Scare campaigns need to have a semblance of truth behind them to work effectively and Labor’s strategy of making pensioners think they’ll have their income managed through the cashless debit card if the Coalition wins the federal election, does gave some solid foundations. For a start: the scheme already exists. And the legislation to apply the scheme to age pensions also exists. And footage of many ministers outlining their support for the scheme – that also exists as well. Is it a “scare campa...
Apr 22, 2022•42 min
A very hostile first media conference for Anthony Albanese in the marginal seat of Bass in Tasmania, where he couldn’t answer or gave the wrong answers to two questions from a journalist: what’s the Reserve Bank’s cash rate, and what is the official unemployment rate. A classic ‘gotcha’ question from the media, and it’s just another example of how poor political journalism is in Australia, where the value of catching a politician out – and getting the headline propaganda – is placed far higher t...
Apr 15, 2022•34 min
We’ve never seen a government in so much trouble entering an election campaign and it’s just a question of whether Scott Morrison has the political skills to turn matters around. But before everyone starts drawing a line through the Liberal–National Coalition and ending nine years of brutally poor government and incompetence, it has to be remembered that we’ve seen this story before – 2016 and 2019 – when a divided Coalition was expected to at least lose one of those elections – 2019 – before be...
Apr 08, 2022•1 hr
The Budget was announced this week, and not only was it one of the most political ever, it was also one of the most expensive job applications in history for the federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, who is clearly angling for the leadership of the Liberal Party after the next election, win or lose. Is this a good Budget? Budgets should be all about the community and the economy but, once again, the media has focused on whether the Budget will be enough to get the Coalition government re-elected o...
Apr 01, 2022•58 min
The electorate in South Australia has removed a one-term Liberal Party government and installed a Labor government under Peter Malinauskas. And with a state election so close to a federal election, will there be any implications for Scott Morrison? We keep being told that there’s no relationship between state and federal issues, but we think there is much for the Morrison government to be worried about. In almost every election result since the pandemic commenced, aside from a state election vic...
Mar 25, 2022•41 min
It was Anthony Albanese’s turn to appear on 60 Minutes, but not as much enthusiasm as they displayed for Scott Morrison, even though more people tuned in to watch Albanese, compared to Morrison’s episode several weeks earlier. And his appearance brought the ire of Morrison, who complained about Albanese’s weight loss, his lack of interest in Italian cakes and his choice of glasses. In Morrison’s mind, these are critical issues for choosing a prime minister and it explains why his time as prime m...
Mar 18, 2022•58 min
Dedicated to the memory of Senator Kimberley Kitching. The floods in northern NSW and Queensland are causing major political headaches for the Morrison government and, as the floodwaters flow back into the oceans, their ideological obsession with small government has been laid bare. Communities expect governments to act when events occur that are beyond their control and beyond their abilities to repair. Otherwise, what is the point of government? Are they not also made up from the people that l...
Mar 11, 2022•49 min
The war in Russian invasion in Ukraine is escalating, and it’s difficult to know how this will end. But Vladimir Putin has already lost, irrespective of the outcome: a crashing Russian economy, the Rouble has collapsed, and receiving opprobrium from most of the rest of the world. As well as what populist dictators hate the most: removal of the Russian football team from World Cup games. And is has also provided an opportunity for the Australian Prime Minister to talk tough. It’s obvious Scott Mo...
Mar 04, 2022•56 min
Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton are keen to mention the Community Party of China at every opportunity and how terrible they are – ignoring the fact that China is Australia’s number one trading partner and Australian athletes recently competed at the Winter Olympics in Beijing (so surely it can be all that bad) – and making the link between bad China and the Labor Party, especially its leader, Anthony Albanese. And creating that link between Albanese and pinko-communist-leftist-Maoist-Guevarian-s...
Feb 25, 2022•49 min
Butchering a classic pop song from a 1970s Australian band and playing a ukulele might not seem like the best way to prepare for a critical election year, but that’s exactly what Scott Morrison did. It seemed bizarre but there is a method to this madness: it keeps all the bad news away from the headlines and keeps the enemies of the Liberal Party occupied with the unimportant and minute details. It’s the hallmark of a populist politician: distract with stunts and gimmicks, keep your opponents in...
Feb 18, 2022•50 min
It was an explosive week of Parliament, the first of very few in 2022. The government decided not to schedule too many sitting days this year because, when there’s an election year, a most secretive government doesn’t want too much scrutiny placed upon itself. And, because it’s an election year, a funding freeze for the ABC has been lifted, which is a little bit awkward: the Liberal Party conference in 2015 voted to privatise the ABC (and SBS), and it’s one of the Institute of Public Affair’s to...
Feb 11, 2022•54 min
An absolute summer of discontent is almost sealing the fate of the Morrison government, one of the most incompetent administrations Australia has ever seen, aided and abetted by a NSW Government which has managed – or mismanaged – the Omicron outbreak in the worst possible way. For many families, Christmas was spent in isolation, either with COVID, or waiting until the results of their PCR tests arrived – and this was in contrast to the message Scott Morrison put out in November, when he promise...
Feb 04, 2022•51 min
Georgia Steele is an independent candidate in the southern Sydney seat of Hughes and is up against the current member Craig Kelly, and candidates from the major political parties. It’s a difficult task for any independent to win any federal seat but there seems to be a groundswell of support for change in the 2022 federal election. There are many key issues not being addressed by the federal government – climate change, women’s safety, the management of the pandemic – and Steele is using these i...
Jan 28, 2022•27 min
Jo Dyer is the independent candidate in the South Australia seat of Boothby, the third-most marginal seat in Australia. And she’s running under the banner of the ‘Voices Of’ movement, a loose alliance of independents campaigning all across Australia on the issues of climate change, integrity and women’s safety – all of which the Prime Minister and his team are doing very little about, and seem to care even less about. Which major party forms government at the next election could be determined by...
Jan 21, 2022•34 min
An incredible year in Australian politics, but the biggest feature was all the issues left behind and the issues that were not managed very well at all: climate change, corruption, the way women are treated within the political system. And the biggest issue of all for 2021: the coronavirus pandemic. It can be argued that at least by the end of the year, high vaccination rates were achieved and we finally got there, but in the meantime, there were two protracted lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne ...
Dec 14, 2021•33 min
Independent candidates are set to play a big role in the next federal election. And why are they running for election? Because they’ve had enough of the politics-as-usual approach and feel Australia is being held back by poor leadership, especially on climate change, a lack of action against corruption, and the treatment of women in politics. David Lewis speaks with Kylea Tink, the independent candidate in the seat of North Sydney, to find out why she is running for politics and how she is hopin...
Dec 11, 2021•23 min
Political parties love to end the year with momentum and provide a springboard into the new year – especially if there’s an election coming up. Labor is starting to release some policy to address long-term political issues: climate change, skills shortages, university placements – and to combat this, the Prime Minister decided that it was best to ride around Mount Panorama in a race car and announce to Australians that it’s time to put them back into the driver’s seat. The symbolism was strange:...
Dec 07, 2021•42 min
The parliamentary year commenced with the revelations of a rape at Parliament House; it ended with a report into sexual harassment at parliamentary workplaces… and a federal minister stepping aside after he was accused of physically abusing a staffer he was having an affair with. When will parliamentarians learn their lessons? And with so many government MPs and Ministers resigning, is it a sign of panic? No, it’s quite normal for MPs to retire and they can’t stay in politics forever. But it cer...
Dec 03, 2021•27 min
It’s the final week of Parliament for 2021 and it’s much the same as all the other ones in recent weeks: chaos and dysfunction, and a peculiar interest in all of the issues that don’t really matter too much. This week’s interest? The anti-troll social media legislation which no one has ever asked for, would be ineffective (in the unlikely event that it was ever actually made into law) – but at least it took up two full days of national debate. Anything to avoid working on the issues that really ...
Nov 30, 2021•38 min
This term of Parliament is descending into chaos, and it’s almost as though the anarchist society has taken over the Senate and House of Representatives. But it’s not the anarchist society: it’s the Liberal–National Coalition which is now resembling a thoroughly disorganised rabble. The Voter ID and Religious Discrimination Bills are in tatters – legislation that is not needed and no-one has asked for – and the national integrity commission is no closer to formation. A new Speaker was installed ...
Nov 26, 2021•29 min
It’s increasingly obvious the Prime Minister is using the final stages of this Parliament to roadtest a number of different election slogans. Last week it was ‘Australians taking back their lives’, followed by ‘Australians have had a gutful of being told what to do’, interspersed with ‘cost of living’ and ‘can-do capitalism’. This week it was ‘moving forward’. But where are we moving forward to? What’s the destination? What happens at this destination? Who’s going to be there when we get there? ...
Nov 23, 2021•35 min
Once again, the Liberal–National Coalition is attacking the ABC, and doing the bidding of News Corporation in its quest to remove the ABC from government ownership and sell if off to the highest bidder. And several state divisions of the Liberal Party – and all the Young Liberal branches – have already passed resolutions to privatise the ABC and it’s also one of the key objectives of the Institute of Public Affairs. Yes, the ABC needs to be reformed and it shouldn’t just try to replicate what th...
Nov 19, 2021•31 min
Australia is seeking national leadership at this point of time to ward off the threat of extremist behaviour in Melbourne but instead of trying to dampen the enthusiasm of QAnon, neo-Nazis, fascists, sovereign citizens and assorted fringe dwellers, Scott Morrison is hoping to hang onto their votes at the next federal election and he decided the best course of action is to just keep quiet, lest he upset his supporter base. The weekend protests in Melbourne attracted 5,000 people, primarily to voi...
Nov 16, 2021•34 min
Paul Keating was a hit at the National Press Club address during the week, but members of the federal government were not so happy about this. Because he spoke positively and realistically about China and Australia’s place in the world: which rubs against the grain of the government’s narrative of depicting China as a massive threat to Australia. And the media is happy to jump in and offer their support, using every negative cliché about China in their reportage – falling short of using the “Yel...
Nov 12, 2021•36 min
There won’t be a federal election in the short term, but that doesn’t mean campaigning can’t start early. It feels like the election campaign has already commenced, with Scott Morrison wanting to ‘move on’ from all the errors from the past and present his best face to the public. But this depends on the fine art of the political lie, of which Morrison is happy to contribute to. In 2004, John Howard opened his campaign with “who do you trust on the economy?”, flushing out memories of continuous ‘...
Nov 10, 2021•37 min
The Prime Minister was reluctant to go to the COP26 climate change conference and it’s obvious to see why. To say it was a diplomatic disaster is an understatement and the more Scott Morrison makes politics all about him, the more he is exposed as an ineffective prime minister who appears to be severely out of his depth. It’s one thing to create a diplomatic problem with a long-term European ally, but it’s another issue entirely to start leaking private text messages received from the French Pre...
Nov 05, 2021•30 min
What is Scott Morrison? A brand name? A theme, a hologram, a Prime Minister, an advertisement, a football coach?… or just a person? It’s hard to know, because Morrison reveals so little of who he actually is. But does it really matter? We reveal all in a conversation with Sean Kelly, discussing his brand new book, “The Game: A Portrait of Scott Morrison”, published by Black Inc. Books. We try to pin Morrison down, but it’s so difficult. So, we start off with the “Where the Bloody Hell Are You?” ...
Nov 02, 2021•37 min
The Plan To Deliver Net Zero is much like the Morrison government: it’s insubstantial, inadequate, filled with political marketing and spin and, ultimately, does very little to act on climate change. It’s all about politics and directed at those people in the electorate who might be thinking about switching their vote away from the Liberal and National parties at the next election, of which there is a substantial number. Morrison lacks intellect and he’s incurious about the world. But he has rat...
Oct 29, 2021•30 min
The latest opinions polls show Scott Morrison is still on the nose and might have reached the point of no return. It’s currently 46% to the LNP and 54% to Labor in the two-party preferred voting and while it’s always possible for governments to make up ground, it is a difficult task. Morrison is looking panicked and a panicked prime minister will always start rolling the dice more erratically, or look to filthy lucre to see if the election victory from May 2019 can be repeated. Lighting rarely s...
Oct 26, 2021•32 min
Recent events in NSW have shown that its Independent Commission Against Corruption is doing its job, despite the protests of Scott Morrison: the Obeids and Ian Macdonald have been sentenced to jail for attempting to embezzle $100 million through a coal mine lease licence between 2007-2009. It was the NSW ICAC which commenced proceedings against these former NSW Labor MPs; and it’s the same NSW ICAC which is currently investigating the arrangements between former NSW Liberal Premier, Gladys Berej...
Oct 22, 2021•37 min
