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    Politics

    Canberra Observed

    This Month

    Middle Australia has every opportunity to rise up the income ranks, according to new Productivity Commission analysis.

    Middle Australia is indeed the lucky country

    A suite of new data sources has enabled the Productivity Commission to revise its measure of economic mobility. The result surprised everyone.

    • Tom Burton
    Fatima Payman will set on the Senate crossbench.

    Muslims and farmers, everyone wants a piece of Labor

    An unanticipated backlash in WA is the last thing the government needs, given the prospect of the creation of a pro-Muslim political movement targeting heartland ALP seats.

    • Phillip Coorey

    June

    Fatima Payman indicated her allegiance to her “Muslim brothers and sisters” was the greater imperative.

    Payman has crossed Labor’s tribal caucus comrades

    Unlike the West Australian senator who gifted the Greens a propaganda victory, Penny Wong stayed in the tent and effected change from within on same-sex marriages.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Peter Dutton is proposing seven nuclear plants in Coalition electorates.

    Dutton is prepared to take risks, but he is no onion eater

    The signature difference between what the Coalition unleashed on Wednesday and the debilitating climate fights of the past is that both parties are operating from the assumption that emissions need to be reduced.

    • Phillip Coorey
    On just 15 occasions has the preamble to the teals’ questions in the House made any reference to either the MP’s seat or their constituents.

    Teals are ‘paying the piper’ while Dutton plays Russian roulette

    Peter Dutton reckons the cost of living doesn’t discriminate between the teal seats and the rest.

    • Phillip Coorey
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    Adam Bandt’s assertion is the Albanese government is “complicit in genocide”.

    Greens metamorphosis goes well beyond normal politicking

    The party these days bears only a passing resemblance to the political conservation movement started by Bob Brown that fought nobly against habitat destruction.

    • Phillip Coorey

    May

    There won’t be a reshuffle until there is one

    To move Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, a close factional ally of the Prime Minister and member of his praetorian guard, could cause more problems than it would solve.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Immigration is again poised to play a lead role, not because the boats are coming, but after Peter Dutton used his budget address-in-reply to conflate it with the housing crisis.

    Both sides are pushing buttons on migration, one is being more subtle

    Migration long ago became a lazy method, adopted by both sides of politics, to generate growth in the absence of any reform or productivity agenda,

    • Phillip Coorey
    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
    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
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    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

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