Posted
Unless the polls are widely astray, two new leaders will front up at the next COAG meeting: South Australian premier Steven Marshall and Tasmanian premier Will Hodgman.
There to meet them will be one premier who has fought two elections, two others who have fought one, and another who hasn't fought any.
The newcomers should not feel overwhelmed.
Posted
If we don't allow occasional acts of subversiveness, the alternative might end up being submissiveness. That's why Senator George Brandis is wrong to try to shut down debate over art sponsorship.
Posted
The Victorian Government can tell us it loves fast cars, corporate friends or bowing to lobbyists - just don't say the Grand Prix is good for the state economy.
Topics: motor-sports, sport, business-economics-and-finance, federal---state-issues
Posted
It has become a constant refrain in the mainstream media to blame social media for the failing and falling standards of political debate in Australia.
But while social media might have its failings, it is not the originator of what ails us, and to focus on it is to confuse cause with effect.
Here are six events - from The Dismissal to Children Overboard - that have done infinitely more harm to public debate and people's confidence in our democratic process than blogs or comment threads.
Topics: social-media, internet-culture, information-and-communication, government-and-politics
Posted
The BDS movement is a logical and non-violent response to human rights abuses in Palestine, so why is it being threatened in a country that prides itself on free speech?
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, activism-and-lobbying
Posted
| UpdatedThe ferocious debate over the Sydney Biennale, its chairman and asylum seekers is a tipping point for philanthropy as artists grasp the ethical challenge.
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, community-and-society, rights
Posted
SPC Ardmona's multimillion deal with Woolworths means everyone is breathing a sigh of relief and both levels of government feel their fiscal policy is vindicated.
But in the end the benign dictatorship of the supermarket duopoly continues at the expense of food manufacturers.
Until the Australian dollar comes down, and/or manufacturers get their act together on costs so they can export successfully, the two big supermarket chains will continue to dictate terms.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, federal-government, food-and-beverage, consumer-finance
Posted
If politics was the art of the possible, then it would be able to make short work of the most egregious examples of social disadvantage facing Australia.
But is treating Indigenous children on a path to blindness a vote winner? How many of the country's 105,237 homeless people can be counted on come polling day?
That's why politicians instead spend their time talking about the great dunes of macro-economic policy, when in truth those dunes are piled by winds far beyond local control.
Topics: federal-government
Posted
| UpdatedElections should involve applying scrutiny on your opponents, something that is made difficult when you are legally prevented from naming them in your campaign material.
Topics: clive-palmer, states-and-territories
Posted
| UpdatedBy reviewing tax expenditure separately from direct expenditure, the Federal Government can't know the full extent of spending and thus where cuts should be made.
Topics: tax, federal-government, hockey-joe
Posted
| UpdatedNobody but the most ardent socialist would have imagined, in 1944, that Western government spending would account for 35 to 50 per cent of national income.
Nor could anyone have envisaged the extensive web of regulations ensnaring individuals and businesses.
Seventy years after Friedrich Hayek released his seminal book on the dangers of collectivism, we should take his wise advice and sharply reverse our journey toward the final hellish destination on the road to serfdom.
Topics: forms-of-government, welfare, economic-trends
Posted
That the cost of living is out of control is held by the voting public as a law of nature, and when all treatment for hip pocket pain fail there's only one thing to do: complain.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, federal-government
Posted
The Coalition is ramping up the rhetoric on penalty rates, with a slew of MPs lining up to have their say.
And the Government’s submission to the Fair Work Commission’s review of modern awards reveals it is focussing on a drive for national wealth, rather than the social aspects of the award.
So expect many more comments about how times have changed and the Monday to Friday working week is a relic of the past.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, federal-government, work
Posted
Uganda's anti-homosexuality laws are not only incredibly regressive, they could have far-reaching health implications of grave concern to Australia and the world.
Topics: sexual-health, sexuality, community-and-society, gays-and-lesbians
Posted
Tassie voters are preparing to deliver Labor a poll bludgeoning of the type meted out in NSW and Queensland recently, so what does this mean for the nation?
Topics: government-and-politics, elections, state-parliament
Posted
Our media regulations are stuck in the 1930s when they were first imposed, so why keep ownership rules that were so manifestly designed for another age?
Thankfully, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is looking at finally eliminating some of the antiquated rules that limit how much traditional media one company can own.
Industry consolidation may be the only way to save some of our legacy media outlets.
Topics: media, print-media, social-media, information-and-communication, business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, turnbull-malcolm
Posted
| UpdatedWe've been riding high for so long the economy is beginning to get weak at the knees. Soon enough we will need to figure out how to live in a post-resources Australia.
Because as iron ore crashes today and enters its great shakeout, Australia's primary income stream is in jeopardy.
If we manage this well then it will be because we have added another layer to our housing bubble superstructure - despite the odds.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, globalisation---economy, mining-industry, government-and-politics, federal-government, budget
Posted
| UpdatedHowever unsettling, Russia's actions are not irrational. In many ways they are the foreseeable reaction to the West's decisions since the collapse of the Soviet Empire.
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, obama-barack
Posted
| UpdatedThe latest acrobatic feat of policy by our agile Prime Minster seems to involve a decisive, if not entirely graceful, lurch to the right.
Abbott is taking very hard line on Qantas and appears anxious to take the role of a free market warrior in the mould of Margaret Thatcher.
What has prompted this sudden drying out of a politician who has previously gloried in his pragmatism?
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, federal-government, abbott-tony
Posted
| UpdatedAbbott's campaign to make IR reform electorally palatable will closely follow the blueprint created by his mentor, John Howard, when he introduced the GST.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, government-and-politics, federal-government, abbott-tony
Posted
The productivity debate has reared its ugly head again, and business lobby groups and pollies are mounting an attack on workers' wages and conditions.
But I've got a surprise for you: Labour productivity has actually grown throughout the past decade and it is capital productivity that is dragging the chain.
The ideological obsession with reducing wages and conditions may improve profits in the short term but could end up having a disastrous impact on our productivity.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, government-and-politics
Posted
Joe Hockey and Eric Abetz must be delighted with the current structure of the industrial relations system and the degree of flexibility in labour market conditions.
If the labour market were rigid, inflexible or the industrial relations system were in need of a major overhaul, wages growth would not have slowed to a record low in the wake of the upward trend in the unemployment rate.
This suggests the hidden agenda of reform to the labour market slowly but surely being unfurled by the Coalition government is not really about macroeconomic management.
Topics: industrial-relations, federal-government, business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends
Posted
| UpdatedRegardless of the outcome of the Ukraine crisis, Putin has positioned himself as an influential foreign policy actor and the US will not be able to ignore him.
Topics: government-and-politics, world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war
Posted
| UpdatedI am tired of playing the role of the Approachable Feminist, and this International Women's Day I urge feminists to embrace their anger uncompromisingly and without dilution, writes Clementine Ford.
Topics: feminism, community-and-society, women
Posted
Australian politics took a battering during the hung parliament years, but if you thought it was going to be smooth sailing from here, you were wrong.
Bill Shorten can be just as obstructionist in opposition as Tony Abbott was, and he is also battling pre-selection issues in Victoria.
And when it comes to Qantas, the Coalition can't quite pin down whether it has a Plan A, Plan B or no plan for the airline and the Senate.
Topics: government-and-politics, abbott-tony, bill-shorten