There’s less water than there used to be, because of global warming, so to make up the shortfall we build desalination plants, which are the most energy intensive way of harvesting water, leading to more greenhouse gases, leading to less water, leading to more desal plants. You can dispute […] Continue Reading…

It’s hard to believe that in the course of only three years the federal Liberal party could have gone from being some of the best campaigners the country has seen to the butter-fingered, fumbling no-hopers that they appear at the moment.
Interest rates and Kyoto illustrate this well.
The interest rate […] Continue Reading…

The Labor Party has shot so many ads, that now they are running ALP TV. Their latest ad features a scare campaign on Global Warming, and I’ve already seen it a number of times on terrestrial TV.
But where is the Liberal counterattack, on this or any other matter? […] Continue Reading…

I think Kevin Rudd won the debate tonight. Apparently the worm, which Channel Nine managed to save from extinction, thought so. But after 2001 when the worm gave the debate to Kim Beazley, but John Howard ended up winning the election, I’ve lost a little faith in its predictive […] Continue Reading…

It was supposed to be Kevin Rudd who would be “playing with the Prime Minister’s mind”, but it seems like the PM is doing some tinkering of his own. Yesterday’s Liberal ad targets Kevin Rudd’s positive attack ad, targetting the Liberals’ negative attack ad, with a school masterly attack […] Continue Reading…

The latest ALP attack ad is cute – it’s the “wounded innocence” approach. John Howard opened his campaign with some negative advertising hanging L plates around Kevin Rudd’s neck. Rudd responds with an ad which opens with Howard’s ad and then cuts out to show Rudd saying “Mr Howard […] Continue Reading…

If you pick on someone for being ignorant, it’s a good idea to know what you’re talking about yourself. Wayne Swan broke that rule when he tried to capitalise on John Howard’s gaffe when Howard failed to accurately name the official cash rate. This brought him even with Kevin […] Continue Reading…

The announcement today by the government of lowered direct tax rates stymies any more “Howard lite”pitches by Kevin Rudd. By locking increased revenue into tax cuts the government makes it a clear choice for Labor – you can either back us on tax cuts and give up some of […] Continue Reading…

I’ve just been trawling news sites and The Australian links to this ad, obviously evidence of how positive Kevin Rudd’s campaign is going to be:

So, whose record is better on interest rates?
The graph below of 90 bank bill rates, taken from data on the RBA site puts it in […] Continue Reading…

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has scored well in her debut as campaigner-in-chief in the Brisbane Central by-election. The ALP has scored 50.06% of the vote to date, which compares with 50.48% last time. This probably means that there was virtually no swing against the government.
Why? It might be attributable […] Continue Reading…