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.
Julia Gillard 
Parliamentary sisters are doing it for themselves
The feminisation of the Rudd government “seems to be the end of tokenism, with women pollies no longer a novelty”, writes Dr Paul Williams. Will Julia Gillard and Nicola Roxon be battling it out for first female PM?
Twitter: giving a voice to the biggest mouths in town
Enjoy the unfiltered tweets of pollies Joe Hockey, Kevin Rudd et al while you can. Pretty soon, press secretaries will be wrenching their Blackberrys from their hands, says Annabel Crabb.
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.
Gillard spared bad day at the office
Joe Hockey gave Education Minister Julia Gillard a short reprieve yesterday from the relentless barrage of Opposition MPs “joyously relating tales of schools caught in Kafkaesque circumstances created by bureaucracies”, says Tony Wright,
Craig Emerson wins QT Idol
Question Time has long been a warped type of talent show and the current stand out performer is Minister for Small Business, Craig Emerson, writes Annabel Crabb.
Finger pointing on education blowout not working
The one pupil school at the centre of the Coalition’s attack of the education spending blow out hasn’t actually received any funding. Is the Coalition’s attempt to find waste and mismanagement of funds fruitless?
Two wrongs don’t make a right, Julia
Education Minister Julia Gillard was under fire for overspending A$1.5 billion in the school buildings project and she came out guns blazing in parliament. For once, the voice of reason was Wilson Tuckey.
School signs, spin and other half-smart Ruddy capers
The Government’s proclivity for spin and half-smart political strategy is re-emerging, with its signs-in-front-of-schools plan and attempts to sell award modernisation.
Making concessions for international students
Victoria and NSW are the only states denying international students transport concessions, writes Greg Foyster.
Political snippets: Mike Rann lobs tweets from afar
Mike Rann tweets from afar (to try and anticipate political fallout) … Julia Gillard, no longer untouchable
Gillard finally hits a bump in the road
The stimulus schools building blow out has taken some of the shine off Julia Gillard’s halo. The pollie being touted as the PM-in-waiting shouldn’t have been put up on a pedestal, writes Laurie Oakes.
Criticism for school signs plan
The government is extracting every political mileage out of their school infrastructure program possible, with schools forced to place government advertising signs outside new buildings until 2011.
Crikey Says: Dear diary: by Kevin Rudd
So what exactly does PM Kevin Rudd think of Brendan Nelson quitting and forcing a byelection? Luckily, Crikey has access to Rudd’s diary, thanks to The Oz…
Students: take a year off, miss out on Youth Allowance
Students are to meet today with Education Minister Julia Gillard to discuss proposed Youth Allowance reforms. The changes will make it difficult for gap year students to qualify for assistance.
CPRS bills succumb to a quiet defeat
The Government’s CPRS bills slipped to a quiet and deserved defeat this morning in the Senate, to much excitement here in Parliament House but, one suspects, yawning non-interest from voters.
Blair’s education plans do a full revolution
The government’s education revolution looks identical to failed policies introduced in Britain by ex-PM Tony Blair. The micro-managing of schools does not work.
Leave Kyle and Jackie alone!
Why the relentlessly vicious attacks on poor Kyle Sandilands? wonders Ben Pobje. After all, he was only protecting freedom of speech, children and entertainment.
ALSO: This week’s Wankley goes to … do we even need write it?
ALP conference made redundant
PM Kevin Rudd’s tightly controlled government has neutered the ALP national conference, writes Michelle Grattan and “what the conference decides matters hardly a whit.”
