Bahnisch: Liberals fight over their own soulThe 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.
Coalition
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.
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.
Crikey Says: Minchin destroys the Liberal Party to save it
Nick Minchin’s appearance onn Four Corners last week was a calculated performance by one of the country’s shrewdest political tacticians who knew precisely how the media and his colleagues would react.
Crabb: Combet turns comedian while the Coalition clowns around
Greg Combet isn’t usually Parliament’s resident comedian, says Annabel Crabb, but he had them rolling in the aisles yesterday. Punchlines are a-dime-a-dozen with the Coalition’s climate sceptics around.
Turnbull facing partyroom revolt
Ten Coalition MPs have warned Malcolm Turnbull that they will cross the floor and vote against emissions trading laws laws, regardless of any negotiations.
A radioactive issue for the Coalition?
Why has Ian Macfarlane completely reversed his opinion on Carbon Capture and Storage — from such a strong advocate of the when in government to his recent denunciation on Four Corners? asks Michael James.
Mungo MacCallum: Minchin has no excuse for his ignorance
The most depressing statistic of modern times is the one that tells us that well over 50% of adult Americans do not believe in evolution. Or it was — until Nick Minchin came along.
Bartlett: TPVs –- failed policy recycled for political benefit
The human harm done to many refugees on TPVs is well documented, says Andrew Bartlett. It’s a sad day when a blatantly ineffective measure is wilfully adopted purely for political appearances.
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.
Rundle: Don’t Minchin the heat
Nick Minchin’s remarks that climate change is just another stage in the anti-industrial campaigns of the Left shows what ancient paranoic nonsense the climate change sceptics are working off, says Guy Rundle.
Watch the 4 Corners report: Malcolm and the malcontents
Watch the ABC’s 4 Corners report that exposed the Coalition’s deep divisions over the issue of climate change and caused further rifts within the party.
Maiden: “Fruit Loop” Minchin and the Coalition’s climate sceptics
Nick Minchin and the rest of the Coalition’s climate-sceptic cabal didn’t just open up to the ABC’s 4 Corners to stick it to Rudd: they genuinely believe climate change is a left-wing conspiracy, writes Samantha Maiden.
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.
Rudd throws water on the asylum seeker flames
Kevin Rudd isn’t fighting the Opposition over refugees, he’s battling the media, and desperately attempting to depoliticise the issue. Look for the telltale Rudd fear fuelled top lip disappearance.
Grattan: Is this the end of the Coalition?
The Coalition is straining to stay together, as the Nationals — lead symbolically by Barnaby Joyce — try to forge their own identity separate to the Libs. But the Coalition would be better off staying together to fight Rudd, writes Michelle Grattan.
The growing force of Barnaby Joyce
Queensland is critical to federal politics, with a growing population and influential seats, but its parties are a mess. The Nationals criticise the Liberals, the Libs fear the power of the LNP and Barnaby Joyce is just looking after himself, writes Scott Prasser.
Finally, the Opposition stop looking like idiots
It’s taken the Federal Opposition quite a while, but it’s now making the government the issue, not itself, writes Lenore Taylor. Now Turnbull just has to make sure Coalition members keep their heads down and mouths shut until the next election. Good luck with that.
Why the Opposition is stuffed
The Federal Opposition nearly managed to get through an entire sitting week last week without making themselves the issue, says Bernard Keane. Nearly. But Nick Minchin and Barnaby Joyce had other ideas.
Guy Rundle: Politicians try to patch up a leaky boat of their own making
The government’s current problems with the Oceanic Viking stem entirely from its being too-clever-by-half – it’s of a piece with Ruddism, the idea that a series of brilliant technical decisions can serve as policy.
Coalition defends allowances to the death
The Coalition joint party room today rebelled against the Government’s restrictions on MPs’ printing allowances for “electoral purposes”, with Malcolm Turnbull labelling it “an assault on democracy”, writes Bernard Keane.
Do the Coalition shuffle!
Whatever happened to the Coalition reshuffle? Remember that? But reshuffles create losers and Malcolm Turnbull, who is one major brain explosion away from losing the leadership, has enough enemies as things stand.
