Daily Media Wrap: The blame game continues to be Canberra’s favourite pastime, as the media both thrashes and exalts the Greens, wonders how a hung parliament will work and tries to figure out whether Labor or Liberal is more of a shambles.
August, 2010
Oakes: Three amigos the stars of circus Oz
Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter are the three amigo independents currently gobbling up the nation’s attention. But public support for them has is waning and the Australian political landscape now resembles a circus, writes Laurie Oakes.
Coorey: Abbott kinder and gentler? Yeah, right
It’s best to take Tony Abbott’s recent call for a “kinder and gentler” approach to politics with a grain - or a shaker - of salt. The last time he spoke along these lines it ended in disaster, writes Phillip Coorey.
DJs, drugs and Ed Hardy: riding the Iron Paprika
We both secretly harboured a Romance Of Rail-style fantasy of trench-coats and dining cars, hatboxes and demure chat, the countryside wooshing by outside in a blur of unexperienced life. But travelling on a 12-hour train from Zurich to Budapest wasn’t quite that, writes Jenny Kaldor.
great read 
The good and the bad of working from home
A glorious cartoon by The Oatmeal demonstrating the positives — not having to wake up early — and the negatives — losing all memory of personal hygiene — of not having to go into an office to work.
Wilkie to make Gillard empathise with her pokies-addicted constituents
While the position of the three country independents on the pokies is unclear, the Greens want tough action. Is Australia’s status as the most gambling-addicted nation on earth about to reach a tipping point?
Does WHK Horwath tell third parties they should seek independent advice on reports?
The auditing firm at the centre of the Coalition’s costings debacle normally warns third parties not to rely on its reports, recommending they obtain independent advice.
Fairfax, Ten emerge from dark days with profits intact
Fairfax Media and Ten Network were nearly crippled by debt burdens, slumping ad revenues, profits were fanciful and they were unwanted in the market.
Abbott’s freeze could devastate The Oz
A government insider with specific experience placing APS jobs ads in The Australian has told Crikey that Abbott’s freeze has the “potential to devastate The Australian.”
Rundle: not underestimating Abbott, overestimating Gillard
So I over-rated Labor, but I never underestimated Abbott. Labor never estimated him at all. I dont know what any of them did for the first two weeks of the campaign, maybe they were still on holiday.
Lifting the veil on a witness in court won’t reveal her true feelings
Last week, a Perth judge ruled that a prosecution witness in a fraud case would have to remove her niqab (face-veil) while giving evidence in court.
Rooted: organic farmers try to get a bite of the apple
“Rural Australia is really hurting. And the cuts to services really hurt. Health services are cut, banks close, schools close, farmers suicide. Areas have 21% unemployment. We are bleeding people in the country… Yet organic farming is a sunrise and success story going against the trend,” said Andre Leu, a tropical fruit farmer from northern […]
Common sense from independents has conservatives deeply unhappy
Against expectations, the rural independents have made a strong start in their quest for political and economic stability. And conservatives don’t like it.
Hey Watson, first rule of speechwriting: the words aren’t yours
When I read Don Watson’s comments about the Redfern speech my overwhelming feeling was embarrassment, writes speechwriter, poet and novelist Joel Deane.
UN set to give Oz a serve on our racial discrimination record
The UN Committee that monitors breaches of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (the CERD Committee) will report on its examination of Australia this weekend.
Wankley Awards: The Wankley Award goes to… The Daily Tele’s Paul ‘flogger’ Kent
Leave Matthew Newton alone. That’s exactly what the media should be doing right now.
The independents: rebels with a cause
The prospect of a minority federal government throws a spotlight on the quiet rise of a generation of independent MPs in state and federal parliaments. In this updated extract from their book on the independents, Brian Costar and Jennifer Curtin look at their motivations, role and significance
A square Fed in a round Hole
US Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke will choose his words very carefully in his opening address to the Fed’s annual meeting, writes Karen Maley of Business Spectator
Hoges: time to file, Crocodile
To issue a Departure Prohibition Order while Paul Hogan exercises his rights under tax law to object and appeal against his tax bill is premature in the extreme, writes tax consultant and former ATO audit manager Chris Seage.
The red and blue: the real story of post-election briefings
There’s nothing especially sacrosanct about the post-election briefings handed to ministers. They’re the bureaucracy’s effort to get ministers up to speed on what they need to do.
Norgs meet nationalism at the Miss Universe pageant
Like the similarly utopian Olympic Games, Eurovision Song Contest and World’s Fairs, the Miss Universe pageant is explicitly set up as a carnival of national virtue on the international stage.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: And the election rolls on…
Crikey readers have their say.
Morning Market Report: Markets down … again
Wall Street closed down 74 overnight and closed below 10,000 for the first time since July 6
Daily Proposition: Watch some bloody racial warfare … with jazz hands
For a story about bloody gang warfare and bitter racial tension, West Side Story is pretty gay. As in flamboyant, not the negative connotation The Kids have given it. Certainly isn’t bad. I mean, has a better stage musical been written? Seriously, I’m asking. A few from Rogers and Hammerstein, I guess. Cabaret maybe. I […]
