November, 2009

One of the amazing things about the East Anglia CRU emails scandal is how little it seems to be affecting the whole debate. As George Monbiot notes in the Guardian, even those battling the alcan hat brigade shouldn’t be complacent about what the manipulation of ‘peer-review’ that is going on in the emails – even if there’s [...]

How many of us could justify how we spend our money to a middle level officer from Centrelink? How do we prove we are engaged with our community and responsible in our spending? What about the utilities bill that we paid late or the bargain case of booze with Xmas coming up? How do you [...]

It’s 5pm as I write.  The only official statements today have come from Turnbull.  After Joe Hockey met him this morning and Turnbull then left Parliament House – apparently for a sandwich – with his wife, he returned to give a press conference outside the House of Representatives entrance.  Yet again, it was vintage Turnbull, [...]

Politics is, of course, a deeply serious business - the hip-pocket nerve, life-and-death decisions, the entire future of the planet, and so forth. But politics is also a fabulous spectator sport. And as the Liberal leadership spill becomes ever more entertaining, I found that Crikey and Twitter and Latelines and etcetera just weren’t enough. I wanted [...]

When Andrew Robb announced that he was stepping down from front bench in order to deal with long-standing depression, he received an appropriately sympathetic public response and praise for his willingness to speak out about a widely stigmatised medical condition. But well enough to join the fray of a particularly savage leadership contest is well [...]

For weeks and months I’ve thought Malcolm Turnbull was a disaster as Liberal leader. Definitely since the Godwin Grech business, and probably before then, back when he declared opposition to the second stimulus package. It should never have been thus.  Putting aside my professional role for a moment, I had high hopes for Turnbull.  I [...]

The Liberal Party is remarkably inept at dealing with its leadership problems, which is peculiar given just how much they depend on their leader to keep them unified.  All parties realise from time to time they have to replace a leader.  Labor usually has plenty of hardheads who can oversee the process of spilling and [...]

In a typically spirited performance, Malcolm Turnbull tonight declared he is committed to addressing climate change and dared his party opponents to blast him out of the leadership. Turnbull was confident, even aggressive, in his determination to stare down his critics, whose ranks have dramatically swelled this evening to include Tony Abbott and several junior [...]

The Liberal Party is falling apart tonight as conservative frontbenchers resign, leaving Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership untenable.  Tony Abbott and Sophie Mirabella resigned a short time ago, with Nick Minchin rumoured to be about to resign, Tony Smith apparently having also resigned, and more set to follow.

Does the Liberal Party still exist? The questions turns on the ETS and what it is constructed as representing. Obviously it has nothing to do with resistance to tax and big govt This is the party that gave us the GST after all. No, clearly resistance to the ETS is steered by the notion that [...]