Tony Abbott’s copping it from, of all places, Peter Costello - who took him and his parental leave policy apart with great gusto in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning. The former Treasurer also gave it to Kevin Rudd too, but expect the piece to feature quite heavily in Question Time today - live here from 2pm.
Question Time Live: 17/03/10
There must be a handbook given out to women who have had, or claim to have had, an affair with a high-profile politician. I imagine it’s called something like The truth will set you free! Seriously, you’re fabulous and, like, totally emotionally evolved!!
It’s full of sage advice such as “stop being so utterly selfless and think of yourself for once you amazing selfless woman,” and “you could have saved him if only he knew what was good for him,” and “don’t forget your clothes flew off all by themselves.”
And I imagine at least two women interviewed this week have a well-worn copy on their bedside tables - Michelle Chantelois and Rielle Hunter.
News that New South Wales may soon pass laws to enable land seizures for private housing shouldn’t surprise us.
It’s the latest in a series of alarming headlines about the state of urban development and planning in NSW.
Putting aside the benefits or otherwise of compulsory land acquisition – a tool for achieving public planning goals, already embedded within NSW legislation – it’s worth revisiting the core issues driving the latest proposal – and the range of options to address them.
We are now at the business end of the South Australian election campaign and the contest is going down to the wire.
After years of internal division the Liberal Party had - until this week - managed to develop an appearance of unity on the back of Mike Rann’s problems following the Michelle Chantelois allegations.
With four leaders in four years and little more than a veneer of unity following an acrimonious leadership spill involving former deputy leader Vickie Chapman and current leader Isobel Redmond, the Liberal campaign settled on a “small target” strategy.
There’s something about being in the presence of puppies that can make grown adults a bit soft in the head. You know the sort. The ones who let out cries of “Hurro puppeee! Aren’t you adowable?! Yesh you are! Yesh you are!” as soon as they enter the vicinity of any small, wet-nosed creatures.
Most dog lovers would agree: puppies are adorable, and they’re everywhere. Our parks are full of them. Suburban cafes put out water bowls for their furry guests.
We have doggie day care, puppy primping, specialist clothing, gourmet pet food. There’s a whole, thriving industry tied to our love of four-legged friends.
Governments of either persuasion don’t like it when they don’t get their own way in the Senate.
However, in recent days the Rudd government has taken the levels of whingeing, moaning and sulking about so called ‘Senate obstruction’ to new levels. No doubt this is all part of a deliberate pre-election strategy, seeking to justify the government’s failings and perhaps even the need for a double dissolution election.
No less than five senior Ministers fronted a press conference last week accusing the Senate of the worst obstruction in 30 years, while the Prime Minister shouted ‘get out of our way’.
There is nothing more certain to generate cynicism than having to suffer political correctness in full force. When the experience is compounded by the paternalistic condescension of those who don’t really believe what is being said or done but in their generosity are reaching down to those they really see as simpler than them, it’s intolerable.
The idea that you must open your gathering and deliberations by paying lip-service through a ceremony or incantation demanded by vocal spokespersons for what amounts to sectional interests, should offend most citizens.
For many, when the ceremony invokes a cosmology or belief system that they consider anachronistic at best, or superstitious at worst, it is particularly galling.
One of the more unedifying spectacles on the world stage in the last fortnight has been the verbal dogfight between Bob Geldof and the BBC over aid to Ethiopia.
For me the allegations, that money from Band Aid and Live Aid was diverted for political and military purposes, and Geldof’s furious denunciations, had particular resonance.
Exactly twenty years ago, I was in Ethiopia to make a film for Four Corners, called the Forgotten Famine, which addressed some of these issues on the spot. The debate today seems to me confused, exaggerated and divorced from reality.
In his book, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, the exiled Czech novelist Milan Kundera, explains how to rewrite a states history:
“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.”
Mike Rann must own a dog eared version of this book if his Punch interview is anything to go by.
With a federal election fast approaching it’s time for voters to start evaluating Mr Rudd’s performance on supermarket issues.
For Mr Rudd there is no escaping that grocery prices remain literally a bread and butter issue for all Australians.
With struggling families certainly not pleased with ever rising grocery prices and with swinging voters unlikely to be impressed with the fact that Australia still faces some of the highest levels of food inflation in the developed world, Mr Rudd certainly has some convincing to do.
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