A new Guardian Essential poll (3 March 2021) indicates an emerging Morrison vulnerability – he shares a female problem with Donald Trump. Well, not the major Trump one – just the electoral one. (more…)
Noel Turnbull
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The frightening cost of Morrison’s climate inaction
Scott Morrison loves saying he won’t take action on climate change without knowing what it will cost. Joel Fitzgibbon takes the same tack when defending his coal mining constituents. But now we have a clear idea of the cost of not taking action. (more…)
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What’s the point of Labor?
As the Labor Opposition jettisons policies on negative gearing, capital gains taxes, franking credits and climate change policies that don’t embrace coal you have to ask – what’s the point of Labor? (more…)
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How good is Morrison’s Australia? Going backwards and being left behind
After seven years of a Coalition government, household debt is the second highest of 43 countries; we ranked third last out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth and we have the third most unaffordable housing market in the OECD. But the good news is that the combined worth of Australian billionaires is 52.4% higher in December 2020 than it was a year earlier.
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Morrison’s not a miracle worker; he just got lucky with an inept Opposition Leader
Since the Coalition came to power in 2013 Australia has fallen down the Transparency International corruption index from seventh to its current 11. With endless material to attack the Coalition over corruption issues, why is the Albanese-led Opposition apparently incapable of doing so? (more…)
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Let the JobKeeper rorts roll
Where do we start when considering the $100 billion JobKeeper scheme? Should we focus on the opaque nature of the scheme in which less than 3% of JobKeeper payments have been disclosed in public company accounts and there is no way of finding out who got what and how much? (more…)
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Ongoing Trumpism Australian influence predictions probably overblown
Kishor Napier-Raman posed a question about the Australian political future when he wrote (crikey 15 January 2021) that: “The question is no longer whether Trumpian politics are on the rise in Australia, it’s now a question of how severe the damage will be.” (more…)
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Three word slogans – Part 2
One of the most successful three word slogans in recent-ish political history– the Thatcher Opposition’s “Labour Isn’t Working” – almost didn’t get seen by the client. (more…)
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Paranoid politics is back – again
Paranoid politics always seem to be with us in some form or other. It has ebbed and flowed for centuries but in the past year, it has seemed more like a flood than a flow. (more…)
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Polarisation decades in the making
Between 70% and 80% of Republican voters believe the recent Presidential election was rigged. While it’s astonishing funding it is not simply representative of the Trump years but more a reflection of steadily developing attitudes over some decades. (more…)
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Will he really run in 2024?
Will he run in 2024? Will, he set up a new Trump TV channel? Will he continue to dominate the Republican Party and Tweet it into loyal submission? (more…)
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2020: The year of three-word slogans
If Scott Morrison is to be remembered for more than knifing Malcolm Turnbull, the 2019 election, bushfires, corruption and climate denial, it will be his propensity to relentlessly deploy two or three-word slogans. (more…)
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Disillusioned Aussie youth diss democracy
Young Australians now rank among the groups most dissatisfied with democracy in the world –better than among others like Venezuela and the US but worse than Ghana and Peru. (more…)
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Framing the Palace Letters by our National Archives
It doesn’t need a conspiratorial mind frame to explain the Murdoch media, Morrison Government and National Archives synchronous framing of the Palace Letters – just a realisation that such strategies are now so institutionalised that overt co-ordination is unnecessary. (more…)
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Fraudster will create US COVID vaccination problems
In the US we can guarantee that someone among the anti-vaxxers will be claiming that the new President is trying to poison them and/or forcibly convert them to communism. (more…)
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Soldiers vs warriors: a distinction between Australian and US troops and Kerry Stokes!
What’s the difference between a soldier and a warrior? And in what environment is the distinction in danger of being lost?
If Kerry Stokes wants to get involved he is entitled to – but, if he does, he should also step aside from his role at the Australian War Memorial. (more…)
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Something to think about other than that election
In the past 75 years, there have been two authors who have profoundly demonstrated the effects when language is mangled and distorted and, conversely, how to write clearly and powerfully. (more…)
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A Harold Evans postscript
What sort of obituary do you think The Sunday Times would publish about probably its greatest editor, Harry Evans? (more…)
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Morrison refuses to acknowledge Australian Nobel Peace prize winners
The Australian winners of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) are celebrating the ratification by 50 countries of The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. However, the Morrison Government has refused to acknowledge the achievement just as they refuse to sign the treaty.
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Morrison: How to market denialism on climate change
Scotty from marketing may now be the common Scott Morrison descriptor. When it comes to climate change it is more and more spin. (more…)
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Lobby Land. The retiree lobby, the poor dears
Lobbyists can be pretty shameless – from hyperbole about the ‘unintended consequences’ of some legislative or policy change they don’t like – to arguments which would shame a beginner debater. (more…)
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Army and Defence PR – an ungrateful mess
Australian Army PR was once a successful system which benefitted the troops, media and the community. Now it has been subsumed into a bureaucratic corporate brand management system closely controlled by Ministers and their staff. (more…)
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Biden at Gettysburg
Donald Trump thought about giving his campaign speech at Gettysburg but opted for the safety of the Rose Garden instead. (more…)
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A round up of the latest US polls
Whatever anyone thought of the first Presidential debate it doesn’t seem to have yet halted Joe Biden’s gradual increases in support as measured by a variety of US polls. (more…)
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Australia and VC Awards
Among the many memorial plaques in the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral is a small plaque and bust honouring Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC (9 November 1884 – 4 August 1917). (more…)
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ALP rank and file push reforms
The Bracks-Macklin Victorian ALP review released its first recommendations in July 2020 – no brainer rules amendments for immediate action to end bulk membership sign-ups and ensure individual members pay for their own membership. (more…)
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How would a fairness campaign fare in Australia?
Whether it was ever a myth or not there has been – until recently – an ingrained belief that Australians value fairness and the fair go, as the concept was often characterised. (more…)
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The myth and the veterans’ problems that will not die
There are almost too many myths about Australia’s Vietnam War involvement to keep track. But one of them – that all National Service conscripts had the option of volunteering or not when about to be posted to Vietnam – is possibly the most persistent. (more…)
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Greg Sheridan’s feverish cherry picking
What has Greg Sheridan of The Australian been smoking or taking, or is it just common or garden cherry picking? (more…)