One for the price of two

The Liberal Party and the Nationals in Queensland are set to merge, apparently. Clearly, they're at the stage of:"if not this, what? If not now, when?".

I thought initially that such a merger would produce three parties (not just the united LNPQ but separate Liberals and Nationals who'd never wear the merger) rather than one, but despite the belligerent opening of this

Henderson's intellectual poverty

Gerard Henderson is blaming a range of organisations for intellectual failure within the Liberal Party, without examining the anti-intellectual culture within the party itself. So long as this happens, the problem he identifies cannot be solved.

The problems with Buswell or Nelson are not in the individuals themselves, but in the collective decisions that these

Henderson's intellectual poverty

Gerard Henderson is blaming a range of organisations for intellectual failure within the Liberal Party, without examining the anti-intellectual culture within the party itself. So long as this happens, the problem he identifies cannot be solved.

The problems with Buswell or Nelson are not in the individuals themselves, but in the collective decisions that these

The failure of Tony Abbott

This brain-fart from Tony Abbott shows that he is going to be no use whatsoever in getting the Liberals back into government. He still wears the crusty mantle of arrogance that comes from too long in power, he has no sympathy for hard-working families and is fundamentally politically unbalanced.

Abbott thinks he can counter the nanny-state government-knows-best

Walk like a man

Troy Buswell is not good enough to become Premier of Western Australia and he should stand down.

This article is your standard pissant political reporting piece: who's up, who's down, who's challenging and who's staying put. It's also morally empty, not just in terms of the chair-sniffing and bra-snapping (and failing to mention his role as Crichton-Browne's messenger boy) but

All very well for some

There is a case to be made for Peter Costello to write his memoirs in his own time on his own equipment, and he will have to answer to the voters of Higgins for how well he does that. His leader failed to make that case, and also made it harder to present a case for government:
"I mean, for goodness sake, Peter Costello has served Australia in public life for 18 years.

"

Bloody battle

Dennis Shanahan made himself a laughing stock last year when, in the face of consistent polling showing that the Howard government could not win, insisted that they could and would do so. Now, as the contrarian of the press gallery, the man who zigs while others zag, Shanahan has taken on Brendan Nelson as his pet project. This is all very well, until you see that this "political

The worst job

The worst jobs involve saving people from themselves, an insistence that their interests differ from their thoughts, words and deeds. These are jobs where all the resources in the world would be too little, and too little resources understates both the nature of the problem and what's needed to fix it.

In Victoria, football Aussie Rules coaches and politicians complain that they

Nasty, brutish and short

Federal Liberal MPs are seeking shelter from the storm in which they can only be blamed for the shortcomings of the Howard government, without receiving the credit that they feel is due them. Brendan Nelson can't offer them that shelter. Malcolm Turnbull offers a storm in himself. And some in the Aussie Rules states still pine for Peter Costello, apparently.
"The real

Liberal studies

In the face of the slow decline of George W. Bush and the uncertain burial of the Howard government in this country, is the energies of Liberal youth really best spent in trying to stoke dying fires? Is Tim Andrews wasting his time and others' calling for a situation "whereby young Liberal people are recognised as an intellectual force"?

The Education not Indoctrination (ENI)

Kulturkrieg under Kevin07

This is the best article yet in The Australian on the lame local cover-versions of the "culture wars". This isn't saying much, as The Australian has rendered itself irrelevant within the national debate with its insistence that "culture wars" matter, and that the witterings of Sheridan and Albrechtsen, Adams and Manne et al, are in some way linked to issues of

Membership of the Liberal Party

Bruce Baird made many of the same points that have been made about the Liberal Party for some time. He has also done what others have done: raised important issues and then skated around them.

It's true that people are building little fiefdoms, but the answer to that is simple: break down the fiefdoms. If you join the Liberal Party, then you join the Liberal

Mixed messages as usual

The only country that could cut itself off from others and survive is China. The United States would die if it walled itself off from influxes of people, goods and ideas, and so would Australia. China is a nuclear power and is enormously powerful militarily. When John Roskam talks about getting tough with China, what (if anything) does he mean?
IF THE priority the Rudd

Banning silly op-eds not an attack on free speech

Whenever people propose bans on junkfood advertising on kids' TV, they make it really clear they are not seeking to ban the product advertised altogether. They make it really clear that they are not against letting consumers know that a product exist, and that their real problem is the emotional manipulation of children too young to know they're

Screwing Wollongong

If only Beth Morgan had hooked up with Joe Scimone, they could have had a good time and saved the people of Wollongong and NSW a great deal of embarrassment, money and time.

Much has been made of Wollongong Council, and the fact that an organisation only gets like that when there is no way of overturning the elite that runs it - in this case, the NSW ALP. Sorry Morry has

The broad church

At the Liberal Party preselections for the NSW Legislative Council ticket in the lead-up to the 1999 election, David Clarke said that he'd get the preferences from the Christian lobby groups while the moderates could get preferences from the Democrats and Greens. The moderates didn't come through with their side of the bargain (let alone shift the debate from the diktat of

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans everything

My piece in New Matilda showing why the Liberals are pretty much stuck unless they grow some brains and get over themselves.

Rain dogs

Dogs navigate their way around by patterns of odours. From American cities comes the phenomenon of "rain dogs", where a sudden downpour washes away the patterns of odours and leave dogs stranded wherever they find themselves, without any sense of how to get home.

The Liberal Party are a bit like rain dogs at the moment, with all their familiar reference points gone and no sense of

One for Chris Berg

No wonder The Sunday Age is getting a new editor. The genius who gave us a double serving of Jase (it is still only a fortnight since his last Pine 4 Pete) and Chris Berg needs to move on as soon as possible.
ANYBODY who remembers that photograph of Peter Costello gleefully surrounded by newborn infants knows one thing:
... you are a political tragic from Melbourne who needs

Jason Kissofdeath

Jason Koutsoukis was wrong about Peter Costello, and there is no reason why he has any more authority on Brendan Nelson in not one, but two articles in today's Age.
"It is certain, absolutely certain, that Brendan Nelson will not be leading the Liberal Party at the next election," said one Liberal frontbencher. "He is held in contempt by most senior people. People simply do not