When Slippery Pete Slipper replaced Harry Jenkins as speaker in December, the most oft-heard observation was that it gave the PM some wiggle room to break her written agreement with Andrew Wilkie.
Julia Gillard
Follow Crikey’s latest coverage of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Crikey’s Julia Gillard coverage includes independent news, blogs and commentary.
Gillard duds Wilkie, and what’s left of her own credibility
In breaching her commitment to Andrew Wilkie, Julia Gillard has made it even less likely voters will trust her again.
Contrasting reactions to friendly fire in Afghanistan
France has suspended all operations with the Afghan army after four French troops were killed in friendly fire — a stark comparison to Julia Gillard’s reaction to three Aussies being shot last November, writes Richard Farmer.
Wilkie’s pokies bet goes bust; Thomson enters fold
Crikey media wrap: Julia Gillard announced Andrew Wilkie’s proposed mandatory pre-commitment scheme was a loss on the weekend after it failed to get enough crossbench support. Meanwhile, embattled MP Craig Thomson has entered the pokies debate.
podcast Canberra Calling: The pre-commitment pokies podcast
Crikey’s Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane and Crikey editor Sophie Black discuss the hoopla surrounding the pokies debate following Andrew Wilkie’s meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Sunday.
Mayne: let’s have a pokies debate on maximum hourly losses
Why isn’t anyone in the pokies debate embracing the preferred simpler option in pushing for reductions in the maximum rate of hourly losses that pokies addicts can suffer?
Political snippets: Gillard’s pokie hokey-pokey
This morning’s media reports are far from clear about what Julia Gillard is planning to do about curbs on poker machines.
What Julia Gillard can learn from the pages of Playboy
Julia Gillard would be well advised to seek out an edition of this month’s Playboy. If approached with open eyes an article by Joshua Pollack has the capacity to recast the Australia-India relationship, writes NAJ Taylor.
Essential: warmer months but voters still cold on leaders
Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott both finish the Summer break with marginal improvements in their voter standing, but the political landscape is essentially unchanged.
podcast Canberra Calling: The Rewound and Fast Forwarded New Year Podcast
In the first Canberra Calling for 2012, Crikey’s Canberra Correspondent Bernard Keane and Crikey deputy editor Jason Whittaker look back at the year in Australian politics and what is in store for 2012.
Ford bailout reignites car manufacturing
debate
Crikey media wrap: Kim Carr’s announcement yesterday of a $103 million cash injection for Ford Australia has reignited the debate about the viability of Australia’s automobile manufacturing sector.
Keane’s 2011: year of the flake
Politics in 2011 was characterised by an intense dislike of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, and rampant denialism.
Political snippets: Gillard’s chance of survival? 50:50
The survival of Julia Gillard as Labor leader until the next election is rated by the Crikey Leadership Indicator at 50% as the year comes towards its end.
Kohler: dozing through an IR nightmare
The word “productivity” didn’t make it into Bill Shorten’s press release yesterday announcing a review of the Fair Work Act, or into the terms of reference.
Asylum seekers: finding a Political Solution
Crikey media wrap: The Gillard government appeared willing to negotiate its Malaysia Solution even before the latest boat tragedy but the Opposition refuses to compromise on its asylum seeker policy, according to private letters released yesterday.
Essential: Gillard will go, and Labor deserves no economic credit
Most voters believe Julia Gillard will lose the prime ministership within 12 months, with new polling recording more disapproval and predictions of doom for the Labor government.
Wikileaks Keane: why I signed a letter in support of Julian Assange
As an Australian citizen, Assange has a right to expect his government will seek to ensure that he is accorded due process by other countries seeking to prosecute him.
Crikey Says: Crikey says: and the best politician of 2011 goes to …
Today we kick off the 2011 Crikeys with our Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane’s wrap of the best and worst from our politicians in 2011.
podcast Canberra Calling: The All I Want For Xmas Is A New Cabinet podcast
Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane is in Melbourne for Crikey’s Christmas party and he joins editor Sophie Black in the office to discuss Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s interesting Cabinet reshuffle.
The Media Monitors' Top 20: Brickbats for Gillard’s cabinet reshuffle
Not too many bouquets for the Prime Minister for the last big piece of political news of the year.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: The blindness of being pro-Europe
Crikey reads have their say.
Political snippets: More bad polls for Labor
The Westpac/Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment is a fitting signal for what has been an unhappy year for the Federal Government.
Cox: more women in cabinet, but social issues slip agenda
My feminist push at present is to put the goal of making society fairer and more civil, and to change the emphasis on economic growth as the only good.
Political snippets: A dangerous time for a reshuffle
Australia now has the largest sized Cabinet in history while Miss Gillard has a couple more colleagues she cannot count on if and when there is a leadership challenge.
Reshuffle promotes Gillard’s
‘warlords’
Crikey media wrap: A ministerial reshuffle yesterday resulted in promotions for the architects of Julia Gillard’s prime ministerial coup, a demotion for a Kevin Rudd supporter and a record number of female ministers in Australian politics.
