7 reasons why ScoMo is likely to lose the next election
Hello August. Of 2021; that disappointing sequel to 2020. Or perhaps we’re actually in the 20th month of 2020 – Augustember. Whatever’s the case, there’s no longer any talk in …
Read MoreTag: Liberal Party
A Brief History of the Near Future
Australia will go to a federal election sometime over the next twelve months. If asked last year, my gut would have inclined to an early election, say around August ’21, particularly …
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Tinfoil and trouble
The more I look at Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd these days, the more I think that ancient Greeks were right, at least for some: the afterlife is indeed a …
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Don’t flatten Turnbull, we need to acquire the herd immunity
Don’t end him, don’t mend him, transcend him. It’s rare, but I agree with the NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean: Malcolm Turnbull should not be expelled from the …
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Election in the time of a pandemic
Today, the state of Queensland went to the polls to vote in local government elections and two state by-elections. It has been a rather unprecedented exercise of democracy at a …
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In Liu of answers
I don’t know Gladys Liu from a bar of soap, so I have no idea whether she’s got any compromising relationship with the Chinese communist authorities and their numerous overseas …
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The Libs have a problem with the trendy vote too
It has been said for the past decade or two that the parliamentary Labour Party is finding it increasingly difficult to hold together the two major poles of its base: …
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Not our government
It’s pretty much a hard political law that when the right loses an election they tend to blame themselves (“it was the infighting – the bloody moderates/conservatives [delete as appropriate] …
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The autumn of our minor discontent: or 24 thoughts about the election
(Cover pic idea shamelessly stolen from Iowahawk, who captions it “Australian election summary”) 1. I was wrong about this election. I’m somewhat comforted by knowing that so was everyone else. …
Read More Australia’s Hindenburg
The ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull is Australia’s Hindenburg. No, not the Zeppelin air ship whose fiery destruction provided one of the most iconic images of the intrawar years – though some …
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Always a Bishop, never the Pope
With Julie Bishop retiring from politics at the next election (another senior departure) there is no immediate retiring of recriminations and regrets: Ms Bishop now says her colleagues were asking …
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You win some, you lose some
The pre-election exodus continues, mostly from the Liberal side of politics, as senior and not so senior MPs decide that spending three, six or nine years on opposition benches just …
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Cossie is not the messiah
With Kelly O’Dwyer pulling the pin on her federal parliamentary career and vacating the previously ultra-safe but now probably not-so-much seat of Higgins, people are popping up in the media …
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Three reasons the Liberal Party is heading for the slaughter
Try as I might I can’t imagine any possible, even unlikely, scenario where the Coalition government in Canberra manages to get returned in the widely expected May 2019 general election. To …
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The Incumbent Preservation Society
The leaders on the way out (I was going to write “outgoing” but it would have been confusing because in one sense they are not) like to leave these sorts …
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Big Trouble in Little Wentworth
While the counting is close and will take another few days, it’s still more likely than not that the woke independent Dr Kerryn Phelps will narrowly win the seat vacated …
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Obama doesn’t heart Abbott
George W Bush was lucky – during his two terms in the White House he got to deal with one – and good one – Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. …
Read More Flog but don’t change a dead horse midstream
There is no use crying over spilled spill. What’s done is done and Australia has got its sixth Prime Minister in ten years. All done to the sounds of outrage …
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Chrenk the prognosticator – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Predictions are the bread and butter of punditry. Which is good for punditry because just like all the bread and butter we’ve ever eaten, we tend not to remember all …
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Canberra: Things will get worse before they get much worse
And so the Canberra circus rolls on. Perhaps it’s unfair to call it that, as with real circuses people actually willingly pay money to enjoy the spectacle of skill, agility, poise …
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