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    Politics

    Canberra Observed

    This Month

    Treasurer Jim Chalmers: politicians spent a long time telling voters that they were hard done by, and government was there to help.

    This budget sees the return of government as saviour

    Two decades ago, Australia was poised to shed the hard-done-by battler mindset. Now it is more entrenched than ever.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Peter Dutton will at least send strong signals on housing, immigration and energy in his budget reply.

    Budget week is time for Dutton to roll a few Jaffas down the aisle

    In the same week Peter Dutton went in to bat for the koalas, Labor flew the flag for gas.

    • Phillip Coorey
    May 2, 2024

    Labor election plans start blowing smoke

    Labor is banking on at least one rate cut before calling an election. That scenario is no longer guaranteed.

    • Phillip Coorey

    April

    Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Nationals Leader David Littleproud

    Dutton’s atomic bet threatens Coalition chain reaction over climate

    Rather than keep the heat on Labor’s handling of the cost-of-living pain as inflation stays high, the opposition leader’s nuclear venture risks becoming the story.

    • Jacob Greber
    Three weeks ago, Cook, whose state is critical to Albanese’s re-election prospects, urged Albanese and Plibersek to delay the EPBC reform

    Delay to environment reforms shows what WA wants, WA gets

    The decision to delay reform of federal environmental laws underscores the stranglehold the resources states have on the next election.

    • Phillip Coorey
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    Labor chooses to sit in the middle denouncing both Islamophobia and anti-semitism and purporting to be concerned about social cohesion.

    Political point-scoring blinkers everyone’s approach to Gaza

    Anthony Albanese is right to say the impact Australia can have on the behaviour of either side of the conflict is “limited”. But that has long ceased being the point.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Governor-General David Hurley should have led the way on transparency over Scott Morrison’s secret ministries.

    At Yarralumla it’s not about the person. It’s about the institution

    For 99.9 per cent of the time the governor-general is irrelevant to the lives of most Australians. But when they do matter, they matter very much.

    • Jacob Greber

    March

    Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen announced mandatory pollution caps for cars.

    Green policy car crash complicates Labor’s election outlook

    A series of competing and interlinked priorities are colliding in Labor’s Senate, where all eyes are turning to the next election.

    • Jacob Greber
    Chris Bowen.

    Cleaner cars a politically charged driving test for Chris Bowen

    The climate change and energy minister should be cut some slack. He is in the minority attempting hard and unpopular reform, such as the new clean fuel policy.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is about to announce the six sites where a Coalition government would build nuclear reactors.

    Dutton’s nuclear push could take on political life of its own

    The zero-emissions power source adds up on some fronts, but there’s still a whiff of crazy about the whole push.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Chalmers assures people he’ll still be super disciplined but the need to bank every dollar will not be as absolute as it was in the first two budgets.

    Chalmers’ third budget will fight and stoke inflation and growth

    Timing for the next election will be about picking a sweet spot between things getting better and things getting worse.

    • Phillip Coorey

    February

    Early impressions are important with new prime ministers and the gamble on the Voice may prove to be similar to Scott Morrison’s trip to Hawaii..

    Voters tuned out by Voice harder to fix than first thought

    Should Labor suffer a large swing against it, or worse in Dunkley, it will be a serious setback. Equally, Peter Dutton needs a win in Victoria.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and BHP chief executive Mike Henry (second from left) at BHP’s Kwinana nickel refinery in October 2022.

    Nickel crashes green superpower picture of El Dorado

    Whatever the government comes up with to shore up the WA nickel industry, it will be a sobering day when Australia’s golden goose needs a subsidy to stay competitive.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Labor backbenchers Michelle Ananda-Rajah and Tania Lawrence.

    Rookies inject moral clarity into Joyce’s fall and antisemitism’s rise

    Tania Lawrence and Michelle Ananda-Rajah are newcomers to parliament, but they showed up the elders this week.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Tony Burke and Jim Chalmers have endeared themselves to the true believers.

    It’s been a good week for the Labor base, and those who delivered

    Jim Chalmers and Tony Burke have done their internal standing no harm this week by delivering for the true believers.

    • Phillip Coorey
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    David Rowe.

    The numbers are pointing in the right direction for Labor

    Tax cuts, falling inflation, higher wages and interest rates cuts are set to favour Labor leading into what could be an early election.

    • Phillip Coorey

    January

    Anthony Albanese needs to make the broken promise about salvation.

    Albanese’s version of integrity comes with a means test

    The prime minister gave copious reasons why Labor should honour the stage three tax cuts. Then he went and backflipped anyway.

    • Phillip Coorey

    December 2023

    Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers have been keen for Labor to shake the perception of being an inferior economic manager.

    We’ll be back in election mode on the other side of Christmas

    Three-year terms mean that the government, after just 20 months in power, will start pulling down the new policy shutters, with the opposition dialling everything up to 11.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Anthony Albanese needs to drop the “DJ Albo” schtick,

    The prime minister needs his mojo back

    Voters want their prime minister to be of them, not like them. At the moment, they feel he is neither.

    • Phillip Coorey

    November 2023

    The Prime Minister, who hasn’t held a proper press conference for yonks, began the day pictured behind his desk pretending to be working while wearing a Radio Birdman t-shirt to mark Aus Music t–shirt day.

    With friends like the Labor states, who needs enemies

    It’s not just the states that are sensing the government’s vulnerability. The opposition’s tone this week has been one of sheer irreverence.

    • Phillip Coorey

    The Australian Financial Review Magazine

    BOSS Financial Review

    Kmart and Target managing director Ian Bailey: “The journey we’ve been on for many years is really moving from being a retailer to being a product company.”

    Life & Leisure

    GME’s XRS-660: With an unobstructed line of sight, the range can be 10 kilometres or more.

    Rich List

    The Di Petta’s collection of Ford Mustang muscle cars, such as these examples pictured, were frozen by the court.