http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/anna-bligh/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +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/greatest-risk-to-gillard-a-dialogue-with-the-deaf/ After the events in Queensland on Saturday it’s probably time to upgrade Wayne Goss’s memorable observation at the 1996 federal election that voters in the Sunshine State were waiting with baseball bats to clobber the life out of the Keating government. If Saturday’s state result was in any way a dry run for what awaits Labor federally next year, voters in Queensland are waiting with baseball bats, rocket launchers and cans of capsicum spray in readiness to obliterate the ALP. If the staggering and unprecedented 16 to 17 per cent swing at Saturday’s state election is in any way reflected at the next federal poll, Labor will be utterly destroyed, with a raft of senior government figures from Treasurer Wayne Swan down swept from office. The equal-worst federal result Labor has ever had in Queensland was in 1996, when just two of its MPs were re-elected. On Saturday’s numbers, not one Queensland MP would survive. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/greatest-risk-to-gillard-a-dialogue-with-the-deaf/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/greatest-risk-to-gillard-a-dialogue-with-the-deaf/#item8104 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bligh-just-the-first-victim-of-anti-labor-sentiment/ Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bligh-just-the-first-victim-of-anti-labor-sentiment/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/bligh-just-the-first-victim-of-anti-labor-sentiment/#item8088 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-mud-labor-flung-swung-back-in-their-faces/ Queensland’s ground-breaking election at the weekend did one thing above all else. Voters had an overriding message about the nasty, relentless campaign from Labor during the past nine weeks. They said they hated what they saw and heard. The smash-up election result was always coming but its size was in doubt. Let’s look at the empirical evidence. Crosby Textor, the best polling organisation working in real politics, did a serious exit poll on Saturday and found a big result - the top issue that affected voters was the nature of this campaign. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-mud-labor-flung-swung-back-in-their-faces/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-mud-labor-flung-swung-back-in-their-faces/#item8091 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-youve-got-nothing-nice-to-say/ The best weapon Labor has at its disposal to prevent the election of a Tony Abbott-led Coalition Government is Tony Abbott. The polls have consistently shown that while Labor is seriously on the nose and Julia Gillard deeply unpopular, the voters have very limited affection for Abbott. Worse for the Opposition Leader, the trend has become even more pronounced, with Gillard pulling in front of Abbott as preferred prime minister in Newspoll earlier this month. Abbott has a number of problems – he’s seen as far too negative, he’s seen as too aggressive, and he’s seen (even by some of his own MPs) as economically inconsistent, on the one hand arguing for small government and low taxation, yet still pursuing extravagant policies such as the $3 billion maternity leave scheme which has been denounced by the conservative writer Andrew Bolt as an indefensible tax on business. Indeed the mere fact that this policy has won plaudits from the Greens should firmly establish its credentials as a form of budgetary vandalism. Given these facts, it is more than likely that when the election rolls around next year that Labor, its strategists and its advertising agency will be like attack dogs on a leash as they get ready to mount the mother of all negative advertising campaigns against the Opposition Leader. Abbott will be painted as a bovver boy, an economic lightweight, an enemy of working people. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-youve-got-nothing-nice-to-say/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-youve-got-nothing-nice-to-say/#item8090 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/queensland-labor-one-day-liberal-the-next/ The smash-up arrived. A hyper-powered LNP vote - not just above 50 per cent but half way to 60 per cent - drove into Brisbane and parked on the footpaths, the lawns and the median strips. The LNP has secured the greatest majority in Australian electoral history. The territory from Ashgrove and Mount Coot-tha to Everton and Stafford over to Brisbane Central and Greenslopes was painted blue. The Premier’s seat of South Brisbane went down to the wire. This morning Anna Bligh has no finger nails and will just hang on. Nearby Bulimba has a blue glow that may grow. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/queensland-labor-one-day-liberal-the-next/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/queensland-labor-one-day-liberal-the-next/#item8086 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labor-will-be-left-with-nothing-but-crumbs/ In his six types of ill-fated armies, the brilliant Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu identified one called “crumbling”. “If the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, engaging the enemy themselves out of unrestrained anger while the general does not yet know their capabilities, it is termed crumbling,” Sun Tzu wrote more than two millennia ago. While the Bligh Government’s first - and last - full term does not fit this description perfectly, there is something in a correlation of the two. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labor-will-be-left-with-nothing-but-crumbs/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/labor-will-be-left-with-nothing-but-crumbs/#item8085 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-labor-brand-is-damaged-and-so-is-the-product/ “When the tide goes out in Queensland,” a senior Labor figure said yesterday, “it goes out more quickly and more deeply than anywhere else.” It’s true. Think the 1974 state election when Labor was reduced to 11 MPs - a cricket team. Think 2001 when Peter Beattie destroyed the conservatives and won 66 seats in the 89 member state parliament. Or think the 1975 federal election, when an anti-Labor tide affected the whole country but in Queensland left the party with just one seat and less than 40 per cent of the vote after preferences. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-labor-brand-is-damaged-and-so-is-the-product/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-labor-brand-is-damaged-and-so-is-the-product/#item8084 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anna-blighs-been-reduced-to-begging-for-votes/ Someone deep inside the Labor bunker provided an exquisite campaign truth this week. Discussing the increasingly desperate Labor tactics - distilled to something along the lines of “if you touch that button your children will die” - this pie-eyed strategist had one point to make. “Mate,” he said, echoing generations of Labor persuaders, “can you imagine where we would be if we had been discussing Queensland Health for the last four weeks?” While I’ve cleaned that quote up, discarding the Tourette syndrome tendencies that everyone close to this madness can’t avoid this week, it has an essential truth. Some people reckon Labor has trashed itself with its last-roll-of-the-dice campaign. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anna-blighs-been-reduced-to-begging-for-votes/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/anna-blighs-been-reduced-to-begging-for-votes/#item8063 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-inauthenticity-of-the-new-political-authenticity/ At the South by South-West music conference in Austin, Texas, last Thursday, Bruce Springsteen let a brilliant cat out of the bag. He junked the supposed key to modern politics: authenticity. In a 50-minute address, Springsteen said it’s not real. “There is no right way, no pure way of doing it,” said the Boss to a packed auditorium. “There’s just doing it. We live in a post-authentic world. Today authenticity is a house of mirrors. It’s all just what you’re bringing when the lights go down. It’s your teachers, your influences, your personal history. “At the end of the day it’s the power and purpose of your music. It still matters.” Anyone who watches modern politics will recognise the profound truth in what Springsteen says. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-inauthenticity-of-the-new-political-authenticity/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-inauthenticity-of-the-new-political-authenticity/#item8053 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Annas-flood-of-empathy-wont-wash-with-the-public/ Queensland finally is in real election mode and I finally saw an election ad on television last night. During a campaign, voters are treated to positive ads and negative ads and last night we had the first “positive” ad from Labor. I think it’s positive. It’s a confusing shot over the bow because this advertisement shows various photos and footage of Premier Anna Bligh during last year’s flood and cyclone crises. She jumps from helicopters, hugs victims, walks through muddy water and looks less than perfect in the middle of Queensland’s biggest natural disaster on record. The background voice is of Bligh making the “We are Queenslanders” speech during one of her press conference updates during the floods last year. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Annas-flood-of-empathy-wont-wash-with-the-public/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Annas-flood-of-empathy-wont-wash-with-the-public/#item7808 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Jessica Rudd, daughter of Kevin, gets the award for clever political gallows humour: “I’ve never voted for a minor party before,” she tweeted. Few other Labor figures were inclined to quips as the Queensland party grimly surveyed the devastation to its ranks, and the emergence of the most powerful conservative leader in the nation. The Queensland ALP was out-campaigned, chewed up and spat out by a rampant Liberal National Party at the weekend.