There’s plenty of bad blood between the three independents and the National Party. But that’s no impediment for them to back the Coalition.
Bernard Keane on the Federal Election 2010
Crikey’s Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane provides the best news, analysis and commentary on the 2010 Federal Election
Labor needs fundamental change, not a line blaming leaks
The election has revealed that Labor has a major cultural problem at its highest levels.
Letter from the miners: boys, what have we done?
The mining industry has scored a big win over the weekend, but there are a couple of little problems in its wake.
No more politics as usual: the Greens break through
The Greens have broken through. They are a potent force that will have a casting vote on contested legislation until 2017 at the earliest.
Labor: still bearing the scars of the Howard years, needs defeat
This is not much short of a total disaster for Federal Labor, which less than a year ago was contemplating a 100-seat representation in the House of Representatives.
Abbott copied the Howard template
Tony Abbott has learnt well from his mentor John Howard and simply removed those elements of his political persona perceived as out of keeping with mainstream thinking.
It’s just a jump to the Left
And thus, from the most tedious, uninspiring and insulting election campaign in Australian political history, emerges the most fascinating of results.
The final tally: both sides in the red, in a miserly campaign
When Kevin Rudd said “this reckless spending must stop”, he set a new pattern for election promises that both sides have stuck to pretty well in 2010. We have had one of the most parsimonious campaigns of recent times.
Time to take back politics
Didn’t like the election campaign? Bad luck — you’re paying for it and you have no choice but to vote for the parties responsible for it. Unless we stop contracting out our politics and ramp up scrutiny of the media.
Essential: all locked up on election eve
We’re all locked up, says Essential Research in its final poll before the election. Only the Greens can be confident.
Keane’s Talking Points: Gillard could do with a few more hand grenades
The polls continue to be utterly unhelpful in picking a winner tomorrow.
Election ad roundup: positive pays — and the Greens confuse
Voters appear to be uninspired by political ads, except when the parties go positive, Roy Morgan has found.
Robb and Hockey go the lazy route on savings
Instead of ripping into middle-class welfare and pork-barrelling, the Opposition are conjuring savings from fiddling Commonwealth accounts and attacking the Public Service.
Keane’s Talking Points: cue the ‘late swing’ headlines
In last night’s “community forum”, half the questions were “swinging voters” demanding to know what politicians are going to do for them personally or for the industries they work in.
Abbott and the economy: best of enemies
Tony Abbott’s economic credentials are no worse than any other recent Prime Minister’s. It’s his temperament that’s the problem.
Coalition’s infrastructure policy: good if you’re paranoid about debt
The Coalition finally offers some sensible policy on infrastructure, but it’s on the wrong track in a few areas.
Keane’s Talking Points: are we there yet? … Maxine might not get there at all
Are we there yet? At the Press Club yesterday, Tony Abbott claimed Australia was now less safe an investment destination for mining than “Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Namibia and Botswana”. No journalist appears to have picked him up on this patently nonsensical claim, and as you’d expect it was faithfully carried in The Australian. The source? […]
The careful contrivance of an uncontrived launch
It’s hard to overstate just how unglamorous the Labor launch was. They couldn’t have got any plainer than if they’d headed down to the nearest park and watched Julia Gillard speak from a bench.
The callous anti-stimulus
campaign
Efforts to criticise the Government’s stimulus packages come from critics who want to permanently enfeeble the public sector.
Essential’s state-by-state breakdown: a minority Coalition government?
NSW is Labor’s problem, state, not Queensland, data from Essential Research suggests. NSW is poised to swing and swing hard against the government.
At least Abbott’s honest about willful refusal to buy into global warming
The party rhetoric on climate change hides a bipartisan policy of protecting the economic interests of polluters, which is why climate change has been almost entirely absent from the major parties’ campaigns.
Gillard finds a smidge of vision
Labor’s launch was a flat, uninspiring affair — but at last Julia Gillard produced something faintly visionary on e-health.
Farming profits in the rich soils of carbon sequestration
All that glitters isn’t green when it comes to carbon sequestration - keep an eye on the real beneficiaries.
Keane’s Talking Points: at the business end, it’s the disinterested that count
Now we’re into the business end of proceedings. The last three years now come down to five days of campaigning and three days of advertising and either side, or neither, can still win it. Given how bereft of inspiration, vision or honesty both sides have been, a hung parliament would be the most fitting outcome, […]
Into the red as we enter the home stretch
Both sides are deep into the red in their election commitments. Their numbers are getting ragged and there’s another seven days to go.
