For all his faux blokeishness and Western Sydney credentials, Latham had no more ability to relate to the electorate than any insider Labor hack.

What a farce looks like

Saturday, 28 January 2012   The Australian state   13 comments 

All we needed was a Canberra farce and we have all we need to know.

How do you change racial provisions in the Constitution when the entire infrastructure of land rights is based on it?

Culture war bores collide

Tuesday, 4 October 2011   The Australian state   55 comments 

Racial/cultural separation, or whatever you want to call it, remains embedded as ever in the centre of our body politic

Rudd touched a raw nerve of how Labor, especially in NSW, understands its decline.

As Labor’s base melts away, so does its program.

The problem for Fraser is not that the Liberals are moving to the right as such but that there is no real basis for them doing so.

A pathetic attempt to look in control

Thursday, 15 October 2009   Tactics   3 comments 

Chris Uhlmann castigated Rudd for not using his political capital to take a less populist line on asylum seekers, but in reality there is no political capital.

Rights and wrongs

Tuesday, 1 September 2009   The Australian state   10 comments 

While the right and left have argued over the nature of the punishment, what we have seen with the intervention is a denial of a basic right in front of the law to be judged whether to receive the punishment in the first place.

It has been fascinating to watch the coalition go through its motions over the last week as it was worked on by the media.

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