Crispin Hull

Corrosive, centralised elitist power

Have you noticed the change in the way federal government policy is announced? When Scott Morrison was Prime Minister, he appeared with the relevant Minister at almost all policy announcements and usually dominated the media conference.

Now Anthony Albanese is Prime Minister, very often the Minister appears alone at the policy announcement. Several Minister stand out: Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, and a couple of others.

What of those who pay for their ‘voice’ to Parliament?

A miserable lot: the Nationals announce opposition to the Voice

The National Party’s hypocritical and evidence-lacking decision to oppose the Voice to Parliament exemplifies the political dilemma the Liberal Party has faced since 2007.

Does it side with the Nationals at the behest of its right-wing and at the cost of further alienating urban progressive voters, or does it ignore the Nationals and the right and adopt policies for the sensible centre?

Tick, tick, boom. Or drop the Nats

The rusted-ons are dying off. The Victorian election last Saturday confirmed the trend of the May 21 Federal election. It is a simmering and little-understood time bomb which will go off before too long.

The major-party vote continues to trickle away as mainly women and younger people take their vote elsewhere because their values have changed. Before long some major realignment seems inevitable.

Autocrats mix sport and politics, egregiously

I am not going to watch any soccer World Cup games. Even if the Socceroos are in the final.

Further, I am going to boycott all the products of all of the sponsors for at least the next four years. And I urge you to do the same. A list of sponsors is at the foot of this column.

Tragic. Republicans got what they wanted

In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. So said Oscar Wilde.

Well, the Republicans in the US got what they wanted. They wanted to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Rove v Wade which stated that the 14 th amendment to the US Constitution (the right to privacy) nullified any legislative attempt by any of the states to restrict abortion.

Universities: who are the real cheats

Who was at the top of the university league tables for cheating – the business school.

As the University of Sydney and University of NSW wring their hands and bewail a massive documented doubling of cheating in the past couple of years we should not be surprised.

Diligence, not bread and circuses

This Budget, Treasurer Jim Chalmers was the Juvenal of Australian politics – deploring bread and circuses.

The Roman poet Juvenal deplored the handing out of wheat and the putting on of circuses to gain public approval rather than the hard work of good public policy.

Juries past used-by date

The mistrial in the high-profile Bruce Lehrmann case highlights yet again a weakness in the jury system made worse by 21 st century technology.

The trial was aborted when it was found that a juror had done some internet searching and brought the results back into the jury room.

It is not about promises, but performance.

The real Budget will come in May next year. Today’s Budget (or mini-Budget as they are usually called when they come outside the usual annual cycle) is likely to be a bit of tweaking after a change of Government.

The main reset will be to ditch a lot of Coalition spending promises – if you like, rorts, mainly National Party requests as the price for not opposing the net-zero carbon promise. It is a straight-forward task with little or no electoral cost because the rorts were one of the main reasons the electorate voted the Government out.

Joyce show why Voice will be hard

The comments last week by Nationals frontbencher Barnaby Joyce likening the Voice proposal to a law enacted in Nazi Germany show what a difficult task it will be to get the Voice referendum passed.

Various polls show about 65 per cent support for it. However, large majority support for sensible and/or symbolic constitutional change in Australia often evaporates when it comes to putting a Yes on a ballot paper.

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