From the AFR, Abbottalypse gay rolls on: Sources have told The Australian Financial Review that “footsoldiers” for both Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison, who are on opposite sides of the same-sex marriage debate, have been taking informal soundings in recent days, targeting colleagues who voted for Mr Abbott in the February leadership spill. “They’re seeing if
By Leith van Onselen Former Prime Minister, John Howard, has penned an article in The AFR today calling for the Labor Opposition to back the Abbott Government’s economic reforms for the good of the nation: My two Labor predecessors as prime minister deserve praise for the economic reforms they achieved. So does the opposition of
From Domainfax: Malcolm Turnbull is cementing his lead over Tony Abbott as the most popular choice as Liberal leader and prime minister across all major voter groups, according to new polling which also shows the Coalition is facing a 36-seat electoral wipeout. Despite Mr Abbott telling party faithful on Saturday that the government had “had two great years in
Yes, it’s another idiotic captain’s call, from the SMH: As the accidents and bungles mount daily, the pre-eminent question in Australian public affairs seems to be moving rapidly from “whether” this farcical political period will end, to “when”. Justice, as he would know, must be done and be seen to be done. That now is
As the Chinese economy stalls, global currency wars accelerate, stocks crash, commodity prices collapse, banks reel, resources states descend into Hell, and a property bubble rages in the East we can at least feel reassured that economic management is the hands of the “adults”:
Gay marriage may well be Tony Abbott’s final captain’s call, from the AFR: The push for change was defeated by 66 votes to 33 following a six-hour, marathon debate of Liberals and Nationals and effectively ends any chance of gay marriage being legislated during this term of Parliament. But it was much closer between Liberals. Of
From Laura Tingle, there appears to be a head of steam again building in Canberra: A special joint party meeting of Liberal and National MPs and senators has been called for 3.15 this afternoon, after an acrimonious meeting of the Liberal Party this morning. After a push by same sex marriage advocates for the debate to
Not very far according to Domainfax: …The latest figures provided by REIWA state that Perth’s median house price had dipped to $530,000 in June 2015 – plunging by $20,000 in six months. Property investor and founder of Property Club Kevin Young said harsh policies pursued by banks will put further strain on Perth’s property market.
From Roy Morgan: In early August L-NP support has slumped 43% (down 3%) cf. ALP 57% (up 3%) after controversial Speaker Bronwyn Bishop resigned following a series of extravagant travel expense claims. Liberal backbencher Tony Smith (Victoria) has today been elected as the new Speaker to replace Bishop. If a Federal Election were held now
From Peter Hartcher, the media outlet of choice for so much Capital Hill destabilisation: “In February he asked for time,” as he pleaded for his job in the party room, says one Liberal MP. “He asked many of us for six months.” It’s been six months, a deadline that expired this week. “The reality is that nothing’s
From Phil Coorey, choppergate has undermined the PM: With Parliament to resume next week, Coalition MPs say while emotions are not near the level they reached in February, morale was once again “pretty poor”. “People are getting nervous, the muttering has started again,” said one powerbroker. After that self-described “near-death experience”, it was reported that Ms Abbott
Cross-posted from The Conversation: The parliamentary entitlements review called by Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Sunday is to start: … with a blank sheet of paper to provide options on a system that is truly independent. The whole system is up for review. This is welcome. What needs to be done? The first key change
From the RPData weekly property market update: CoreLogic RP Data systems monitor more than 100,000 mortgage activity events every month across our 4 main finance industry platforms. Monitoring the activity events across this platform provides a unique and timely lead indicator to housing finance commitments. The index shows an 81% correlation with the ABS housing
From the AFR: Tony Abbott has secured Bronwyn Bishop’s resignation as Speaker but has defied public anger over her spendthrift ways by clearing her of any wrongdoing and blaming the parliamentary entitlements system. The Prime Minister accepted Mrs Bishop’s resignation and announced a “root and branch review” of entitlements in a decision he hoped would end three weeks of chaos
Fresh from Roy Morgan: In late July L-NP support is down 3% to 46% cf. ALP 54% (up 3%) after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten sided with the Government on their ‘turning back the boats policy’ and committed Labor policy to ensure 50% of Australia’s energy needs are met with renewable energy by 2030. If a
From The Australian: The Prime Minister, in his first public comments following the weekend conference, today predicted the enhanced renewable energy target would cost consumers “perhaps $60 billion or more” even without the impost of Labor’s floating carbon price. Mr Abbott conceded renewables played “an important part” in Australia’s energy mix but the government’s target
By Leith van Onselen My cousin, Peter van Onselen, wrote a cracking article in The Australian over the weekend calling for reform of politician entitlements, which costs taxpayers a whopping $500 million a year and are often misused: Make no mistake, we should dwell on what Bishop did when she took a helicopter at taxpayers’
From Fairfax: A prominent British Tory MP has launched a stinging attack on Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s climate change policies, calling them “incomprehensible”, “illogical” and a distortion of “what it means to be a Conservative”. Richard Benyon, a former environment minister under British leader David Cameron, says Mr Abbott’s decision to become the first world
From The Australian: Bill Shorten’s support has hit a record low 27 per cent as voters mark the Labor leader’s performance as worse than Tony Abbott’s, despite backing for the ALP rising to a four-month high. The latest Newspoll, conducted exclusively for The Australian, also shows Mr Abbott is back in front as preferred prime
Cross-posted from The Conversation: Flanked by two press secretaries, Tony Abbott strode down the parliamentary press gallery corridor on Wednesday towards the welcome bank of cameras. That morning a Labor options paper on carbon pricing had appeared in News Corp tabloids, under derogatory headlines. Here was the robo-politician, primed for attack by slogan. “We’ve always
Don’t look now but the ALP’s Kingslayer is in the brown: In early July during the Trade Union Royal Commission Federal L-NP support is up 2.5% to 49% cf. ALP 51% (down 2.5%) after Opposition Leader Bill Shorten fronted the Commission over the past week. Shorten has faced hundreds of questions in the past week
From Fairfax: Tony Abbott has dramatically escalated his war on wind power, creating a new cabinet split and provoking a warning he is putting international investment at risk. Fairfax Media can reveal the government has ordered the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation not to make any new investments in wind power projects. …The decision
Presented without comment, your Prime Ministerial response to historic global threats, from his own website: PRIME MINISTER: Ok, do we have any questions? QUESTION: Prime Minister, how concerned are you about the problems in China and Greece, those economic problems spreading to Australia and especially the plunge in the Chinese stock prices? PRIME MINISTER: Michael,
No change, really, in today’s polls. Newspoll has the Government trailing labour 48-52: Based on preference flows from the last election, Labor has improved its two-party-preferred lead from 51 per cent to the Coalition’s 49 per cent in the middle of last month to 52 per cent to the Coalition’s 48 per cent at the
Really, someone needs to commence a campaign that aims to rescue the term “liberal” from the Liberal Party. It’s not liberal economically, democratically nor socially. At least, its leadership isn’t and it appears to be setting the agenda so neither is the Party. Witness, right now Australia confronts three big issues. The first is the economy
On John McGrath from the AFR: McGrath Estate Agents is bulking up and plans to penetrate the Melbourne market ahead of a potential $200 million initial public offering. Street Talk understands the group, run by high-profile real estate agent John McGrath, is looking at acquiring a business with earnings of $5 to $10 million before the
Lipstick applied to the pig today at The Australian: Support for the federal government has risen to an 18-month high in Tony Abbott’s home state of NSW but the Coalition continues to struggle in Victoria and South Australia. An analysis of Newspolls conducted for The Australian over the past three months shows Labor’s support in NSW
From The Australian: Tony Abbott says “heads should roll” at the ABC after the broadcaster “betrayed” Australia by repeatedly broadcasting extremist Zaky Mallah’s claims that Muslims are “justified” in joining Islamic State. The Abbott government has today launched its own investigation into Mallah’s appearance on Q&A last Monday, arguing internal ABC inquiries have often resulted
From Sydney Morning Domain: Doomsday property scenario authors Lindsay David and Phillip Soos warn of serious danger ahead for all Australian capitals in their submission to a home ownership inquiry, which starts on Friday. They say the “housing prices across all capital cities remain grossly inflated relative to rents, income, inflation and GDP”. …But St George Bank senior
By Leith van Onselen It seems selling-out your children on housing and denying same sex couples marriage rights are not the recipes for electoral success, with two polls released revealing the Abbott Government has suffered a big drop in support. A Fairfax-Ipsos poll, released yesterday, revealed that Labor’s share of the two-party-preferred vote after preferences
