Christopher Pyne

BERNARD KEANE | FEDERAL|

Christopher Pyne’s strange and dated Anzac Day culture war

Christopher Pyne’s lament that Anzac Day is in danger of being overlooked is absurd, and a clear effort to relaunch the culture wars.

AUSTRALIA|

Unicorns, Freemasons and the Devil: Google and our pollies

Google reveals all about our politicians — or at least the impression we have of them. Freelance writer Ben Westcott investigates the curse of auto-complete searching.

AUSTRALIA|

To fix education, send good teachers to bad schools

Transparent accountability, merit-based pay and concentrating on the worst schools is a start, writes education consultant and former teacher and principal David Edmunds.

DEAN ASHENDEN | AUSTRALIA|

School’s out: why ‘fixing’ teacher entry won’t help

The latest plan to “fix” education by modifying teacher selection and training ignores the real problem. The education system is broken and Gonski’s sound ideas on fixing it are going nowhere fast.

BERNARD KEANE | ECONOMY|

Why Christopher Pyne should go back to school

Australia’s secondary educational funding model is broken. To claim otherwise, as Christopher Pyne did today, will perpetuate both inequality and poor educational outcomes.

BERNARD KEANE | ECONOMY|

Christopher Pyne and the dangerous fantasy of surplus

The fantasy of surpluses peddled by the Coalition becomes dangerous when it substitutes for actual thinking about the economy.

DEAN ASHENDEN | FEDERAL|

Education and even Gonski is getting out of political reach

The penny is about to drop for the schools lobby, and Christopher Pyne is having a good time giving it a push.

DEAN ASHENDEN | FEDERAL|

The Pyne prescription: how the Coalition would educate

Early indications of what the next federal government wants to do about schools are beginning to appear. They are not promising.

BERNARD KEANE | FEDERAL|

This is why question time must be suspended

The opposition could do us all a favour and simply junk question time altogether.

The sub-atomic realm of federal politics

See Four Corners last night? You know, the program that everyone’s been talking about for weeks, hinting at how nervous Labor insiders were at the idea that The Comeback Kid [insert question mark here] would fuel leadership speculation.

BERNARD KEANE | FEDERAL|

The 2011 Crikeys: our best and worst politicians

Who are our best and worst political performers for the year? The award goes to …

JOURNALISM|

Sideshow Alley: who knew what when and, more importantly, who cares?

It’s the week for it, so let’s kick off with Qantas. Or not so much Qantas, but who-knew-what-when about the now infamous weekend grounding…

FEDERAL|

Sideshow Alley: what a lovely pair

This week it’s unanimous — you have united across party lines in your condemnation of the Coalition flirting with the idea of not granting Craig Thomson a pair to attend the birth of his child.

PAUL BARRY | FEDERAL|

The Power Index: meet #2 on the list — Christopher Pyne

Christopher Pyne is attack dog, enforcer, messenger, organiser, whipper-in and tireless spruiker for the Opposition cause. And if Abbott becomes prime minister he will be amply rewarded.

BERNARD KEANE | FEDERAL|

No denying it — there’s denial
everywhere

Tony Abbott — denialist or weathervane? It’s hard to tell which one’s worse.

The Libyan quagmire

Crikey readers have their say.

TOM COWIE | FEDERAL|

Aunty apologises to Pyne — again — over offensive Q&A tweet

Liberal MP Christopher Pyne has received an apology from the ABC — his second such apology from the national broadcaster — after an offensive tweet was broadcast during his appearance last night on Q&A.

Crikey Blogs | LINKS|

The strange case of Q&A and the Christopher Pyne homophobic gibe

On last night’s episode of Q&A the ABC broadcast a bizarre homophobic gibe about Christopher Pyne’s alleged affection for men in uniform. What the…? writes Jeremy Sear.

RICHARD FARMER | FEDERAL|

Farmer: suing is a funny thing to do when you’re not fussed

I’ve had a few run-ins with the defamation laws during my 50 years in journalism from the frivolous to the painfully expensive.

A landmark legal test case?

Christopher Pyne said that Marieke Hardy’s piece published about him last year bothered him “not in the least bit.” So why is he now threatening to sue?

FEDERAL|

Berg: Taylor confirms curriculum motivated by ideological antagonism

The intention of the national history curriculum is — or should be — for Australian students to understand how their world became, writes Chris Berg, of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program.

UNCATEGORIZED|

The 2010 Crikey Arsehat Awards

Hats off to you all. Arsehats, that is.

The Age | FEDERAL|

Grattan: Abbott turns down the volume, Pyne cranks it back up

Just as Tony Abbott was toning down the vitriol of his slings at Julia Gillard in the wake of last week’s Afghanistan debacle, along came Christopher Pyne to reignite the flames. It was another gob smacking outburst, writes Michelle Grattan.

ABC | FEDERAL|

Hardy: Is Christopher Pyne the most despised man in Australia?

Liberal MP Christopher Pyne is a special sausage. Sure, there are other figures that unite the country in outrage — think Kyle Sandilands and Brendan Fevola — but none evoke that same Pyne hatred, writes Marieke Hardy.

RICHARD FARMER |