Coalition

Analysis and Comment (13)

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The Gonski reforms will mean different levels of funding for different schools according to a variety of factors. AAP Image/Dan Peled

Gonski: different funding arrangements for different schools

By Squirrel Main, University of Melbourne

In an attempt to pressure state leaders on schools funding reform, prime minister Julia Gillard revealed new data showing the difference her package would make at the national and state level. The June…
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Tony Abbott’s budget reply was a considered economic strategy amid fiscally challenging times for Australia.

Strong rhetoric underpins Abbott’s budget strategy

By John Wanna

In last night’s budget reply, Tony Abbott crowed he will “put the house back in order” and that the “budget will be in better hands under a Coalition government than under Labor”. It was a very measured…
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In his budget reply speech, Tony Abbott made the unpredicted announcement that he would maintain carbon tax compensation but still abolish the tax. AAP/Alan Porritt

Abbott’s balancing act: keeping the compensation while axing the carbon tax

By Andrew Macintosh

In his federal budget reply speech, opposition leader Tony Abbott announced that a putative coalition government would maintain the revised tax-free threshold and other associated carbon tax compensation…
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Will the NBN be more “future-proof” under Labor or the Coalition? Lukas Coch/AAP image

The NBN needs vectoring – or is Turnbull just hectoring?

By Robin Braun, University of Technology, Sydney

In yesterday’s Business Spectator, shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull defended the Coalition’s broadband plan, released on Tuesday, as a better alternative to Labor’s National Broadband Network…
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The Coalition looks set to only tinker around the edges of higher education policy. AAP Image/Alan Porritt

Decoding Tony Abbott’s plans for universities

By Geoff Sharrock, University of Melbourne

What should universities expect from a Coalition government if Tony Abbott wins the September election? In his address to the Universities Australia conference in Canberra, the signals were fairly reassuring…
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When former leaders take the public stage, nostalgia hits for voters. ABCTV

A return to Rudd and Turnbull won’t raise the level of debate

By Nicholas Barry, La Trobe University

Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull’s appearances on Q&A last night were always going to make a splash. High-profile media appearances by Rudd and Turnbull inevitably prompt speculation among the media…
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Both political parties are lining up their elections strategies now, even though an election could still be a year away. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Feels like an election year? Here’s why

By Rob Manwaring, Flinders University

The former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson famously said a week is a long time in politics. If this is the case, then you have to wonder how long it will feel if the current Parliament runs it full…
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The two major parties have taken different approaches to compensating households for the carbon tax. Jonas B

The carbon tax, compensation and households: a two-party comparison

By John Freebairn, University of Melbourne

The two main political parties agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to 5% below the 2000 level, or about a 20% reduction below business as usual. However, they propose very different policy…
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The coalition needs to tread more lightly when it comes to Indonesia. AAP Image/Alan Porritt

Attention Tony Abbott: Indonesia wants collaboration, not confrontation

By Colin Brown, Griffith University

In his budget reply speech last week, opposition leader Tony Abbott said Indonesia was to be a “vital partner in Australia’s future”. He’s right, and for now, at the government-to-government level, Australia…
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Opposition leader Tony Abbott has resurrected former coalition government policy to “turn back” boats seeking asylum in Australia. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)

Abbott’s asylum seeker policy floats in murky legal waters

By Maria O'Sullivan, Monash University

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has said that under a coalition government every boat coming to Australia carrying asylum seekers will be sent back to Indonesia. The Indonesian police, the United Nations…
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Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard are not seeing eye to eye on pairing. AAP/Alan Porritt

Petty politics: The perils of parliamentary pairing

By Craig Mark, Kwansei Gakuin University

The decision last month by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to severely restrict the practice of “pairing” votes in Parliament is another demonstration of the fractious and polarised state of federal politics…
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Former Prime Minister John Howard with his then chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos. AAP

From chief of staff to Senator: the rise and rise of Arthur Sinodinos

By Anne Tiernan, Griffith University

Arthur Sinodinos has long been mooted as a potential successor to retiring former Howard minister, Senator Helen Coonan. Now that Sinodinos – long serving chief of staff to former Primer Minister John…

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