Kevin Rudd’s close relationship with The Australian editor Chris Mitchell helped get him into office, says Peter Hartcher, but the honeymoon is now well and truly over.
Politics / Australia
CPRS deal now just hours away
A deal between Penny Wong and Ian Macfarlane is within sight, with the Government spelling out a timetable to put the deal to Cabinet and Caucus on Monday, writes Bernard Keane.
Bahnisch: Liberals fight over their own soul
The CPRS battles within the Liberal party have nothing to do with good public policy or climate change, says Mark Bahnisch — it’s a contest over the spoils of opposition and the ideological direction of the party itself.
Crikey Says: Where was the protest over the Forgotten Generation Apology?
Why was there no protest over the Apology to the Forgotten Generation, as there was over last year’s Apology to the Stolen Generation?
Turnbull’s climate crunch is coming
Malcolm Turnbull’s only real option is to reject Rudd’s CPRS and hand victory to Minchin and his colleagues.
Rudd’s divorced from reality when it comes to gay marriage
The Religious Right are gathering in Canberra this weekend and Kevin Rudd is the guest speaker. There is only one thing this audience want to hear from him: that he will strike down the ACT’s recently amended Civil Partnerships Act, writes Brian Greig.
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?
You can’t moralise on climate change unless you’re a monk
Hamilton and the rest of the Australian Greens are political opportunists of the first order, but pretend to be above all that by cloaking themselves in the Colors of Giaa, writes Simon Mansfield.
The NSW Right strikes back, Stalin recalled
The ALP national executive’s decision yesterday to include Macquarie in its regime of central preselection impositions has sparked a wave of dissent from waring factions in the premier state.
Bottles off to you, Nick Xzennophone!
Nick Xzennophone may come across as a bit of a mug, but at least he’s switched on enough to see a conspiracy when he sees one, writes Fake Stephen Fielding.
Crabb: Kate “the Trellis” Ellis vs. Hulk Hogan
Yesterday, Sports Minister Kate Ellis arm-wrestled with pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan. No really; it was for charity. And the undercard bout between Nick ”the Refrigerator” Minchin and Malcolm “the Merchant Banker” Turnbull was just as vicious, reports Annabel Crabb.
Ackland: Lessons from 25 years of the Sex Discrimination Act
Last month marked 25 years since the passage of the Sex Discrimination Act, says Richard Ackland, and contrary to fears at the time, the courts have not been clogged, power has not shifted from government, and Bibles have not been burnt. Someone tell the fearmongers of today.
Asking some big questions on school league tables
Is it good for Australian society if schools compete for students on the basis of academic performance and standardised exams? asks James Farrell. Will parents actually be more informed, or just more obsessed with test scores?
Tanner: “Paranoid” Minchin’s conspiracy theories need to end
Senator Nick Minchin’s suggestion that climate change is all some global left-wing communist conspiracy is undermining serious negotiations between the Government and Opposition on emissions trading, writes MP Lindsay Tanner.
Minchin won’t cross the floor on emissions
Senator Nick Minchin may be the Coalition’s most outspoken critic of emissions trading emissions trading, but he will vote for it if it’s that is the party room’s decision.
Coalition at war
The Coalition has descended into new levels of chaos over emissions trading, with a pack of 17 rebels getting behind Senator Nick Minchin as he slammed the scheme in Parliament yesterday, and even Tony Abbott now reneging his support.
Bartlett: Five years later, Palm Island is still waiting
One of the most telling aspects of the terrible injustices involved in the death in police custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomagee is that, five years on, there has been no public investigation and report, writes Andrew Bartlett.
How will the CPRS Carnival end?
In the next week or so, the carnival of climate carpetbaggers is about to fold its tents on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. How it will all end up is still anyone’s guess, writes John Connor.
A compromise on Crawford: change the KPIs
The Crawford report has succeeded, at the very least, in opening up for debate whether the government gets “value” out of the money spent on sports programs, writes John Orchard.
Mike Kaiser sails away with $450k as Bligh’s office implodes
Anna Bligh remains keen to recruit an outsider to replace Mike Kaiser as her chief-of-staff, in an effort to halt the destabilisation campaign that has seen nearly every member of her inner circle linked to a mutiny attempt.
Sinodinos: The environment is too important to be left to The Greens
The environment is no longer a niche issue that should remain solely in the hands of socialist Greens, says Arthur Sinodinos. Major parties can advocate for the environment without giving up on capitalism.
Coates: Australia should not strive for mediocrity
AOC President John Coates argues against the findings of the Crawford Review in today’s Oz: Australians won’t settle for second (or tenth) best: we need and want our elite athletes.
Joyce: Why I’m still voting no on the CPRS
The Nationals’ Barnaby Joyce outlines the reasons he won’t be won over on emissions trading: “the CPRS will change the air we breathe by 0.0000000978 of 1%.”
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.
Xenophon didn’t go far enough: no religion should be tax free
Nick Xenophon’s attack on the tax free status Church of Scientology last night was laudable, and long overdue, but did not go nearly far enough, writes Jane Shaw.
