![David Pope](/web/20160707031855im_/http://www.canberratimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/0/2/x/x/image.related.wideLandscape.620x349.1t3j0.11hjjg.png/1467793238096.jpg)
David Pope
Cartoons from The Canberra Times editorial artist.
Cartoons from The Canberra Times editorial artist.
Today, a simple question: Should the state require you to have a licence for something you don't do? Of course not. Maybe.
If we were starting our political parties today, from scratch, we simply wouldn't have Labor and the Coalition.
There's no evidence that South Australia or any other state will "benefit enormously from the free trade agreements the Coalition has signed", in large part because the Coalition has ensured there isn't.
The Coalition may now accept the legitimacy of universal healthcare, but it vigorously opposed Medicare's introduction.
Queensland's message to Malcolm Turnbull last Saturday was simple: TURN off the BULL.
The right of association is one of the most basic concepts of freedom and the rule of law.
Property developers, would you believe, are angry at the Baird government. How could this be?
The current uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the July 2 election has sparked speculation of a possible re-run later this year to resolve what appears to be a looming deadlock. This would take Australia into uncharted territory.
Both sides have lessons they can glean from the federal campaign.
Victorians now have as one of their 12 representatives in the Senate a man who has over the past 30 years been to jail twice and fined $100,000 for breaching court orders.
If anyone could introduce the word doormat into a poem, Wordsworth could.
And Cory Bernardi is closer to victory over the Liberals! Your post-election news of the day, expressed as a snarky rant.
Talk of a potential constitutional and/or political crisis following this federal election result is at best premature.
Younger people should be allowed to cast more votes during elections, because they have much more at stake than someone who is already retired.
Many voters seem to be flocking to tough, no-nonsense women who at least seem sensible.
I'll never forget Rod Tiley's reaction when I tried to take a day off last year from my Sunday radio spot on account of it being my birthday.
When Uber isn’t wrapping itself in cloaks of communal good, it is busy trying to institute a monopoly on ride-hailing.
There is also no point inviting Pauline Hanson to Hurstville to experience the real Australia. Racism isn't cured with good meal.
It is a great paradox of Hanson's politics that she cannot see that the people she claims to represent and the people she maligns in order to give them voice, may have much in common.
The wheels didn't fall off. They were stolen.
The politics of Hansonism haven't changed during the past two decades. By contrast, Australian society has moved on.
All the pictures of Malcolm Turnbull looking glum since Saturday night tell us a story we already instinctively knew: he fears he has miscalculated again.
Plenty of Australians are mad as hell. You know who you are. But Coalition strategists don't.
And the senate - oh dear god, the senate… Your news of the election aftermath, reduced to a snarky rant.
For the politics of discontent not to take wider root, the established parties must begin explaining why resolving social and economic problems is never clear-cut or easy.
I. Davies and A. Forsythe (Letters, July 2) ask what was the consultation on building a stadium on the Civic Pool site.
It is a basic principle of economics that human beings choose things that benefit them. But last week, as the results of Britain's referendum on membership in the European Union came in, it quickly became clear that this principle was being overturned.
The success of Labor's Mediscare in this election is worrying - but not for the reason you may imagine.
Donald Trump appeals directly to the worst in us, and the worst of us.
Experts have urged doctors to talk about the elephants in the room, especially at the end of life. But two recent studies show how achingly slow progress has been.
Responsibility for ACT election comment is taken by The Canberra Times editor Grant Newton, of 9 Pirie Street, Fyshwick.
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