictability of his presidency. But we need to remember that Australia’s alliance with the United States is more important and enduring than any one administration. …Going solo is not an option for
There is an issue bubbling away that the Labor Party is seriously missing in action on and it is both abdicating its responsibilities and dropping a huge political opportunity in the process. It is this, from Australia’s last journalist standing, Adele Ferguson: Minutes into Don Meij’s investor presentation the Domino’s share price tanked 8 per cent.
Beudy mate, the right to be a bigot: A One Nation candidate receiving Liberal preferences in the West Australian election once advocated killing Indonesian journalists, and attacked “poofters”, Muslims and black people on his now-deactivated Twitter account. Richard Eldridge, a real estate agent contesting an upper house seat in the South Metropolitan region of Perth, called Muslims “little
It’s government by chaos, via the AFR: Despite work being underway on policy options ahead of the May budget, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann moved to kill off any change. …But his view is not shared by all his colleagues. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was more circumspect, saying only that the government has no plans to
By Leith van Onselen An interesting skirmish has erupted between Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, Liberal MP Michael Sukkar, and his Labor counterpart, Andrew Leigh, over the impact of Australia’s dividend imputation system on company tax cuts. The fight began when Sukkar accused Leigh of misunderstanding the dividend imputation via the below media release: Confused
Peter Martin has a nice piece today: What were they thinking? On Monday three members of cabinet called a press conference to pressure the Senate to cut the dole. That’s right, to cut the dole. At just $13,750 per year plus an $8.80 per fortnight energy allowance, it’s already so low the Business Council believes
In the law, the dirty cop is always punished more severely than the open criminal. That’s because his crime is twofold, both violating the law and his obligation to uphold it. From Ross Gittins today: The Coalition’s leading, longest-standing and most articulate supporter of action on climate change has changed sides. Malcolm Turnbull, the man who
From The Australian: Liberal Party internal polling is showing a statewide swing against the Barnett government of about 14 per cent, a result that would hand the Labor Party more than 20 extra seats and make Mark McGowan premier in a landslide election victory next month. The polling explains the West Australian Liberals’ desperation to
Paul Kelly (and the Coalition) go the big capitulation today on One Nation: Things have changed since 20 years ago. Hanson is now a tough, cunning, focused politician, no longer the hopeless amateur. Anyone doubting this should watch her Monday night interview with Andrew Bolt on Sky, where a confident Hanson made clear her plans
Via The Guardian: Cory Bernardi’s new Australian Conservatives party could win support from 18% of Coalition voters according to the latest Guardian Essential Report, which also shows the two major party leaders in the doldrums with voters. The new poll for Guardian Australia suggests voters are profoundly fatigued with the zero-sum political antics in Canberra,
