I think I’m going to run a series of these. I first applied this phrase to Jenny Macklin in a post over the weekend where she was criticising the government for not implementing a budget promise when in fact they couldn’t because Labor has held the legislation up […] Continue Reading…
September 06, 2004 | Graham
The Liberal Party’s own trusty union
The Liberal Party as the champion of Medicare? It sounds unlikely given decades of opposition to national health since Bill Hayden introduced Medibank, but it is not as unlikely as it looks if you understand the relationship between the medical profession and the Liberal Party.
Today Howard effectively trumped […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 10:43 pm |
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September 05, 2004 | Graham
Some more quick observations
“Expectations management” is something that all good campaign managers do, because if electors perceive that a certain outcome is likely that will influence their vote. As a result, all smart political operators try to position as the underdog.
Expectations management
I noted the other day that John Howard had slipped up […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 11:19 pm |
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September 05, 2004 | Unknown
John Anderson: Out of Touch or Just Behind the Times?
Just like his party, John Anderson showed himself to be seriously out-of-date last week when he exhumed Mark Latham’s comments about hating his political opponents.
Sounding like the sort of hippy peacenik the National Party in Queensland used to have the police raid; Anderson claimed, “Hatred tears our world apart”.
Yes, […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Unknown at 8:27 pm |
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September 05, 2004 | Graham
Quick observations
I’m in the federal seat of Paterson at the moment, and as it is such a long drive from Brisbane I’ve been deprived my usual sources of news and had to even rely on commercial radio. That gives me an opportunity to at least hear and read more […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 8:30 am |
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September 04, 2004 | Unknown
The Queensland Liberal Party: Barmy One Day, Crazy the Next
As someone whose practical knowledge of factions has been limited to a few meetings at the Paddington Workers’ Club, these bodies formed to bolster careers and/or shared ideological commitments often bewilder, even if they do have a valid part to play in our political system.
It was thus a shock […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Unknown at 3:34 pm |
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September 03, 2004 | Graham
The dangers of over promising and over demonstrating
Yesterday Mark Latham signed “Labor’s Low Interest Rate Guarantee”. This was a variation on past themes from both sides of politics, and it was a mistake.
In 1993, needing a weapon to blunt the tax cut component of the Hewson Fightback! package, Keating legislated his LAW Tax Cuts. […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 12:05 pm |
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September 02, 2004 | Graham
Free advice for the Queensland Liberals
What would a federal election in Queensland be like without an expulsion? On my watch it was Pauline Hanson who was despatched. This time around Russell Galt is threatened with the axe. My advice to the Queensland Libs is “Don’t do it.” There were good […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 3:21 pm |
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September 01, 2004 | Graham
Many more rodents
Accusations by Russell Galt, a former Liberal Federal Electorate Committee Chairman that Senator George Brandis called the Prime Minister a “lying rodent” over the children overboard affair shed more light on Howard’s problems with the Queensland Liberal Party than they do on what he knew and when he knew […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 9:51 pm |
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August 31, 2004 | Graham
Interest rates – more complicated than you think
John Howard says that interest rates will be higher under Labor than under him, and so journalists run out and find a bunch of experts to say that governments have little or no effect on interest rates. They could save their time, because governments do have an effect […] Continue Reading…
Posted by Graham at 2:15 pm |
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