The year Australian politics imploded

Sunday, 29 December 2013   State of the parties   30 comments 

2013 could be summed up as the year when neither Labor under Rudd, nor the Coalition under Abbott proved capable of filling the gap left by the exhaustion of Labor’s historical project under Gillard.

Unity

Tuesday, 17 September 2013   State of the parties   6 comments 

The will for unity merely reflects the reality of Labor today after the historic left-right battles and the more recent battles between the reformers and the power brokers have run their course.

An incomplete revolution

Thursday, 27 June 2013   State of the parties, Tactics   42 comments 

When Labor is in a position to stop slapping asylum seekers about, we will know that a new political arrangement is falling into place.

Seamless

Monday, 17 June 2013   State of the parties   48 comments 

If the unions switch to Rudd, it will be for the same reason they dumped him in the first place.

Whatever happened to the Asylum Seeker debate?

Monday, 10 June 2013   Key posts, State of the parties   18 comments 

The problem that both parties now face is that having raised the asylum seeker “problem” for internal party reasons, the external conditions for solving it are no more favourable than they were in 2007-2008.

Review: Mark Latham’s Not Dead Yet

Monday, 29 April 2013   Key posts, State of the parties   26 comments 

Latham is articulating a search for a new relationship of politics to society, based not on its representation, but on intervention on a degraded basis. You have been warned.

Preparing for war

Sunday, 24 March 2013   State of the parties, Tactics   42 comments 

You think it’s about Rudd v Gillard? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

No solution without revolution – an update

Friday, 22 March 2013   Tactics   24 comments 

Crean was trying to find a compromise between a party power structure that has lost its relevance and a challenger whose popularity rests on not being part of it. It failed because things have gone past the point where a compromise is possible.

The phoney problem of ideology

Monday, 25 February 2013   Key posts, State of the parties   19 comments 

It is the loss of that social base that Labor is struggling to adapt to, not some problem of ideology.

No solution without revolution

Monday, 18 February 2013   Political figures, State of the parties   42 comments 

It will be the breakdown of the factional system that will be the necessary precondition for the return of Rudd, but not sufficient.

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