Malcolm Turnbull’s only real option is to reject Rudd’s CPRS and hand victory to Minchin and his colleagues.
Articles by Bernard Keane 
About Bernard Keane
Bernard Keane is Crikey’s Canberra correspondent
To those who say “beaudy nuke”: why should taxpayers suffer?
Why should taxpayers fund the most expensive and slowest energy option when so many alternatives are significantly cheaper and pose less financial risk?
The nuclear option: too slow, too costly
It’s not radioactivity or scare campaigns that are the nuclear industry’s biggest problem, it’s the maths: the numbers show that for decades to come, it will offer less and less of a solution to climate change, and simply takes too long and costs too much to develop.
Olympic establishment mobilises to shout down Crawford Report
It didn’t take long for the Olympic establishment to respond to the clear and present threat posed by yesterday’s Crawford Report. Behold the fury of a parasitic industry facing the threat that taxpayers might stop handing them money.
Either way, Turnbull’s on eggshells
Malcolm Turnbull is caught in a pincer movement between Liberal conservatives and Kevin Rudd — and both appear determined to destroy him.
Rudd is drowning on boat people
He may have got a bounce in the polls today, but the Prime Minister’s handling of the Oceanic Viking issue has been singularly inept.
Sport funding torn between going for gold and going for guts
The long-awaited Crawford Review of Australian sport has called the bluff of successive Australian governments and proposed a re-weighting of sports funding away from elite Olympic sports toward grassroots participation.
Sorry, but Kevin and Malcolm pulled it off
Well done to both Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, who this morning made excellent speeches in Parliament’s Great Hall, to representatives of the Forgotten Generation.
Where’s the warning for investors from the big polluters?
Some of Australia’s biggest polluters continue to say one thing in public about the CPRS and tell their shareholders another.
Take your CPRS and shove it
Bernard Keane is sick of Penny Wong’s tedious droning, Kevin Rudd’s sanctimony, Coalition climate denialists, Barnaby Joyce, rentseekers and everything else tied up in the never-ending CPRS debate.
Back from the dead: Turnbull’s TPVs
Malcolm Turnbull has announced that Temporary Protection Visas would be back under a Coalition Government. But, putting aside their humanitarian impact, all the evidence is that TPVs don’t actually work.
‘Stronger democracy’ gives way to strong-arm democracy in NSW
NSW government agencies will be collating the private data of NSW citizens and providing it to the NSW Electoral Commission to automatically update the electoral roll. There’ll be no opting out; you will have no choice.
There’s good news and also good news on jobs
There’s mixed — but mostly good — news in today’s unemployment data. Unemployment remained steady in trend terms, but underemployment is up across most age groups, and there was a small fall in hours worked.
Calling TRUenergy’s CPRS bluff
There is a peculiar distinction between what large polluters like TRUEnergy say in their quest for additional compensation, and what they tell key financial stakeholders like customers and shareholders.
NSW to keep draining the life out of the Snowy
The NSW government has indicated it will continue to draw water off the Snowy River, despite extensive evidence the river is nearer to degradation than ever.
Lending figures vindicate RBA’s interest rate strategy
Today’s ABS lending figures contain some good news for the health of financial markets, and a partial vindication of the RBA’s interest rate strategy.
Rudd ducks again: book import slug stays
So we retain parallel import restrictions on books. Those of us who don’t buy our books online will continue to pay too much, with the bulk of that extra cost going to overseas authors and publishers.
Climate change: the Coalition’s new Hansonism
There’s a number of similarities between Howard-era Hansonism and climate denialism, but the biggest similarity is that both mean big trouble for the Coalition.
GM corn still approved here despite Europe, Kiwi concerns
A genetically modified variety of corn remains approved for use in Australia, despite the withdrawal of applications for approval in Europe and serious concerns about its assessment raised by a New Zealand university research team.
ABC board no longer in the orbit of Planet Janet
Right-wing commentator Janet Albrechtsen, a controversial appointee by the Howard government, will not be reappointed to the ABC Board when her term expires in February.
Newspoll and The Oz: a predictability problem
Last week’s negative Newspoll results in The Oz about Rudd’s leadership demonstrates how it’s not merely politicians who try to sell us narratives.
Rudd and the rentseekers: climate for sale
If the Prime Minister is so angry about the efforts of denialists to derail action on climate change, here’s a suggestion: stop giving them taxpayers’ money.
Memo Rudd: an asylum solution
Bernard Keane offers the Prime Minister a few thoughts on how to resolve the Oceanic Viking stand-off.
The ABC needs a Pacific Solution
Mark Scott is pitching for a dramatic expansion in the ABC’s international presence, but Australia just isn’t enough of a cultural heavyweight to compete with America or the UK. Why not focus on the Pacific region, where we actually have some cultural credibility?
In climate denial: this is not scepticism
We’re losing the battle against climate denialism. Much of the skepticism is fuelled by ideology, but the real driver of denialism is an emotional inability to accept that we’re in serious trouble.
