“He who laughs has not yet heard the terrible tidings…”. A collection of stories from the late, great, veteran political reporter Mungo MacCallum: Australia’s true journalistic believer.
MUNGO MACCALLUM. The patience of our first nation, while remarkable, is not inexhaustible.
MUNGO MACCALLUM. In the secret world, secrecy is always the default option.
Read more at Mungo MacCallum’s P&I author page, here:
The most remarkable thing about the revelation of Gladys Berejiklian’s love life was that it was remarkable at all.
I never thought I’d say it, but I can no longer go on working. (more…)
It may be a statement of the bleeding obvious, but a face-off with the People’s Republic of China would not be a good idea. (more…)
He would rather forego his parliamentary pension than admit it, but
our prime minister is unobtrusively softening his hardline stance on climate change. (more…)
Our national anthem is back on the playlist, and as always for the wrong reasons.
Scott Morrison warned us that we would be shocked by the Brereton report on alleged war crimes and this is one promise he has kept. (more…)
Joel Fitzgibbon’s resignation from the front bench does not change the policy of the Labor Party. nor its leadership. But it does change the mechanics. (more…)
In the old days, no one called parliament house a toxic bubble. The more usual term was a smorgasbord, a sumptuous spread provided by the men hoping to get their ends in, which meant almost all of them. (more…)
Many more Americans voted against Donald Trump than voted for him – millions more. But nearly as many did not vote at all. And the explanation of why they failed to do so is bad news for what is left of democracy. (more…)
The damage to convention, the rule of law, honesty, integrity and decency that Trump has wreaked – and is still wreaking – will be harder to repair. (more…)
A crunch day for Australia on Tuesday – and not just for the Melbourne Cup, vital as that is for the nation’s well-being. November 4 will determine whether the United States of America regains its sanity or embarks on another quadrennium of demented Trumpery. (more…)
Morrison’s stalwart declaration of independence on climate changer sounded more like a petulant plea: “stop the world, I want to get off.” (more…)
In the far-off innocent days before the spin doctors decreed that backbenchers should cease thinking for themselves and instead parrot the talking points devised to avoid saying anything meaningful at all, a few brave souls were prepared to respond to questions more or less spontaneously.
For Labor, there is no point in getting into a fight you will never win. The Murdoch myrmidons will always be their enemy, and since they have become invulnerable – like the banks, they are too big to fail — they have to be accommodated. (more…)
The most remarkable thing about the revelation of Gladys Berejiklian’s love life was that it was remarkable at all.
The usually reliable NewsPoll last week delivered a bombshell as unexpected as it was unwelcome to its Murdochratic media proprietors (more…)
Warehouses have been emptied to find the shovels (and the wheelbarrows, the backhoes, the bulldozers and the front-end loaders) needed to move the mountains of cash from the invisible lenders through the Treasury to the pockets of the punters.
Following the long and successful run in the provinces ScoMo believes his retiring Finance Minister is ready to take on the world and has nominated him to the prestigious role of Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.He will be remembered for his longevity, but not much else, not through a lack of diligence but because it went with the job. (more…)
The straight talking New South Wales Premier, Neville Wran, set the scene in one terse sentence. “Delegates,” he rasped, ”this summit is about three things: jobs, jobs and jobs.”
Susan Ryan was more than a feminist icon and achiever, Labor’s first woman cabinet minister and the model for all those who have followed her. (more…)
At least the latest energy plan – the coalition’s 22nd, and counting – is not all about gas.
The indefatigable freedom fighters crusading to liberate the shut-down in Victoria are quite right. The restrictions are stultifying, draconian, totalitarian. They are intolerable in a democracy, an affront to Australia as we know it.
If Scott Morrison ever went back to his old job of promoting tourism and needed to ramp up the travel industry, he would put his money on blimps. So gas is obviously the go. A sensible middle course, obviously the best option, even if it is the wrong one.
It is a flag that can be admired and cherished, a beacon for reconciliation and beyond. It is, in the truest sense, an Australian institution. (more…)
The commonwealth has unraveled, federation has unfederated. So why aren’t the Tories cheering?
Shakepeare said: “Tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard.”
And indeed, there is some satisfaction in seeing the petard that hoisted the Juukan Gorge also sending some of Rio Tinto’s top brass flying out of the executive wing.
It has always been argued that gas, while not a squeaky clean fuel, is a least a better bet than coal. But now it turns out that gas may be even dirtier, because the methane leaks that cannot be contained will probably nullify any advantages from emissions of coal. (more…)
Has Tony Abbott surpassed McMahon as the worst of our worst? (more…)
Readers of the Melbourne Age and the Sydney Morning Herald and viewers of the Nine network will have been alerted to the self-destruction of the Victorian branch of the Liberal Party – the jewel in the crown, as the founder, Robert Menzies, once called it. (more…)