My experiences with Bob Hawke when he was under challenge for the Prime Ministership by an aggrieved Paul Keating was that letting the challenger choose the time of the contest is not a wise policy.
Housing affordability
Political snippets: The bright side of bad housing data
Today’s Australian Bureau of Statistics figures means there are more skilled trades people available to help cope with the boom in mining industry construction.
Political snippets: Julia Gillard gets ready to jet-about
Julia Gillard will be a jet-about Prime Minister for the next few weeks with a series of international conferences interrupted briefly by a visiting US President Barack Obama.
Political snippets: Uncertainty the only certainty
So Australia has almost got to the point of establishing a price on carbon emissions with the House of Representatives passing legislation this morning and passage through the Senate being little more than a formality.
Political snippets: Little joy on the housing front
A big increase in sales of new houses in Queensland in August was not enough to bring much joy to the market overall.
Political snippets: Impact of a profits tax on mining
There’s the spin and then there’s the reality.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Aussie Aussie actors, oi oi oi
Crikey readers have their say.
Political snippets: Labor’s dual fuel tax headache
The idea that Australia will have a dual system of fuel taxation depending on the size of a business running vehicles will become Labor’s equivalent of the Liberal Party’s GST tax on cakes that contributed to the political death of John Hewson.
Political snippets: Better housing news but trend still down.
An encouraging sign in the official Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for April.
Political snippets: Property prices keep edging down
Australian house prices are continuing to edge down according to the latest figures from the RP Data-Rismark Home Value Index.
Political snippets: The budget yawn.
So the impact of the budget has been measured by the pollsters and nothing really has changed.
Political snippets: Politics of the refugee deal
You could hardly call the initial reception to the refugee swap deal with Malaysia a resounding success.
Political snippets: NSW Labor deluded and on the nose
They really know how to delude themselves in the New South Wales Labor Party.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Death, taxes and a fight about climate change
Crikey readers have their say.
Political snippets: Yasi throws a spanner in Gillard’s works
Cyclone Yasi is going to have a big say in how much the planned flood levy will be.
Our dangerous debt affair
Is our economic future at risk as a result of the huge debts we’ve accumulated to indulge our love affair with housing?
Raising disposable income will counter the housing bubble
Given that price/income ratios must return to earth for housing prices, and that governments are loath to allow the price to fall, the only remaining option is to increase incomes, writes Gavin R. Putland.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Rudd has a narrative?
Crikey readers weigh in on Rudd’s communication strategy and how Australia compares to Sweden when it comes to paid parental leave.
Political snippets: Ken Henry’s taxing waste of time
Ken Henry’s review of the taxation system will join countless others before it in the too hard basket. Plus, ignore the suggestion that tax changes will curb housing prices, blame the greens and other political tidbits.
Our deep, bitter anger over housing prices
House prices is an election changing issue and not because homeowners are crowing about profits. Houses are too expensive, interest rates are rising and voters are getting resentful, writes Charles Purcell.
Dispatches from Steve Keen’s Debt March
Rob Burgess is accompanying economist Steve Keen as he walks to Mount Kosciusko, doing everything in his power to prick the “property bubble” and put the Australian economy back on what he thinks is a sounder footing.
Joye: RBA wakes up to the fact affordability battle won on supply side
The housing cost problems faced by Australians can be resolved mostly by elastifying the supply side — building more homes. The Reserve Bank is now waking up to the fact, writes Christopher Joye.
Warning: RBA to crunch housing boom to save economy from overheating
The current housing boom risks ending in tears with the Reserve Bank forced to crunch it to save the rest of the economy from overheating.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Housing market a sleeper issue for Gen Y
Crikey readers weigh in on ASIO, the horrors of the housing market and housing affordability and the NSW ALP.
