The result of the South Australian election remains in the balance, while Tasmanians have voted overwhelmingly to throw out Lara Giddings’ Labor government and also delivered a hefty slap to the Greens…
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Parties keep saying they want to attract better candidates and then continue to throw up some shockers. On the evidence, one such has the top spot on the ALP’s ticket for the West Australian Senate election…
At the end of the election campaign Tony Abbott observed that the big difference between an opposition leader and a prime minister was that the former was inevitably the leader of a tribe while the latter…
The Productivity Commission has slammed the assessment and development processes for Australia’s public infrastructure projects, finding “numerous examples of poor value-for-money” because of bad selection…
The government’s dilemma in pursuing the so-called “Bolt amendment” to the Racial Discrimination Act has been highlighted by the experience of one of its new marginal seat holders in an electorate with…
Just imagine, for a nano second, what would happen if Labor’s Bill Shorten proposed a referendum to change Australia’s flag. He would be carved up by many on the conservative side of politics, denounced…
Malcolm Turnbull’s suggestion that the 75% “reach” rule for TV networks should be changed is not as radical as it sounds. It is certainly much less of an issue than liberalising the cross media provision…
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is sending out strong signals that the government is sympathetic to liberalising the cross-media rules, which now say an owner can have only two of TV, radio and…
On the matter of his paid parental leave scheme, Tony Abbott has got religion. He’s been using every occasion in the run up to Saturday’s International Women’s Day to sing hymns to what he’s determined…
The Liberals must already be relishing the thought that later this month the whole country will almost certainly be coloured conservative blue, with the exception of a tiny Labor outpost in the ACT. On…
The stipulation that Qantas must remain majority Australian-owned is, above all, a legacy of 1990s Labor politics. There is little logic in keeping it today. When the ALP government of that time walked…
Qantas has done a backflip over the role of the carbon tax in the problems it faces. After declaring on Monday that “the major issues Qantas faces are not related to carbon pricing”, it now says this cost…
As Liberal MP Ewen Jones walked out of the Coalition parties meeting, Tony Abbott gave him a pat on the back and some praise. “Well said,” the PM told the Queensland backbencher. Jones had just delivered…
It’s passing strange to hear Tony Abbott advancing the gung ho “dry” argument that Qantas must not be treated as a special case. But after he crossed that line in the sand by rejecting aid for SPC Ardmona…
The federal government will introduce legislation this week to allow majority foreign ownership of Qantas. After a two hour cabinet debate, prime minister Tony Abbott announced tonight the government would…
Members of the Human Rights Commission are sharply at odds over plans to water down the Racial Discrimination Act. Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, in a speech to be delivered tonight…
Immigration minister Scott Morrison’s weekend talks in Papua New Guinea have led to belated efforts to better co-ordinate “the PNG solution”. His visit reflects what must be deep disquiet in the government…
As federal Labor backbencher and former state minister Alannah MacTiernan tweeted after Friday’s announcement that Western Australians will go to the polls on April 5 for the re-run Senate election, “Game…
Hardly a week goes by, it seems, when there is not some fresh announcement of job shedding. Qantas’s loss of 5000 is the latest blow. But amid the gloom on Thursday, Tony Abbott optimistically reaffirmed…
Before the election Stephen Conroy inflicted severe damage on his own side with his ill-fated media reforms. Now his badly judged attack on Angus Campbell, the military man in charge of Operation Sovereign…
A $280 million scheme for concessional loans enabling farmers to borrow up to $1 million is a centrepiece of the government’s drought relief announced today. The $320 million package includes more generous…
The House of Representatives has made an unprecedented apology over the false statement made to the parliament by disgraced former Labor MP Craig Thomson. The apology, moved by Leader of the House Christopher…
Tony Abbott told Tuesday’s Coalition parties meeting that in the 1980s “we thought to ourselves, do we really think this economic rationalism stuff is going to work? But, mirabile dictu, it did”. He went…
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has promised the independent inquiry into the Manus Island rioting will examine his own and the government’s conduct since it assumed responsibility from Labor for the…
Tony Abbott has warned that the rate of increase in spending on health and schools must be reduced “in the longer term”. He has also pledged that all new spending in the May budget will be fully funded…
Contact Michelle for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Canberra
- Website
- X (formerly Twitter): @michellegrattan
- Article Feed
-
- Joined
