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.

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