http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/james-campbell/ James Campbell is a reporter and columnist with the Sunday Herald Sun in Melbourne. He has also written for The Times of London. Before joining the paper he worked as an adviser to the State Opposition in Victoria. en Copyright 2013 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:00:10 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Star-candidate-Nova-could-explode-in-Gillards-face/ And so we begin 2013 back where we were at the end of 2011, with Julia Gillard giving us another demonstration of that famous political judgement of hers and pissing off a large swathe of the Labor Party. Back then it was her petty, vindictive and undeserved shafting of Kim Carr from the industry portfolio that had many Labor folk shaking their heads. This week, of course, it was the petty, vindictive shafting of Northern Territory Senator, Trish Crossin. If I were a Labor member the choice between Crossin and the Prime Minister’s “Captain’s pick” of Nova Peris, would be a difficult one. Crossin has been in the Senate since 1998, with the peak of her career being a spell as Deputy Opposition Whip between 2001 and 2004. The best that her colleagues seemed to be able to say of her is that she has been a tireless campaigner for the Northern Territory. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Star-candidate-Nova-could-explode-in-Gillards-face/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Star-candidate-Nova-could-explode-in-Gillards-face/#item10485 Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:45:36 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-man-who-mistook-his-job-for-a-lolcat/ The English novelist Jerome K. Jerome was of the opinion that it is impossible to enjoy idling unless one has plenty of work to do. “There is,” he said “no fun in doing nothing when you have nothing to do. Wasting time is merely an occupation then, and a most exhausting one.” What, one wonders, would Jerome have made of the case of “Developer Bob” whose heroic efforts at idling have apparently been the talk of American work places for the past few days. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-man-who-mistook-his-job-for-a-lolcat/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-man-who-mistook-his-job-for-a-lolcat/#item10432 Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:55:00 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/coalition-mps-should-learn-to-bite-their-tongue/ Running for Governor of Arkansas in 1982, Bill Clinton had some folksy words to reassure voters he had learned from the mistakes of his disastrous first term which had seen him booted out after only two years. Captain And Tenille - Do That To Me One More Time by rrp1222 “When I was a boy growing up,’’ Clinton said, ”my daddy never had to whip me twice for the same thing.’‘ If only one could be sure the same were true of some of the current crop federal Liberal MPs. But alas when it comes to industrial relations - their party’s Achilles’ heel - some of them want to make Captain & Tennille’s “Do That To Me One More Time’’ this year’s campaign song. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/coalition-mps-should-learn-to-bite-their-tongue/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/coalition-mps-should-learn-to-bite-their-tongue/#item10383 Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:55:37 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labor-has-lost-its-base-and-now-its-burning-bridges/ It isn’t hard to find ways to mock Jenny Macklin for her extraordinary claim that she could live on the dole. But to be fair to her, she was only telling the truth. Of course if pushed we all could live on the dole. In Africa they live on a dollar a day. People adapt. If $35 a day is what you have, then that’s what you have. Obviously if you are used to being on $900 a day as a cabinet minister then it’s going to be a bit more of a step-down for you than it would be for, say, a cleaner, but if you were happy to be the deputy leader of the Labor Party under leaders as diverse as Simon Crean, Mark Latham and Kim Beazley, then clearly flexibility is not a problem. But that said, it still showed extraordinary political ineptitude.  Let’s go to the transcript, the bit we got, not the embarrassing bit they failed to include. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labor-has-lost-its-base-and-now-its-burning-bridges/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labor-has-lost-its-base-and-now-its-burning-bridges/#item10333 Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:39:59 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arent-you-forgetting-something-anne-hathaway/ From time to time developments come along in popular culture that force me to reflect that perhaps I am getting a bit past it, and the modern world is becoming a bit confusing. Such an example occurred this week when the actress Anne Hathaway was photographed emerging from a limousine in New York on her way to the premiere of the movie version of the musical Les Miserables. For those who may have missed the photograph Hathaway was dressed, according to E! Online, in “a striking black column gown by Tom Ford with a voluminous cape for added drama’’ with `“edgy knee-high gladiator sandals’‘. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arent-you-forgetting-something-anne-hathaway/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arent-you-forgetting-something-anne-hathaway/#item10232 Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:54:59 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-facing-a-long-gestation-for-this-future-monarch/ Yesterday’s Royal announcement that the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant had Fleet Street’s finest scrambling for an angle. On the face of it you might have thought it was hard to do much with “Kate Pregnant”. It’s Kate. She’s pregnant. What more is there to say? Day One of the yarn is a bit early yet for “Kate’s baby scare”, even for the British newspapers, and there’s nothing to suggest the Duke of Cambridge isn’t responsible for her condition, so no dice there either. So congratulations to the London Daily Telegraph for being the first to grasp the implications of her hospitalisation with morning sickness, asking “Could it be twins for the Duchess?” feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-facing-a-long-gestation-for-this-future-monarch/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-facing-a-long-gestation-for-this-future-monarch/#item10160 Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:15:08 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-contest-the-winner-is-the-no-advantage-policy/ In recent years there have been so many bad policy ideas come out of Canberra it is hard to decide which was the worst. Some will vote for the knee-jerk ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia, some the pink batts fiasco, some the dismantling of Howard’s Pacific Solution. Personally I think the worst policies, like the best wines, take years to mature. Which is why Peter Costello’s decision to pay the dregs of society to breed always gets my Number One on the ballot paper of dumb things our politicians have done. But this week after five years in office Labor finally got its act together with a policy to rival the baby bonus for its stupidity. Congratulations are due to Chris Bowen for his “no advantage” test which will apply to asylum seekers who are released into the community. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-contest-the-winner-is-the-no-advantage-policy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/no-contest-the-winner-is-the-no-advantage-policy/#item10074 Sat, 24 Nov 2012 19:50:08 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-man-who-might-sometimes-wish-he-was-faceless/ Like most of us who make fitful attempts at losing weight, I take note of the astonishing methods celebrities choose to keep themselves trim. Not for them the tried-and-tested methods of exercising more and eating less; when it comes to losing weight, the modern celebrity favours the exotic. This week came an unexpected addition to the ranks of celebrity dispensers of novel lifestyle tips. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-man-who-might-sometimes-wish-he-was-faceless/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-man-who-might-sometimes-wish-he-was-faceless/#item9956 Sat, 10 Nov 2012 19:45:46 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Gillard-acted-like-a-woman-who-was-losing-an-argument/ By now we have heard enough I think about how the ladies felt about Julia Gillard’s savaging of Tony Abbott on Tuesday. Some have written they loved it, some that they loathed it. Some felt she had finally stood up for women, others that she had let down the cause. The only word to describe the widespread reaction was “visceral” - in that much over-used word’s true meaning of “relating to inner feeling”. And not just the women. It seems to have stirred something deep in the guts of men too. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Gillard-acted-like-a-woman-who-was-losing-an-argument/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Gillard-acted-like-a-woman-who-was-losing-an-argument/#item9722 Sat, 13 Oct 2012 19:55:12 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-much-should-you-get-for-running-a-girls-school/ On the face of it, it’s hard to know whose side to take in the row over the sacking of Methodist Ladies’ College principal Rosa Storelli. Ms Storelli, who was put to the sword by the school’s board last week, is clearly an inspirational figure to some, and her sudden and unexpected exit has her supporters up in arms. On the other hand, it is not in dispute that she has been overpaid a very large sum of money and the board would appear to have been within its rights to send her packing - with a nice payout, mind you - once it decided it had lost confidence in her. feedback@thepunch.com.au (James Campbell) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-much-should-you-get-for-running-a-girls-school/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-much-should-you-get-for-running-a-girls-school/#item9554 Mon, 24 Sep 2012 02:20:25 +0000 James Campbell | Author bios | The Punch