Local government has once again been crowded out of the limelight as the big boys fight for control of the Australian political sandpit. The referendum to give constitutional recognition to local government…
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Election 2013 – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 151 - 175 of 205 articles
Shaking hands. Kissing babies. Throwing snags on the barbie, or wandering through a suburban shopping centre. These are the familiar scenes of “retail politics”, a campaign style in which candidates sell…
The Western Australian seat of O’Connor provides a fascinating battle between the Liberal and National parties that reflects a struggle to win the hearts and minds – and votes – of regional Western Australians…
By now you’ll know the Coalition has dramatically under-budgeted its Direct Action plan on climate change by A$4 billion. On the Coalition’s current budget the plan will fail to meet Australia’s emissions…
On a flying visit to Darwin yesterday, Prime Minister Rudd proposed a new initiative “Growing the North: A Plan for Northern Australia”. The Opposition, particularly local Country Liberal politicians…
**Northern futures, northern voices: It seems everyone has ideas about how Australia’s north could be better, but most of those ideas come from the south. In this six-part weekly series, developed by the…
Since opposition leader Tony Abbott’s self-described “daggy dad” comments about Liberal candidate Fiona Scott’s sex appeal, gender issues have re-emerged in Australian politics. Labor frontbenchers claim…
To Wilkie, or not to Wilkie? That is the question confronting the electors in the Tasmanian seat of Denison on September 7. The last three years It’s been a long time since former prime minister Julia…
Welcome to the second of The Conversation’s Election 2013 podcasts. Each week The Conversation will be sitting down with Australia’s top political minds to discuss all things election as we gear up for…
Is anybody concerned that policy process is being trashed in this election? Really trashed. Take yesterday. Kevin Rudd wanted to get some big picture vision out. So he arrived in Darwin with a plan to…
Serious discussion of climate change policy has been noticeably absent this election campaign - while the issue was allotted a portion of the first leaders’ debate, little time was devoted to it. Nonetheless…
The outer suburban Western Australian seat of Hasluck moved centre stage during the last federal election for two reasons. First, the tight result meant that it was not decided until late in the count…
Welcome to the The Conversation’s Election 2013 State of the Nation essays. These articles by leading experts in their field provide an in-depth look at the key policy challenges affecting Australia as…
Today’s announcement by the Liberal Party that they will preference against the Greens at this year’s federal election should hardly come as a surprise. There has been endless speculation that the Liberals…
Welcome to the **The Conversation Election 2013 State of the Nation* essays. These articles by leading experts in their field provide an in-depth look at the key policy challenges affecting Australia as…
From the beginning of the 2013 election campaign, prime minister Kevin Rudd has put young people front and centre. Be it through the use of social media (although no more “selfies” have surfaced of late…
Recently, Lingiari MP and Minister for Indigenous Health and Veterans’ Affairs Warren Snowdon made a big fuss in the local NT media about a A$4,500 grant for a new stove for the ailing RSL club in Alice…
The Coalition is now under pressure to get out its policy costings, following the release of the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which shows virtually no change in key figures since the government’s…
Welcome to the The Conversation’s Election 2013 State of the Nation essays. These articles by leading experts in their field provide an in-depth look at the key policy challenges affecting Australia as…
The Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook report (PEFO) is a recent development in Australian politics. It emerged as part of the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998 during the first term of the Howard…
The seat of Lindsay represents some of Sydney’s outer western suburbs. It has occupied its own special place in the Australian psyche, long before the leaflet scandal in the last days of John Howard’s…
Up until Sunday’s debate, we heard grumbles that this election is too personality-focused. The beef was that the last few months in political news had been consumed by conflict and drama. “MPs” are “Media…
It looks like the GST will feature prominently in yet another election. The government is running a scare campaign on whether the Coalition will raise the GST after the election. In the meantime Tony Abbott…
Australian politics is becoming too “presidential”, in the view of participants in our Eden-Monaro focus group. And, they believe, this election has been going on too long. In their first discussion since…
It’s all in the eyes and ears of the beholders and listeners. The popular media saw Kevin Rudd with notes when the debate’s rules of engagement banned them. The gay marriage lobby heard that there would…