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Tony Abbott’s idiot populism can undo his apparently election-winning political ascendency. It is obvious from the opinion polls that the Julia Gillard Labor Government is ‘on the nose’ and faces the real likelihood of electoral defeat at the next election. But a surprising feature of the switch away from Labor is the continuing unpopularity of [...] Its fashionable to dismiss Julia Gillard’s Government as a failure – the opinion polls provide some (largely uninformed) backing for this view but I am more sympathetic than most to her. Gillard is an intelligent woman and that is a positive in the face of widespread misogyny in at least the Australian male electorate. She [...] Because of the appalling climate change policies of the Coalition I will probably vote Labor in the next Federal election. Unfortunately I might be backing a losing team but I won’t vote for the Liberals while people of Tony Abbott’s ilk are leading the party. It’s a difficult choice for me because I have long [...] I’ve known Bob since around 1966 or 1967. A great character of the left and a shrewd entrepreneur. Bob held strong Marxist views and sometimes said and did strange things. I remember him up in a tree outside the Soviet Embassy around 1968 when we were protesting the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. His bookstore itself was [...] The mining industry lies about the real neutrality of mining tax reforms, cigarette advertisers lie about the ineffectiveness of plain packaging of cigarettes (if this is ineffective why should the industry worry?) and the gambling industry are screaming like stuck pigs as they accumulate profits from the gambling of those whose lives are destroyed by it – 40% [...] The Coalition would enjoy a landslide electoral victory according to today’s polls in a shift against Labor that seems partly motivated by a fear campaign over the proposed carbon tax. The two-party preferred runs 56% to 44% in favour of the Coalition. Interestingly much of the negative views on Labor seem to stem from dissatisfaction with [...] The strange thing about our NSW neighbours is that they have put up with incompetent state government for such a long time – for a long-time the Liberals have obviously been a very unattractive alternative. However now Barry O’Farrell will be the new NSW Premier in the most dramatic and overwhelming rejection of Labor in history. It is [...] Quote from Julia Dullard “Labor has a long and proud track record of reforming the institutions and practices of political life I want to renovate that Labor tradition to bring lasting and durable improvements to our democracy”. With the exception of the Hawke-Keating years – a significant period – Labor has no ‘long and proud [...] The Australian’s Kate Legge rang me during the week and asked why I am now voting Green. My response is in this article of Kate – basically my revisionism stems from my concern with climate change and more general environmental issues. There are a few Liberal supporters in this article who had similar ideas to mine. This [...] My guess is that Tony Abbott’s Coalition will not win enough seats to form a government on its own bat but that it will fall just short of a majority of seats. With the support of the independents Abbott will be able to form a government in a hung parliament situation. Its a pretty good outcome in [...] It is now 5 days until the Federal elections and most people I talk to can’t wait for the campaign to be over. The obsession in the media with personal and electoral trivia and the blatant dishonesty and misrepresentation by each side in their public pronouncements and the use of ’sound bite’-style advertising leaves me feeling really [...] You were linked to it here first. These clowns have got to be joking. Haven’t they? Who will be the First Assistant Secretary for monitoring your local footy club? Will this be part of the ‘education revolution’? Is this devisive policy the real reason Dullard dumped Krudd? Tony Abbott is likely to be the next Prime Minister of Australia. I think that Julia Gillard has not provided a successful substitute for the unfortunate Kevin Rudd. It’s an interesting and conflicted situation for me since I am a long-term Liberal Party supporter who sees a very poor Labor Government facing the prospects of defeat [...] Green groups often have naive political philosophies that they couple with sound environmental policy strengths. The Greens are generally preferencing dumb-dumb Labor in the forthcoming House of Representatives election in exchange for Labor preferences in the Senate. Its a good deal for the Greens since the Senate preferences matter to them and most Green preferences [...] I have said that Julia needs to be given some time to get on top of the job of PM but her accomplishments in the few weeks since she took on the office really bring into question whether experience is the issue. Is Dullard just a nonentity who cloaks her lack of leadership skills behind [...] It is difficult to get excited about the coming national elections in Australia. John Quiggin is advocating a vote for the Greens and so do I. I think urgent action is required around the world to address the climate change problem and Australia should share the costs of doing this. Neither of the major political [...] I doubted that Julia Gillard had resolved the boatpeople issue but she jumped so prematurely on this one that she doesn’t look good – she has now admitted that she did nominate East Timor as a relocation site prior to getting agreement from their government. It is a question of judgement and on this one she [...] As I unambigiously forecast 10 days ago Kevin Rudd is finished as PM and Julia Gillard has replaced him. It was inevitable as the near certainly of an electoral defeat Federally loomed large for Labor. The change wasn’t due to the media campaigning against Rudd and, on this occasion anyway, it wasn’t primarily a foolish right-wing [...] Kristina Keneally forecast a loss of 30% in Labor’s Penrith by-election – in fact on the latest figures the final loss will only be 27.5%. The avalanche of support for the Liberals is likely to be a one-off. In any event, the issues of corruption and incompetence in NSW public administration have nothing to do [...] The inept Kevin Rudd has no future as Prime Minister of Australia – he will be displaced and fairly soon. He is an arch hypocrite and wind-bag who has been revealled as such on countless occasions and who is now trying to demonstrate that he has backbone by backing a ludicrous tax on the resources [...] |
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