Month: October 2018

Going by the trend in Wentworth it seems that the big stich-up against minor parties and independents in the Senate by the Coalition and Labor in 2016 is not going to work.

I will return to the Senate stich-up shortly. But first to the House of Representatives.

Everyone assumes the election will be in May. But maybe not. Continue reading “Major party stitch-up becoming unstitched”

“This is just Government 101: carefully consider the issues in front of you and make the best possible judgments about the way forward,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said about the reason for the Government withholding the Ruddock report on religious freedom. It presumes basic university-level learning. Alas, this Government’s behaviour belongs in primary school.

The reference to “101” is to the way universities label their subjects. Government 101 would be the subject Government in first semester of first year. Continue reading “Morrison is nowhere near Government 101”

THE political stunts and partisanship over the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court should make Australians feel lucky. The stand-out element of stability in the Australian political system during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-Abbott-Turnbull madness has been appointments to the High Court. Continue reading “High Court stable while politics goes mad”

IT SEEMS that the Government is going to hang on to Philip Ruddock’s report on religious freedom until after this month’s by-election and then, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, take some legislative action on it.
First we have the obvious question about open and accountable government. Who paid for this report? Why do freedom-of-information laws give such broad exemptions to Cabinet documents on topics which have absolutely no national-security or national-finance questions? Continue reading “Religious freedom a legal minefield for Coalition”