Bahnisch: Liberals fight over their own soulThe CPRS battles within the Liberal party have nothing to do with good public policy or climate change, says Mark Bahnisch — it’s a contest over the spoils of opposition and the ideological direction of the party itself.
Malcolm Turnbull 
Turnbull’s climate crunch is coming
Malcolm Turnbull’s only real option is to reject Rudd’s CPRS and hand victory to Minchin and his colleagues.
Coalition at war
The Coalition has descended into new levels of chaos over emissions trading, with a pack of 17 rebels getting behind Senator Nick Minchin as he slammed the scheme in Parliament yesterday, and even Tony Abbott now reneging his support.
Either way, Turnbull’s on eggshells
Malcolm Turnbull is caught in a pincer movement between Liberal conservatives and Kevin Rudd — and both appear determined to destroy him.
Keane: Does anyone even care about misleading Parliament anymore?
Malcolm Turnbull called a press conference yesterday to accuse the Prime Minister of misleading Parliament over the Oceanic Viking deal. But does telling the truth in Parliament even mean anything any more? asks Bernard Keane.
Turnbull facing partyroom revolt
Ten Coalition MPs have warned Malcolm Turnbull that they will cross the floor and vote against emissions trading laws laws, regardless of any negotiations.
Sorry, but Kevin and Malcolm pulled it off
Well done to both Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, who this morning made excellent speeches in Parliament’s Great Hall, to representatives of the Forgotten Generation.
Bartlett: TPVs –- failed policy recycled for political benefit
The human harm done to many refugees on TPVs is well documented, says Andrew Bartlett. It’s a sad day when a blatantly ineffective measure is wilfully adopted purely for political appearances.
Newspoll and The Oz: a predictability problem
Last week’s negative Newspoll results in The Oz about Rudd’s leadership demonstrates how it’s not merely politicians who try to sell us narratives.
Grattan: Acting tough is what the voters want
There’s two lessons to learn from the latest Nielsen poll. One, Kevin Rudd needs to maintain his tough asylum seeker stance because the voters love it. Two, the Opposition need to get their act together, writes Michelle Grattan.
Cassin: Time to reopen the republic wounds
The republic debate has fallen off the national agenda not because of the GFC, but because our nation’s leaders — most of them republicans — don’t want to admit the only preference that would pass involves a president elected by the people not the parliament, says Ray Cassin.
Grattan: Is this the end of the Coalition?
The Coalition is straining to stay together, as the Nationals — lead symbolically by Barnaby Joyce — try to forge their own identity separate to the Libs. But the Coalition would be better off staying together to fight Rudd, writes Michelle Grattan.
Finally, the Opposition stop looking like idiots
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.
Guy Rundle: Politicians try to patch up a leaky boat of their own making
The government’s current problems with the Oceanic Viking stem entirely from its being too-clever-by-half – it’s of a piece with Ruddism, the idea that a series of brilliant technical decisions can serve as policy.
Crabb: How will we cope with leaky boats? Don’t worry, the sea levels are rising
Yesterday’s QT focused on each party’s respective Achilles heel, says Annabel Crabb. The government talked about climate change. The Opposition ignored them and asked about asylum seekers. The government ignored them. And repeat.
Coalition defends allowances to the death
The Coalition joint party room today rebelled against the Government’s restrictions on MPs’ printing allowances for “electoral purposes”, with Malcolm Turnbull labelling it “an assault on democracy”, writes Bernard Keane.
Do the Coalition shuffle!
Whatever happened to the Coalition reshuffle? Remember that? But reshuffles create losers and Malcolm Turnbull, who is one major brain explosion away from losing the leadership, has enough enemies as things stand.
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.
Henderson: Labor has always been tough on refugees
Kevin Rudd’s Indonesia Solution may turn out to be even tougher than John Howard’s Pacific Solution, writes Gerard Henderson. Rudd is just continuing the Labor tradition of being tough on immigration.
Atkins: Salesman Rudd sells “tough but fair”
Kevin Rudd knows that repetition is the way into the minds of voters, which is why he is reaffirming his “hardline but humane” line as often as possible, writes Dennis Atkins.
