Awkward
Monday, 29 February 2016 State of the parties 5 comments
Whether it was an insecure Labor party, and now even more insecure cultural warriors, Abbott, mediocre politician he is, just can’t help being made relevant.
Unity – an update
Monday, 14 October 2013 Political figures, State of the parties 15 comments
Into a vacuum could step somebody that has never made a point of standing for anything (or behind anyone) in particular. From that angle, Labor might have just found its best candidate.
The New Regionalism
Thursday, 25 July 2013 International relations, Tactics, The Australian state 38 comments
“We will decide” was a phoney bit of Australian unilateralism made possible at a time of that phoney bit of US unilateralism, the War on Terror.
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.
Howard’s Golden Age
Monday, 20 August 2012 State of the parties 16 comments
The over-turning of the orthodoxies of the Howard period during 2008-2009 has been forgotten as much as the reason for the popularity for the man who brought them about.
Asylum seekers: a panic of the political class – an update
Friday, 29 June 2012 The Australian state 17 comments
The Oakeshott Bill removed even further protections for asylum seekers in what is already one of the most anti-immigrant pieces of legislation in the developed world.
9/11 – the event that never happened
Monday, 12 September 2011 State of the parties 8 comments
9/11 and the War on Terror didn’t mark the start of Labor’s problems, it marked the temporary suspension, for about five or six years, of the Coalition’s.
Review: George Megalogenis’s Trivial Pursuit
Thursday, 10 February 2011 Media analysis, State of the parties 11 comments
Megalogenis may lament the passing of reform, and the privileged role the media had in it, even if he cannot quite put his finger on what it was.
Leadership watch: Howard and Keating on Lateline
Saturday, 4 December 2010 State of the parties 1 comment
So who won the ideological war exactly?
The reform pantomime
Thursday, 4 November 2010 State of the parties 21 comments
There was a time when reform didn’t used to be such a fashionable word.