David Solomon

The looming by-election in Farrer is shaping as a four-cornered contest that could reveal how vulnerable the Coalition has become. (more…)

What kind of future does the Liberal Party have? Two elections and Peter Dutton’s leadership have reduced it to its lowest-ever level of support – fewer than one in three Australians gave it their first preference vote on Saturday. Its “small l” liberal component in the House of Representatives has been all but wiped out. (more…)

Why do our political parties treat voters as if they are all dumb? Surely we deserve better than l.c.d. (lowest common denominator) politics? (more…)

Are voters really influenced by their view of which of the party leaders is the stronger? Peter Dutton obviously thinks so; for a year and more he has been attacking Anthony Albanese in almost every speech and utterance as being “weak” and trying to persuade voters that he himself was strong. (more…)

An unholy conspiracy between the Labor Party and the Liberal-National Coalition to preserve Australia’s century-old two-party system seems certain to fail. It is most unlikely to survive multiple challenges in the High Court. But in the unlikely event that if it does gain constitutional approval, it will be overturned by voters. (more…)

With the election still somewhere between eight and 14 weeks away, it is too early to get much of a guide from the opinion polls about the probable outcome – except that a majority Liberal-National Party Government, the result most favoured by those who have already punted their money on the result with the various betting agencies, is the least likely. (more…)

There is an air of unreality, and a substantial quantity of pie in the sky, about the nuclear power policy unveiled on Friday the 13^th of December by Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. And as for costs and practicability, voters are faced with the Liberals’ reliance on economic modelling by a Canberra consultant versus scientific modelling by the CSIRO. (more…)

Everyone, it seems, is getting stuck into Anthony Albanese. Its not as though he has done much that is wrong. He hasn’t gone back on his promises, except, perhaps, in not delivering improved environmental legislation, and of course he failed to deliver on the Voice, though he tried. (more…)

Come the election (whenever) the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition will unite in warning voters against the perils of a hung parliament. Only Labor or the Coalition can form government, we will be told. We should choose one or the other.  (more…)

There is a huge difference between the problem Robert Menzies faced in creating the Liberal Party from the ruins of the United Australia Party during the second World War, and that facing Peter Dutton as he tries to unify the Liberal Party after its succession of defeats at federal and state levels in the past year or so. (more…)

I have no sympathy for Michelle Rowland in her persecution over accepting almost $20,000 in donations from betting and gambling behemoth, Sportsbet, before the last election. Sportsbet was then, and is now, a leader in the industry she, as the prospective federal minister, would be responsible for regulating. (more…)

‘Perhaps the single biggest question confronting Australian politics’ is how the Liberal-National coalition addresses an ‘overwhelming deficit of support among younger generations’.  (more…)

Is the Government undermining its own National Anti-Corruption Commission in an attempt to prevent it being nobbled by a future LNP Government? And is it able to future-proof it? (more…)

Next week the Government will unveil its long-anticipated National Anti-Corruption Commission (that’s now the official title) legislation. Experts and critics will be on hand to offer critiques based on comparisons with similar existing bodies in the States, with the Federal ICAC Bill tabled in the last Parliament by independent MP Helen Haines and with the promised but never delivered legislation of the Morrison government. (more…)