http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/kristina-keneally/ 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 20:00:49 +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/will-bligh-be-the-next-domino-to-fall/ Queensland Premier Anna Bligh called it ``the New South Wales disease’’ where the leadership of the ALP, even in office, became a revolving door decided by faceless factional heavies. Last Saturday, the NSW branch of the party, the source of that ``disease’’ and the biggest single brick in the Labor wall, crashed to the ground. The 16-year-old government, led defiantly by Kristina Keneally, was not merely defeated, it was humiliated. The backlash was unprecedented in its ferocity with voters dishing out the worst defeat of any government in Australian electoral history. Facing a state election within a year, Anna Bligh, of course, is desperate to stop the rot at the Tweed River. But she may not be able to hold back the tide. Fear in Labor ranks is now giving way to panic just as conservatives are rubbing their hands. In a world of diminished party loyalty, instant information, social media, and a borderless 24-hour media cycle, Labor’s hardheads worry that the old boundaries between states, and even between levels of government are blurring. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/will-bligh-be-the-next-domino-to-fall/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/will-bligh-be-the-next-domino-to-fall/#item5500 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-party-at-the-end-of-the-party/ Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-party-at-the-end-of-the-party/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-party-at-the-end-of-the-party/#item5487 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kissing-another-state-labor-government-goodbye/ It will be the political equivalent of a slasher movie, a bloody affair in which the bodies of sitting members pile up as NSW voters go on the rampage against a government which, now in its 16th year, has truly worn out its welcome. The latest polls suggest that NSW Labor, unassailable under the leadership of Bob Carr, could be left with as few as 15 seats in the 93-member Lower House. Some party figures say they might only just crack double figures. For people not living in NSW, next Saturday’s election will only rate passing notice. It certainly isn’t being fought on federal issues, but looms simply as a plebiscite on the awesome unpopularity of a government which for the past six years has been beset by scandal and plagued by incompetence, so much so that voters don’t even care that the Opposition has a sketchy and unambitious policy agenda. Despite being the ABL election – Anyone But Labor – there are a number of issues which will come from the result which will have implications for the rest of the nation. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kissing-another-state-labor-government-goodbye/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kissing-another-state-labor-government-goodbye/#item5424 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nsw-from-shonkiness-and-sloth-to-visionless-inertia/ “Some day someone will write the full story of Australian roguery, from the rum racketeers of the First Fleet to the beer racketeers of the Second World War, from land swindlers to mine swindlers…the dramatis personae will be well assorted – red-coated English officers and wide-hatted Australian squatters, Tories and Socialists, knights and nobodies, politicians, policemen, aldermen; racing men and brewers; and every State will provide a scene or two, though, unquestionably, New South Wales will steal the show.” This is the introduction from Cyril Pearl’s Wild Men of Sydney, the rollicking account of late 19th century NSW politics through the lives of Upper House MPs John Norton, Patrick Crick and William Willis, three men who were drunk on power and often just plain drunk. It’s one of those enduring books which helps tell the story of a city. It was written in 1958 about events from the 1880s and 1890s. To this day, it captures the language of Sydney, the culture of government and business, the sense of entitlement which colours the conduct of so many MPs in this State. The fact that we have an American woman as Premier has done nothing to change this culture. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nsw-from-shonkiness-and-sloth-to-visionless-inertia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nsw-from-shonkiness-and-sloth-to-visionless-inertia/#item5382 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-motley-crew-will-feast-on-nsw-labors-corpse/ There could be some quirky or even downright hostile fellow diners with the Liberals who are now preparing to feast on the ALP carcass at the NSW election. So many, and so non-mainstream, that perhaps they will ruin Barry O’Farrell’s appetite. Voters who are keen to dispatch the ALP might also be in a mind to prevent the election of a Coalition Government which for four years could do what it wanted. There has been a bit of this type of electoral insurance taken out in recent polls. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-motley-crew-will-feast-on-nsw-labors-corpse/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-motley-crew-will-feast-on-nsw-labors-corpse/#item5310 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/everyone-wants-keneally-to-go-down/ When voters hit the polling booths in NSW on March 26, many will have no memory of a time before Labor. Such has been the party’s success in the Premier state, that it had come to regard government as its birthright. It’s a conceit that comes from ruling for the last 16 years straight and for all but 18 of the last 70 years. But now the jig is up. In fact, it has been up for quite a while but the state’s fixed four-year term has delayed the day of reckoning. Labor fell over the line in 2007, thanks mostly to a hopeless Opposition, but the diseases of hubris, of fatigue, of abuse of trust, had already begun. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/everyone-wants-keneally-to-go-down/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/everyone-wants-keneally-to-go-down/#item5241 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/look-into-my-eyes-and-tell-me-im-unelectable/ At the heart of the ALP’s election campaign advertising is a single, profound and powerful message: “You wouldn’t hit a girl would you?” Indeed, it almost seems inhumane to use someone as sweet and appealing as Kristina Keneally as the poster girl for the truly horrible carnage that will be visited upon NSW Labor on March 26. It’s a bit like lashing a fair maiden to a tree and then sitting around and waiting for the dragon. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/look-into-my-eyes-and-tell-me-im-unelectable/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/look-into-my-eyes-and-tell-me-im-unelectable/#item5143 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-kristina-keneally-the-new-peter-garrett/ There was significant attention given to Barry O’Farrell when he spoke at the National Press Club yesterday. There will be a whole lot more when Premier Kristina Keneally has her turn on Friday. Keneally is a political item of particular fascination, and not just because she gets out of bed every morning knowing she is another day closer to getting the tripe kicked out of her government by voters. O’Farrell is the man who will become the next Premier of the largest state in the Commonwealth. Keneally is the voluntary sacrifice needed to cleanse the Labor name of the grime collected over 16 years of government. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-kristina-keneally-the-new-peter-garrett/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-kristina-keneally-the-new-peter-garrett/#item5092 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/political-advertising-the-good-the-bad-and-the-really-bad/ The season’s latest campaign ads follow the same old tired plot of black and white attack hysteria, gloomy (or comical) music and an authoritative male voiceover reviling the failings of a tired old Government. The latest from the NSW Liberals opens with a black and white scene of our lead character (the embattled NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally) admitting her failing only to be ear ambushed with a chorus of our ad’s tag line “same old Labor, same old tricks”. But we’re not left wondering for long what the plot is. Our storyline of the sorry tale of NSW Labor’s leadership’s mistakes and failures becomes glaring apparent with the TV interview vox pops of our supporting characters Morris Iemma and Nathan Rees. And in case we didn’t get the ad’s message, we’re treated to a catchy jingle of “same old Labor, same old failure” on nauseous rhyming repeat.  penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/political-advertising-the-good-the-bad-and-the-really-bad/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/political-advertising-the-good-the-bad-and-the-really-bad/#item5089 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ofarrell-presents-a-small-target-while-keneally-flounders/ The basic thrust of the strategy for Labor to escape the March 26 NSW election with a respectable loss is to put the focus on the Opposition and away from the Government. Well, that’s coming along nicely, isn’t it? On the day that MLC Tony Catanzariti revealed he would be the 22nd Labor MP to quit at the coming poll, and news reports rehashed charges against a senior public servant and minister’s husband for allegedly buying an illegal drug, it remained an academic exercise. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ofarrell-presents-a-small-target-while-keneally-flounders/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/ofarrell-presents-a-small-target-while-keneally-flounders/#item5017 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Arriving at the Randwick Labor Club for Saturday night’s ALP election function, the staff at the desk were joking about having voted Liberal. This was obviously going to be a bad night for the Labor Party.  Like residents waiting for a massive cyclone, the Labor faithful knew when it was coming and where from; the only thing for it now was to buckle down together and wait. Needless to say, it was weird. One benefit of this particular bunker was the open bar, which was probably the most useful bit of campaign spending the NSW ALP had made in the last six weeks.