http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/maxine-mckew/ Maxine McKew MP is the Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and the Member for Bennelong. Before entering politics, Maxine covered national and international affairs extensively for ABC TV, on prestigious programs such as Lateline and The 7.30 Report. These days she divides her time between working on the Rudd Government’s record investment in community infrastructure and and her busy electorate work in Sydney’s inner north-west. On weekends and non-sitting weeks Maxine is often out and about talking to locals around Ryde, Gladesville and Epping where she lives with her partner Bob and Louis the dog. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +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/a-sweet-deal-for-small-business/ My first offering to The Punch for 2010 – and it’s a puff piece!  Gena Karpf makes great, sweet puffy marshmallows. Fruity flavoured marshmallows, chocolate flavoured marshmallows, pretty much any sort of marshmallow you could imagine really. Anyone who sees the swooning effect that Meryl Streep’s goodies have on Steve Martin in this summer’s hit movie It’s Complicated will get my drift. Gena’s shop SWEETNESS: The Patisserie is two doors down from my new Electorate Office in Epping. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-sweet-deal-for-small-business/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-sweet-deal-for-small-business/#item2240 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:25:16 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/climate-challenge-missed-by-coalition-howlers/ Momentum is a fundamental concept in both physics and politics. It’s a concept climate change skeptics like Barnaby Joyce just don’t get. As Penny Wong and Greg Combet shepherd the sensible people in the Australian Parliament towards a bipartisan agreement on a CPRS, Barnaby is still out there howling at the moon to his diehard audience of deniers. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/climate-challenge-missed-by-coalition-howlers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/climate-challenge-missed-by-coalition-howlers/#item1793 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:39:59 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bennelong-where-jobs-prove-the-stimulus-is-working/ What a huge news week it was last week. Sabi the dog came home. Tiger Woods fever gripped the country, and like Ol’ Man River our Australian economy keeps just keep rolling along. With apologies to Tiger I know we’re not out of the woods yet and nobody’s taking the hands off the wheel, but it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on our achievement as a nation. Last week’s jobs figures came in at 5.8%. 670,000 unemployed Australians is too many and we expect that unemployment will continue to rise in the coming months. But the community resilience in the face of this threat has been fantastic. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bennelong-where-jobs-prove-the-stimulus-is-working/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bennelong-where-jobs-prove-the-stimulus-is-working/#item1740 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:40:46 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/High-school-now-bears-no-resemblance-to-50-years-ago/ Here’s a Punch quiz. What do Foxtel’s Kim Williams, RMIT Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardiner and Victorian Opera supremo Richard Gill all have in common? Yes, yes, they are all bright sparks and high achievers but it wasn’t until I became the Member for Bennelong and started to develop strong links with all my local schools in the north west of Sydney that I realised that this talented trio were all graduates of Marsden High School. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/High-school-now-bears-no-resemblance-to-50-years-ago/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/High-school-now-bears-no-resemblance-to-50-years-ago/#item1242 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:34:08 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/she-shoots-she-scores-then-quits-while-shes-ahead/ Australian politicians have something of a mixed record when it comes to sport. While a number have been talented sportsmen and women, some of Australia’s most memorable TV bloopers are of politicians coming a cropper trying to exhibit their sporting prowess. Bob Hawke was felled by a bouncer bowled by a journalist. When called on to bowl in Pakistan a few years back, the former Member for Bennelong could only summon up mullygrubbers. I have no wish at all to join them and others on that particular show reel. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/she-shoots-she-scores-then-quits-while-shes-ahead/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/she-shoots-she-scores-then-quits-while-shes-ahead/#item1059 Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:45:22 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/trying-to-stick-non-designer-labels-on-the-government/ There’s a school of political thought that goes something along the lines of, if you say something loud enough and long enough it’ll stick in people’s heads – true or not. It’s a calculated tactic embraced most fervently by practitioners of conservative politics, which probably reached its nadir in U.S. style attack ads such as the Swift Boat Veterans. Mind you, this week’s efforts to smear Barack Obama as a granny-killer over his health care reforms and depict him as a socialist Joker are giving the Swift Boat Vets a run for their money. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/trying-to-stick-non-designer-labels-on-the-government/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/trying-to-stick-non-designer-labels-on-the-government/#item930 Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:45:51 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-gender-pay-agenda-time-women-got-on-board/ People keep asking me does gender matter in politics? If this week’s news about the gender pay gap in managerial jobs is anything to go by, not as much as it does in management. I’ve always believed that there is no more basic principle of fairness than equal pay for equal work. Yet it was no surprise to anyone that Macquarie University research highlighted in this week’s The Age found female managers are an average of $13,500 a year worse off than their male counterparts. The research took into account that women managers work in lower-paid sectors such as health and community services and clock up slightly less hours than male managers. Even accounting for these factors, the work of a woman manager comes at a $13,500 discount. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-gender-pay-agenda-time-women-got-on-board/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-gender-pay-agenda-time-women-got-on-board/#item656 Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:55:20 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/drop-the-dead-celebrity-ive-got-a-good-news-story/ I’ll be out door-knocking in Bennelong this weekend, talking to real people and listening to their stories. Nothing beats it for direct feedback on a range of fronts. Every time I do it I come away with a couple of reaffirming anecdotes – usually about people’s resilience, ingenuity, wisdom, and humanity. Real human interest stories aren’t hard to come by. You just have to listen.  The last thing I’ll be doing this weekend will be switching on the television. I’m trying to avoid becoming an unwilling passenger on Michael Jackson’s final journey home to Neverland. Despite my best efforts I suspect that, like death and taxes, celebrity death coverage will still prove to be inescapable. As we’ve seen across last week’s media landscape, dead celebrities are the undisputed rulers of the news cycle. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/drop-the-dead-celebrity-ive-got-a-good-news-story/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/drop-the-dead-celebrity-ive-got-a-good-news-story/#item527 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:55:18 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/memo-to-the-liberals-its-about-jobs-stupid/ It’s two weeks since I Punched in for the first time. Since then I’ve been thinking about jobs, jobs, jobs. Your jobs, my new job and the disgraceful job the Opposition is doing. Last week’s ABS job figures showed 27,200 more people registered as unemployed in May. I don’t mean to sound like a Jeremiah but we know worse is to come. If unemployment rises to 8.5 per cent in line with Budget estimates around 330,000 more Australians will be out of work by the end of next year. Those who’ve lived through earlier slowdowns can testify to the brutish effect unemployment can have on families and on communities. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/memo-to-the-liberals-its-about-jobs-stupid/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/memo-to-the-liberals-its-about-jobs-stupid/#item387 Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:40:48 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/finding-love-and-salvation-amid-poverty-and-despair/ Here’s my guilty admission. I sat through Samson and Delilah and I wanted it to end. The violence, the petrol-sniffing, the exploitation – white and black, and the indifference were all confronting. But it wasn’t my squeamishness that had me longing for the closing credits. What did me in and left me feeling completely bombed was that for much of the movie you are placed in the shoes of Aboriginal young people who have seemingly little to live for. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Maxine McKew) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/finding-love-and-salvation-amid-poverty-and-despair/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/finding-love-and-salvation-amid-poverty-and-despair/#item238 Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:58:55 +0000 Maxine McKew | Author bios | The Punch