Crikey

Federal politics back to almost complete prominence as we get to the serious middle bit of the year, with national and international issues like the Budget, border protection and the Swine Flu seemingly set to dominate for some time.

Little surprise in the main movers of the week, Nicola Roxon reserving the right to isolate, Joe Hockey starting to crank up the indignanometer in an effort to get some traction for the Opposition out of a Budget with increasingly few options and Albo reheating a whole bunch of road and rail promises.

Meanwhile its quiet times for the Deputy PM and the Minister for being extremely calm while pleasing no-one, Penny Wong. Remember when I.R. and climate change were the only two issues anyone wanted to talk about? Seems like a long time ago now.

Again showing the dominance of Budget speculation.

A man whose influence spread through almost every part of Melbourne society, the way that seems to happen in that city more than any other, a life certainly fully lived if far from flawless.

There’s more on the Media Monitors website.