Here's to you, Martin Parkinson (lyrics)
Joe Hockey hung the Treasury boss Martin Parkinson out to dry today. Offered two opportunities to endorse him in the role he declined.
Coalition
Every day it's a getting closer, more GST
Labor managed to have a tax review without talking about it. The Coalition has promised not to touch it in its first term.
Who's been playing in MY estate? Yet more ferment in the fourth and fifth
When is a writer not a journalist but a blogger, and when is a writer/blogger a journalist? Who decides? Does it matter? Traditional or mainstream or 'old' media, and its power affiliates, are pushing back at the moment against the proliferation of small 'new media' online ventures fighting to be heard.
Abbott's shame. Long may this letter be remembered
Feathers Fly at the Federal Chook House
Gather around kiddies and I’ll tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a large farm where many farmyard animals lived. It was a very special ‘Animal Farm’. The farmer loved all his animals, but most of all his big flock of chooks. The farmer loved chooks so much he collected them from all over the country. He had hundreds of them. The more types of chook he had, the happier he was.
Living within our means, Hockey style
You have to give it to the Coalition propaganda machine – it never fails to come up with a brand new slogan with which it can belabor the Government. We are now being told by Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey that we must ‘live within our means’. How many times have we heard that? Otherwise, they tell us, there will be Federal Budget deficits ‘as far as the eye can see’. Can you count how many times you have heard that little gem?
Abbott’s image: an everyman for the every day voter
Following on from my post yesterday about Julia Gillard’s image, here’s another focussing on Tony Abbott. Both pieces arose from a special feature run by ABC’s Lateline on political image. You can see the feature by clicking here to get to the Lateline website.
A picture is worth a thousand votes: images of a leader
Here’s my latest for ABC’s The Drum, following on from last night’s Lateline feature which examined the influence of image on our voting choices. If you’re stout of heart, you might like to contribute to the comments!
Grasping at prime ministership the Abbott way
Let’s be clear from the outset. The lead up to the September 14 election will not be a respectful contest of ideas, a civil battle of policies and plans. It will be a bare-knuckle street fight between personalities, with no holds barred. The Abbott way countenances no other approach. To seize the top job, the Abbott way is to have many lines of attack. A keen observer of the Abbott way is the source of the principles and strategies detailed below.
Not Leigh Sales’ job to save Labor
I’ve written before that Twitter has become an unexpected school of politics, providing a unique forum for people with less knowledge of our civic processes to learn from those with more. When those discussions are taking place, Twitter is vibrant and all-embracing democracy at its best. Well, Wednesday night was NOT one of those times.