As Labor caucus members return to Canberra uncertain who will be PM at the end of this final fortnight parliamentary sitting, voters in the bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro are saying to them: just sort…
Kevin Rudd’s campaigning today will be a reminder to the caucus of his popularity among people.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Kevin Rudd will hit western Sydney today to do some high profile campaigning. For Labor, he would say. For the leadership, others would note.
Rudd will be mobbed. He’ll visit schools in the electorates…
Gillard’s personal resilience is remarkable, whatever one thinks of her political nous.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Parliament is up for a week, before its final fortnight session of the term. Labor MPs are dreading those last two weeks. If they are anything like the past few days, they’ll be disastrous.
“Febrile…
Tony Abbott’s credibility has taken a blow this week, after going back on the electoral funding legislation.
AAP/Lukas Coch
It was an extraordinary moment. Tony Abbott, overcome with emotion, as he paid a tribute to Martin Ferguson, after Labor’s former resources minister announced he would leave parliament at the election…
Barnaby Joyce believes local government must make more effort if they want a “yes” vote at the referendum.
AAP/Lukas Coch
It might be the mickey mouse part of September 14 but the referendum to recognise local government in the constitution will be a fascinating case study of what happens to a view held by the public when…
Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson has vigorously denied his department has become politicised.
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Two reports released on the same day have confirmed what we already knew – that the structural budget balance is in poor shape.
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has launched its report, Estimates…
Tony Abbott will be happy to accept the government’s cuts in the budget.
AAP/Alan Porritt
It is not that this budget was a bad one. It’s that, according to most people on both sides of politics, voters aren’t listening anymore.
Budget week seemed not a big economic moment, but principally…
Wayne Swan delivered his sixth budget.
AAP/Alan Porritt
What is almost certainly the Gillard government’s last budget delays the attack on the deficit and concentrates on entrenching “legacy” programs, for which Labor hopes to be remembered.
Dealt a difficult…
Treasurer Wayne Swan has unveiled an $19.4 billion deficit, but promises to be back in surplus by 2016-17.
AAP
How did the Australian economy, which boasts the best performance of the major advanced economies, end up with an estimated budget deficit of A$19 billion this year and an estimated debt of $178 billion…
Today’s budget will not be a typical big-spend budget.
AAP
Softening up voters for harsh measures, Julia Gillard observed a fortnight ago that “Tuesday 14 May will be no old-fashioned pre-election budget night”. The budget would not be a “political pamphlet” but…
Cory Bernadi is calling on Tony Abbott to oppose the local government referendum.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Liberal Senator Cory Bernadi has called on the federal Coalition to oppose the referendum to recognise local government in the constitution, which will be held with the September 14 election.
Senator…
Minister for Defence Materiel and Eden-Monaro MP Mike Kelly casts his vote in the 2010 federal election.
AAP/Stefan Postles
With the election just four months away but the campaigning seeming endless, the view of politics from the marginal Labor seat of Eden-Monaro is one of disillusionment.
Regardless of gender, age or voting…
Eden Monaro is currently held by Mike Kelly, Minister for Defence Materiel.
AAP/Alan Porritt
In David Williamson’s satirical play “Don’s Party” based around the 1969 federal election night, Eden-Monaro gets a mention, among the early signs of a big swing to Labor.
At that poll, the seat returned…
There is no evidence that Tony Abbott, a one-time workplace relations minister, is an industrial relations zealot.
AAP/Paul Miller
To insist on his fair dinkum “sensible centre” credentials as he unveiled his workplace relations policy, Tony Abbott recounted how, when a journalist and a union member, he’d moved a strike motion after…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott at the launch of his politically cautious industrial relations policy today in Sydney.
AAP/Paul Miller
Unions' power would be curbed under an Abbott government, with more restrictions put on their right of entry to workplaces and a time limit imposed for concluding “greenfield agreements” for new projects…
What sort of economic legacy did the long-serving Howard-Costello prime minister-treasurer double act really leave?
AAP/Alan Porritt
The good times are over. That’s the message both parties are sending out ahead of the budget and September’s election.
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey promises major cuts to spending and welfare if the coalition…
The federal government’s Farm Finance package includes concessional loans to help farmers restructure and improve productivity – but carries the risk of heaping them with more debt.
The Federal Government’s new Farm Finance assistance package includes concessional loans to help farms restructure debt and invest in productivity.
But this is a back-to-the-future response that carries…
Liberal moderate Mal Washer has called on Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey to explain their commitment to the paid parental leave scheme.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The row over Tony Abbott’s controversial paid parental leave scheme has widened with prominent Liberal moderate Mal Washer calling on the opposition leader and shadow treasurer to explain to the party…
Were you one of the 50 million people affected by the LivingSocial data breach?
El Ojo Inoportuno - fotografía Lo-Fi
Oh look, everyone … another data breach!
LivingSocial, an international social service network with a presence in Australia, acknowledged last week it had been hacked, with exposure of information about…
Education used to be about striving towards the light of knowledge but this is increasingly less important.
Cave image from www.shutterstock.com
It’s nothing new to say we have a problem in education. But I’m not here to discuss the usual gripes with teachers and test scores.
I believe we have a more fundamental problem with defining what we want…
Julia Gillard and Stephen Smith’s new Defence White Paper places emphasis on working with China as well as the United States.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The Government’s new Defence White Paper has adopted a conciliatory tone towards China, focused attention on the region and announced the purchase of a dozen new high-tech fighter planes.
Julia Gillard…
Julia Gillard’s NDIS has bipartisan support, but the debate has been marred by politicking.
AAP/James Knowler
In the end, the disabled outsmarted the politicians. Julia Gillard will bring legislation to the current parliament for her tax increase to contribute to the cost of the national disability insurance scheme…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has confirmed the Medicare levy will be increased to fund the NDIS.
AAP/Julian Smith
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced a 0.5% increase in the Medicare levy to help fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – but Labor will not bring in legislation for the higher tax…
There are economic and moral justifications for debt forgiveness.
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The overhang of debt in Europe and the US has made recovery from the global financial crisis particularly tenuous.
Is there a dramatic and simple way out of all this? Some argue that there is: a “debt…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will today announce significantly lower than estimated tax revenue.
AAP/ Shane Eecen
The estimate of budget tax revenue collection for 2012-13 has been further slashed, with the Treasury now saying it will be $12 billion less than forecast in October.
The revision is another blow to a…
