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.
Federal Opposition
Hartcher: Rudd spears the centre while the Opposition misses the target
Kevin Rudd’s handling of asylum seekers is a pure numbers game, says Peter Hartcher. Rudd’s aiming at the centre because the lefties will just vote Labor anyway. Lucky for him, the Opposition have forgotten their audience.
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.
Shanahan: Rudd’s moral compass has lost its direction
The only reason things aren’t looking worse for Kevin Rudd on asylum seekers is because the Opposition is such as shambles. Both are operating on outdated and flawed immigration ideas, writes Dennis Shanahan.
Not clean, not dirty … Turnbull masters inactivity
This Opposition is good at neither the high road nor the low road politics. The scandal over Malcolm Turnbull’s office proposing tactics for getting media attention just demonstrates this further.
The $20b CPRS amendments with no budget impact
The Opposition believes its proposed CPRS amendments will have little or no fiscal impact, despite a suggested significant increase in compensation for trade-exposed polluters and the removal of coal emissions from the scheme.
Not even fear mongering can save the Opposition
Many in the Opposition are pushing an anti-ETS line, but it’s hard to run a scare campaign when you’re not in power. A time will come when voters don’t view Kevin Rudd as Father Christmas, but not for awhile, writes Peter Brent.
Who cares what the Opposition say?
The Coalition is finally learning that since they’re not in government, media focus is on personalities not politics. But what is their latest debt reduction strategy and is it a good plan?
Interest rates: the difference between reality and chatter
Amid the media chatter today about what the interest rate rise means for the “stimulus debate”, news from the real world is that the majority of Australians reckon the government is handling the economy very well.
Crikey Says: Abbott’s Question Time antics
Yesterday Tony Abbott was booted from Question Time. Today he’s threatened that the Opposition might boycott it. His dummy-spit is particularly egregious as a senior member and, better yet, Leader of the House.
Opposition makes public the losers
The Opposition politicians are lazy and don’t provide a clear political alternative. Instead their main aim is oppose everything: even things that will come back to bite them later, writes Alister Drysdale.
Mungo MacCallum: It’s time for Turnbull to lighten up and celebrate the great escape
Malcolm Turnbull and his colleagues appear unable to come to terms with the single most pertinent fact about the government’s stimulus measures: they worked.
The Opposition standpoint: oppose everything
The world wide agreement seems to be that economic stimulus packages worked. So, should opposition leaders disapprove of sensible policies just for the sake of opposition? asks Tim Colebatch.
Crikey Says: The Coalition does Opposition very, very badly
The Coalition is at odds with itself, unable to get its act together even when its leaders have committed to passing legislation of which it professes to be supportive.
Coalition’s a muddle, but that doesn’t make Wong right
Penny Wong’s relentless insistence that the real question is always Mr Turnbull’s leadership is doing the government no favours in its so-far successful campaign to use climate change as a political weapon.
It’s Malcolm Turnbull Jim, but not as we know him
Bernard Keane went to bed in a universe in which Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership was damaged, but not terminal, and awoke in one in which he was about to be deposed by “senior Liberals”, “within days”. It’s like a bad episode of Star Trek.
Malcolm’s ‘mission accomplished’ falls very, very flat
Turnbull’s “mission accomplished” comment was about the most childish thing he has said in his four-and-a-half years in politics.
Turnbull’s ETS deferral is only a distraction
Malcolm Turnbull’s decision on emissions trading is a sort of Frankenstein’s monster, sewn together from bits of National Party hostility, climate scepticism and moderate enthusiasm.
A big parliamentary fortnight, by any estimate
In the aftermath of the budget, the next fortnight should be a target-rich environment for Opposition senators. If they can’t score some points now, it may be time to give up.
A day Malcolm Turnbull should probably forget
Malcolm Turnbull had a bad day at the office yesterday, with a bad Press Club speech and an ill-tempered interview on The 7:30 Report.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Memo to Opposition: demonising boat people won’t work anymore
There is a risk for the current opposition that in taking too old-school a line on boat people they will be seen as Howardite relics.
Kohler: rich payouts and poor politics
Australians are being very poorly served by their politicians at present. They are consumed by combat and we are being spiflicated by spin, writes Alan Kohler.
Carry On Question Time: Opposition at a loss in the House
In a week when the Government should have been under pressure, given its inability to get key legislation through the Senate, Question Time has been like shooting fish in a barrel, writes Bernard Keane.
Coalition stymies donations transparency. Again.
The Government’s electoral reform bill has been blocked by the party that lost the election and a senator elected on the vote of 1.77% of Victorians, writes Bernard Keane.
Turnbull walks the path of Opposition Leaders past
One of the toughest walks in Parliament House is from the Opposition Leader’s office out to the “Opposition Leader’s Courtyard”, writes Bernard Keane.
