Recently, ex-foreign minister Alexander Downer blasted the government’s relationship with China, leaving MP Michael Danby none too happy about the criticism. China is more aggressive and friends with the most oppressive nations in the world now. Patronising advice by old timers isn’t needed, says Danby.
February, 2010
Toyota’s mates in high places
Toyota is about to face investigation over its massive recall and dodgy brakes, but half the politicians doing the “investigating” have close ties and vested interests with the company, according to an AP report.
Q: Did the kids embarrass Rudd? A: They pummelled him
Last night Kevin Rudd appeared on ABC’s Q & A with a bunch of troublesome school kids asking him the tough questions and smirking at his Ruddisms. They grilled Rudd so much he basically had burn marks. David Penberthy explains.
Is the ABC kowtowing to China’s censorship?
The ABC’s decision not to air a doco about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer has prompted the Oz to question whether the move was motivated by the broadcaster’s new focus on “soft diplomacy” with other nations.
Colless: Don’t shoot the messenger, but Rudd’s talking rubbish
Kevin Rudd has really dropped the ball lately, with waffling media messages and overly arrogant gestures. Compared to previous Lib leaders, it was easy for Kevin to appear capable. Abbott makes it harder, writes Malcolm Colless.
Google vs. Facebook: game on
Google has announced it is entering the social media-sphere, adding Facebook/Twitter-esque real-time “status updates” to its Gmail email service. Facebook looks to be hitting right back, launching its own Gmail-esque webmail service.
Turnbull: dealing blows or big blow-hard?
Malcolm Turnbull laid into Tony Abbott’s climate change policy plan in a speech to Parliament yesterday. But did he deal a damaging blow to his Abbott’s scheme, or come off looking like a sore loser? How the pundits saw it.
Abbott and Turnbull: a tale of two speeches
Two Liberal leaders gave speeches in Parliament today. One was “forceful, well reasoned, cutting, intelligent and persuasive”, says Grog. The other was given by Tony Abbott.
What happened to abortion being the woman’s choice?
Why is it that male pro-choicers keep their mouths shut publicly, while plenty of celebrity men seem to lining up to give their anti-abortion stance? Hugh Ryan examines the gender divide in the abortion debate.
AFL season 2010 preview: everybody is fantastic
It’s a great time to be an AFL footy fan. New recruits are valuable additions to the side. Things couldn’t be better. Just don’t let the small matter of the season having not kicked off yet interrupt the reverie, says Neil Walker as he examines the field.
The best of the Super Bowl commercials
The ad breaks of America’s Super Bowl are almost a show in and of themselves, with the country’s biggest brands and companies shelling out millions to create the funniest, catchiest, most impressive ads. The NYT blogs the best of this year’s batch.
Film review: Daybreakers — the Spierig Brothers fang it
At a time when vampire genre storytelling desperately needs to be rescued from the clutches of Twilight, comes the second blood-spangled flick from emerging horror writer/directors the Spierig Brothers, says Luke Buckmaster.
Turnbull takes aim at Abbott’s climate plan
Malcolm Turnbull has demolished Tony Abbott’s climate action plan in a long speech to Parliament, putting the case for the government’s CPRS far more eloquently and coherently than Kevin Rudd ever has, reports Bernard Keane.
Rebates to TV networks just an ugly bribe
The three commercial TV networks, Seven, Nine and Ten, went weak at the knees in congratulating the Government for its decision on rebate for licence fees. Can anyone say “election year”?
Video of the Day: Sarah Palin goes to a tea party
Sarah Palin goes rogue at the first ever Tea Party National Convention (and all for the low, low price of $100,000!). Is she gearing up for a presidential run in 2012? Did the crib notes help? Have the lunatics finally taken over the asylum in the U-S-of-A? Is First Dude Todd really pulling all the […]
Is the ‘working women need to be pushy bitches’ myth true?
A blog post about how women need to be pushier in the workplace got the blogosphere riled up this week. But with research showing that alpha-women earn more than their demure colleagues, will we have to raise our daughters to be aggressive jerks?
Could the internet win a Nobel Peace Prize?
The internet (yes, the series of tubes), has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Ridiculous? Maybe, but the campaign has some pretty big-name backers, including the editor of Wired and, er, Giorgio Armani.
Business As Usual: What’s Mandarin for boom?
China’s passenger car sales rose 84% last month, why Australia’s rising unemployment is chicken feed in global terms, The Australian carries on like a kookaburra, EMI is skint and more.
Feds tell banks ‘there are no guarantees’
The federal government is finally withdrawing its guarantees to banks and the state governments that allowed both groups to have a good recession. The measures kept our banks alive, but they gave the Big Four too much power.
Morning Market Report: Market up despite a Friday Wall St wobble
The Dow was up 30 at best and down 167 at one point, down to 9,835 but somehow miraculously managed to rally to close up at 10,010. The unemployment rate came in better than expected, falling to 9.7% from 10%.
Conroy tells movie industry, ISPs to kiss and make up
After last week’s Federal Court win for internet service provider iiNet, the movie industry was looking to the government to help them out. But the government has told it to sort out its own problems.
Fairfax lousy payers: that’s the word
Australian journos have been dobbing in publishers to Crikey’s Content Makers blog over their freelance rates. The results are in — and many aren’t pretty.
Media briefs: Radio revenue up … Google teams up with the NSA … Front page of the day …
Conroy slashes the cost of license fees paid be commercial networks, the US National Security Agency is working as Google’s bodyguard and more gold from NT News.
