Blogotariat

A few weeks ago the reality of systemic racism became obvious to more Australians. Now the Liberal Party offshoot in Queensland, the Liberal National Party, have highlighted the systemic sexism of our society.

Can anyone tell me what, in full, was on Brough’s menu?

It just might swing the election.

What would Tony Abbott do? As with all potential prime ministers there’s no way to be sure. But thanks to an unusual instance of history repeating we’ve been given an unusually clear idea of what he’ll be told to do.

It is also what he wants to be told to do.

Tony Wright says in the smh it would be hard to ‘persuade voters it is a sensible or halfway attractive idea to change leaders twice in three years’.

The often reliable Leigh Sales has a piece in The Drum listing "The ten questions Labor MPs are asking themselves". Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, all ten pertain to the leadership of the party. Sales doesn't seem to consider it even a possibility that...

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Why do candidates from minor parties contest elections they know they'll lose? Alex Hamer spoke with Rose Read, who is Greens candidate for the Victorian seat of Goldstein, about what's at stake

Australia has always been committed to the law of the sea, but it's high time we applied it evenly. No asylum seeker deserves to drown and be lost forever, writes Trevor Grant

One of the significant benefits of the Gillard Government's Gonski reforms is that it is a step that begins to address the future of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Young Australians, especially those not from middle-class backgrounds, are having a pretty hard time. The labour market prospects for young people without skills and qualifications is likely to remain bleak, especially with the slowing of economic growth and the decline of manufacturing.

Simpler: The Future of Government
By Cass R. Sunstein
Simon & Schuster | $33

So .. Rudd takes over on June 20, three years to the day from his removal, and, with ninety days to the election, he …

Well, he sacks Swan, puts in Bowen, replaces Shorten with Joel Fitzgibbon, gives Gillard Foreign Affairs, offers Carr the Arts and is refused, leaves Plibersek, Garrett, Combet, Dreyfus and Bradbury where they are, splits Infrastructure and gives some to Doug Cameron, some to Crean, puts Ferguson back in his old job for a few weeks, sacks Wong and gives her job to Husik, makes Albo Deputy Leader and …

.. with Swan, Wong, Carr and Shorten on the back bench, goes to the country as the new fount of Unity.

I have a fairly straightforward question that I would really like answered. Seriously, not glib, partisan hackery… a really want an answer.

How does one spend 14 BILLION in additional money on public schools and *not* get a political win out of that?

I get that ‘more money for schools’ is a fairly normal election line, but this is an enormous amount of money, game changing kinda money, which of course was the point of the Gonski recommendations: to change the game. It’s being done.

And the public goes ‘meh’.

How the hell does that happen?