The politics of playing against typeJohn Howard advocating the leftist cause of Timor Leste, Julia Gillard campaigning against gay marriage — sometimes politicians can surprise us by defying our expectations, writes Politically Homeless.
Tony Abbott
Follow Crikey’s latest coverage of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott. Crikey’s Tony Abbott coverage includes independent news, blogs and commentary.
Essential: both leaders end the year on the nose
Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott end the political year as deeply unpopular leaders, losing the faith of even more voters.
Nielsen: Abbott pulls ahead as preferred PM
The final Newspoll of the year presents a pre-Christmas present for the Opposition, with the Coalition at 57-43 two-party preferred. Tony Abbott has also pulled ahead of Julia Gillard as preferred Prime Minister, reports William Bowe.
Newspoll: Gillard consolidates her lead
The latest Newspoll has the Coalition two-party lead at 54-46, down from an aberrant 57-43 a fortnight ago. The Coalition is down four points on the primary vote to 44%, reports William Bowe.
Time-honoured rituals of regulation live on
Tony Abbott’s promise to slash red tape is a time-honoured Canberra ritual, but it’s a hollow promise. And he should shake up his front bench to inject more policy nous into the mix.
Who needs four uni degrees or even one for that matter?
For too long Australia has been gripped by the ridiculous notion that the more people finishing high school, the more people attending university, the richer and more productive our country will become, writes Adam Creighton.
Slipper takes the money and runs … the show
Crikey media wrap: Labor stalwart Harry Jenkins resigned as speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday, sending shockwaves through the parliament.
Afghanistan: another nebulous parliamentary debate isn’t good enough
A parliamentary debate on Afghanistan in which the same lines about “seeing it through” are repeated is simply not good enough.
Abbott’s statesman’s hat is so unfashionably last year
I attended Tony Abbott’s address to The Sydney Institute last night with real enthusiasm, expecting to hear something good. However, what we got was 2010 revisited.
Good Weekend‘s must-read Andrew Bolt profile
Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt has few friends, but Opposition leader Tony Abbott begged him to keep fighting the good conservative fight. John van Tiggelen eats dinner with Australia’s most powerful megaphone.
Last week of parliament for 2011
Crikey media wrap: The mining tax, a tax that helped bring down the Rudd government, is likely to pass the House of Representatives this week, capping off a busy year of legislation for Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Sideshow Alley: Bottoms to that
This week’s Sideshow Alley winner earns the prize for using the word “bottoms’ in a story about the President of the United States.
Obama to China: you can’t exploit our fiscal crisis
Barack Obama used his address to Parliament to send an unambiguous message to China.
Essential: the Gillard (semi) recovery edition
Julia Gillard has turned around her negative momentum with voters, but Tony Abbott continues to go the wrong way, today’s Essential Report finds.
Carbon tax passes but blood pledge remains
Crikey media wrap: It’s taken years of debates, discussion papers and fallen leaders, but yesterday the senate passed Australia’s first carbon legislation.
Crikey Says: The little carbon tax that could
Now that wasn’t that hard, was it?
Newspoll: Labor narrows gap, Abbott hits record disapproval
The latest Newspoll has Tony Abbott hitting a record high disapproval rating of 57 percent, with Labor narrowing the two-party gap to 53-47, reports William Bowe.
The consequences of turning boats back: SIEV towback cases
Twenty-seven people are feared dead after an boat packed with asylum seekers bound for Australia sank off the coast of Indonesia last week.
Abbott, Hockey trash the Coalition’s economic credentials — again
The crass attempt by Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey to exploit the Eurozone crisis has blown up in their faces, courtesy of David Cameron.
Sideshow Alley: who knew what when and, more importantly, who cares?
It’s the week for it, so let’s kick off with Qantas. Or not so much Qantas, but who-knew-what-when about the now infamous weekend grounding…
Crikey Says: Europe does matter
We can judge the Europeans severely for their many and varied faults of economic management, but for the sake of Australian jobs we can’t stand idly by while they drag the globe into recession.
Abbott and Hockey: a pair of economic clowns
If Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey really mean what they say about not contributing to the International Monetary Fund then heaven help us if they are ever in a position to practice what they preach, writes Richard Farmer.
Swan croaks his way to success, but how long until Labor ruins it?
Labor is happier fighting on IR and Tony Abbott has come off the boil. But how long until Labor stuffs it up again?
