http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/nsw/ 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 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +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/in-nsw-politics-winning-is-more-important-than-policy/ If you were to choose one place which symbolised the challenges facing the city of Sydney, it would be hard to go past the permanent disaster area that is the Kingsford Smith Airport. With a continuing argument about whether the damn thing should even be there at all, Sydney Airport, like the city itself, is a disorganised work in progress, the subject of upgrades which no sooner finish than another one begins. It’s a stressful place. It’s expensive. It consistently ranks last in surveys of national airports, principally because it has been designed and redesigned without its human users in mind. It is six months since NSW Labor was deservedly pummelled at the ballot box ushering in what was billed as a new era of accountability and renewal under the Coalition Government of Premier Barry O’Farrell. The one thing which has changed is an end to the constant procession of low-rent ministerial scandals which made the tail end of Labor’s rule seem like the last days of Rome. But in terms of the more pressing policy challenge of getting some life and direction into the place, it has been a bleakly disappointing start. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-nsw-politics-winning-is-more-important-than-policy/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/in-nsw-politics-winning-is-more-important-than-policy/#item6748 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/champion-team-sends-a-champion-bloke-out-in-style/ “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/champion-team-sends-a-champion-bloke-out-in-style/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/champion-team-sends-a-champion-bloke-out-in-style/#item6232 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nsw-labor-good-maybe-too-good/ Every man and his dog – and there are plenty of dogs involved in this story – has a reason the NSW Government went down so spectacularly at the weekend. But really there is only one: NSW Labor is simply excellent at what it does. The NSW Right is – or at least was – such a supreme political and campaigning machine that it wins not only more often than the Liberals but more often than it should for its own good. In the last 35 years in NSW Labor allowed only a hiccup of Liberal rule before it broke the back of the Greiner Government in 1991 after a truncated three-year term and then sent it to Coventry for 16 years at the next election. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nsw-labor-good-maybe-too-good/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/nsw-labor-good-maybe-too-good/#item5527 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. 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. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) 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 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-no-way-big-barry-can-lose-this-election.-or-is-there/ Tomorrow Barry O’Farrell assumes the mantle of the Premier of NSW. That’s not a prediction from a well-informed insider, by the way. It’s a stone-cold fact, hewn from the knowledge that there hasn’t been a conclusion this foregone since Ricky Martin turned out to be a bit light in the loafers. Which leads us to the question - what could Fatty possibly do to balls up this one horse race? With one day left on the campaign trail shot clock, what catastrophic cock-ups could the man cook up to fall short of the biggest sure thing since hipster douchebags queuing up for Apple products? You know it, I know it, and you can be sure as shit old Barry knows it. So with that, Barry, we dare ya. We double dare you to take The Punch Policy Pepsi Challenge, and pepper a few of these zingers into the ears of your electorates. We honestly doubt it’ll make one iota of difference… feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-no-way-big-barry-can-lose-this-election.-or-is-there/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/theres-no-way-big-barry-can-lose-this-election.-or-is-there/#item5475 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hanson-is-back-and-the-circus-is-complete/ The NSW election was limping along with numbing predictability, like a circus missing one of its three rings, when the most persistent name in politics emerged to make the spectacle complete. Pauline Hanson has decided not to emigrate to Britain as she declared last year, to not abandon bids for election as she had vowed several times. She has decided instead to ignore her total absence from political debate in NSW and run with a bunch of buddies for the State Upper House. Pauline is back, and finally that missing clown ring has been restored to the campaign circus. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hanson-is-back-and-the-circus-is-complete/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/hanson-is-back-and-the-circus-is-complete/#item5340 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. 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. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) 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 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. 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. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) 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 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-oprah-could-save-sydney-pride/ This week, we have seen two incredible women on television who have both made us feel proud to be Australian. One is Anna Bligh, with her outpouring of emotion, reminding Queenslanders and the rest of the nation that people from the sunshine state are “the people they breed tough, north of the border.”  The other is Oprah.Yes, Oprah. In Sydney, we are struggling to harness a sense of pride. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-oprah-could-save-sydney-pride/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/how-oprah-could-save-sydney-pride/#item4946 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sydney-sparkles-to-hide-the-rot-beneath/ Tonight, the City of Sydney will squeeze into its glad rags and put on the pyrotechnic razzle dazzle that has become the standard way to see in the New Year. As always, event organisers have promised this year it’ll be bigger, bolder and with added bang for our $5 million bucks.  In recent years, they city’s grandiose flair for making stuff explode and decorating the Harbour Bridge has given Sydney a cocky strut. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sydney-sparkles-to-hide-the-rot-beneath/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/sydney-sparkles-to-hide-the-rot-beneath/#item4797 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 “Sometimes you just can’t account for champions.” With these words, uttered after Queensland’s first try, Nine commentator and rugby league ego-in-chief Phil Gould summed up why Queensland won State of Origin III, and with it, an unprecedented sixth straight series That first try was so classy. Billy Slater slipped the ball away when held by two players, Johnathan Thurston held the ball just long enough to create confusion, then poked through a beautifully-weighted grubber for Greg Inglis. There wasn’t much room in the corner. Inglis never needs much room.