Lifting the veil of a hung Parliament

Thursday, 24 November 2011   Tactics   10 comments 

Rather than holding the government back, the hung Parliament has forced it to adopt the reforming agenda of the independents that at the last election, it made clear it didn’t intend to have.

What a political crisis looks like – 2011 edition

Tuesday, 30 August 2011   Key posts, State of the parties   9 comments 

This Parliament has an in-built disconnect with the electorate that is no more likely to be resolved at the next election as it was at the last.

The Year of the Walking Dead

Thursday, 23 December 2010   Key posts, State of the parties   6 comments 

What caught this blogger out was that the Labor factions still had some life in them. But now that they are back in charge, it is reassuring to see that they do not after all.

Labor signs away its left

Saturday, 30 October 2010   Media analysis, State of the parties   19 comments 

Something unusual is happening. Labor is not getting the boost that usually comes to parties after being endorsed in an election.

Tea Party terror!

Tuesday, 19 October 2010   State of the parties   8 comments 

A bit of hamming it up in front of the media’s cameras at a local town meeting and we’re away, unintentionally helped by some in the blogosphere who seemed to think the burning of the MDB Authority’s report was akin to lighting up Heinrich Heine in the Bebelplatz.

Independents feed off the weak – an update

Tuesday, 5 October 2010   Tactics   15 comments 

If it was really about stability they could have forced another election where the odds would have been that the finely split balance of the current Parliament would not have been repeated.

Softball

Tuesday, 28 September 2010   State of the parties   13 comments 

There is an intriguing little experiment underway at the moment in Australian politics, far more interesting than the quagmire currently dressed up as a new paradigm.

Denial – cross party edition

Friday, 10 September 2010   State of the parties   19 comments 

For the independents, the ‘new paradigm’ is not based on whether the major parties come together. The ‘new paradigm’ is that it is irrelevant whether they do or not.

Independents feed off the weak

Wednesday, 8 September 2010   State of the parties   14 comments 

They have the major parties just where they want them, and they ain’t letting them go.

Accountable to whom?

Monday, 6 September 2010   State of the parties   9 comments 

This is not about the electorate, but keeping the independents as long as possible in their current position of taking advantage of the weakness of our decaying two party system.

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