The Australian’s editorial is a neat attempt to try and kill the ‘phonegate’ issue dead while holding on to its credibility. It maintains that its report was true but relies on the hope that there is one thing that Fairfax journalists will not want to do and that is run with a stale story from the Murdoch stable. In reality there is probably little further they can run with it anyway. Read more »
Americans have just elected a President who eighteen months ago the Australian Prime Minster said was the preferred choice of Al Qaeda. If anyone thinks Rudd’s leaking of Bush’s telephone conversation would cause embarrassment in diplomatic circles, they might like to speculate how Howard would have dealt with a US President he associated with the group that caused the biggest peace-time loss of life on American soil. Read more »
You can always rely on a Senator to give an idea of the mood inside the party because these strange political functionaries owe their existence more to internal dynamics in their own party than the electorate. Read more »
I want to make sure that when we look back, that I can say to myself: it's been tough, it's been hard, nothing's guaranteed, but we've done everything that was logically possible at the time to keep this economy as strong as possible, given the impact of the global financial crisis.
K Rudd Minding Your Money: An Audience with the Prime Minister
2UE: Do you wish you were there running it? Or is it a little too hard now?
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Turnbull may have looked bombastic getting on TV to do his own national address last night but he had little choice than to at least stake his position. Of course his claim that the government should have seen the warning signs earlier made little sense other than to try and put his and Nelson’s pseudo-populism over the last few months in a favourable light. Read more »
It is possible to detect a creeping admiration from even some unlikely quarters in the media for the way Rudd is handling the financial crisis. Read more »
Is the penny starting to drop about Turnbull? Maybe it’s the polls. The latest one, Morgan, gives a new twist to the non-existent Turnbull ‘bounce’ by reporting a move away from the Liberals since Turnbull took charge. Of course, this modest shift to Labor is as meaningful as the AC Nielsen poll that showed one the other way. It is just that the AC Nielsen was the hook on which the media hung its ‘game-is back-on’ narrative over the last three weeks.
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If the latest Essential Research poll was any guide, Rudd's overseas trips are more a concern for the media than the electorate. But his last trip did expose an important weakness of this government. The reason why the latest four days overseas was a problem for the media, compared to the previous forty-three, was that the purpose of the last visit was not clear. The reason why the purpose was not clear was that the original one, climate change, was swept away by events. Read more »
It’s no surprise that those who wish to explain the present by constantly using history, never know that much about it. The latest examples are the media’s frequent comparisons of Rudd to one-term Labor PM Scullin of the 1930s. You know the shtick, Scullin won office just before the Wall Street crash by defeating a Prime Minister who lost his seat trying to bring in anti-union legislation (geddit?). Read more »
Peter Van Onselen is clearly miffed that not only could Julie Bishop not be bothered writing an essay for his collection “Liberals and Power: The Road Ahead”, but neither could the staffer she dumped the job onto, who ended up copying it from a NZ businessman. It may surprise some given Bishop’s call earlier this year for a ‘battle of ideas’ but in this blogger’s experience, those who bang on about the importance of battling with ideas are usually the least likely to have any.
The Australian may be making the right point that somewhere along the line, the RBA Governor probably did state the obvious, i.e. that banking guarantees distort the financial markets. But Turnbull’s disastrous appearance on The 7.30 Report last night is a reminder that politically it’s a stupid point to pursue.
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Opinion polls suggest Australia is being run by the most popular government since Hawke’s early days. And there is little doubt that handing out $10.4bn will make it more so (this is even after ignoring the latest bounce to Labor in the AC Nielsen which is just a reversal of the mythical Turnbull bounce it reported last time).
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Is Australia in economic crisis or not? First Rudd gave us reassurances that Australia’s banking system is the strongest in the world before taking the sort of action adopted by governments whose banking systems are close to collapse. Now we have an unprecedented economic stimulus to an economy that only a few days ago Rudd was assuring us would have growth next year with a ‘two in front of it’.
What is your biggest fear for Australia, right now, what is your nightmare for Australia?
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