http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/politics/ 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/New-speakers-slack-clobber-old-speaker-clobbers-slackers/ Peter Slipper, draped in black in a manner most young voters will not see outside Hogwarts, has dramatically altered the style of the Speaker’s office. All occupants of the chair consider the job important. Slipper believes that previously discarded layers of trappings and ceremony are needed to make the point. Predecessor to this Prince of Pomp was Harry Jenkins, who was more a “People’s Speaker”, a Labor lefty whose natural mode was of informality. But his love of Parliament has been genuine and deep. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/New-speakers-slack-clobber-old-speaker-clobbers-slackers/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/New-speakers-slack-clobber-old-speaker-clobbers-slackers/#item7717 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sun-is-shining-but-storms-lay-ahead-for-the-surplus/ The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sun-is-shining-but-storms-lay-ahead-for-the-surplus/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-sun-is-shining-but-storms-lay-ahead-for-the-surplus/#item7706 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-it-sexist-weve-got-nothing-to-compare-it-to/ It all started with the empty fruit bowl on a stark kitchen bench in Altona. The Fairfax profile of Julia Gillard in her first early days of prime ministership was a sign of times to come. Being Australia’s first female PM was going to be far from easy. From grooming, decorum and the sound of her voice, to the appropriateness of her relationship with de facto partner, Tim Mathieson. To the lack of emotion displayed on cue from the devastation of the Queensland floods.  When it comes to scrutiny of the personal nature, as a politician Julia Gillard has copped more than most.  As a prime minster it’s been unprecedented. The only real question is why. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-it-sexist-weve-got-nothing-to-compare-it-to/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/is-it-sexist-weve-got-nothing-to-compare-it-to/#item7694 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-happens-to-us-if-we-collide-with-gfc-2.0/ In 2008, one of the biggest financial disasters in history took place. When investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, the global financial crisis announced its unwanted presence to the world. Four years later, the European debt crisis has again left the global financial system teetering on the edge of the abyss. Make no mistake. This is the Cuban Missile Crisis of economics. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, has warned of a 1930s style Great Depression. Former prime minister Paul Keating has called it the “worst crisis of his lifetime.” Legendary speculator George Soros, in a chilling interview with Newsweek, had this to say: “We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-happens-to-us-if-we-collide-with-gfc-2.0/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/what-happens-to-us-if-we-collide-with-gfc-2.0/#item7680 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/leadership-challenges-are-just-a-big-fizzer-with-voters/ The cleaners at The Lodge don’t appear to be mopping the PM’s political blood up off the floor this morning, following her butcher’s-paper-and-textas meeting yesterday and BBQ last night. But the leadership murmurings about Gillard and Rudd continue to sizzle on the hotplate. Australians have witnessed plenty of leadership knifings over the past 20 years. Rudd by Gillard. Hawke by Keating. Rees by Keneally… It’s become so normal it wouldn’t be surprising if primary school prefects started knifing their school captains in the pursuit of absolute student representative council power. But you’ve got to wonder why Labor hasn’t learnt its lesson about leadership challenges by now. I mean, if we can take away anything from recent intra-party political crapfights, it’s that someone knifing the head of the government and taking their place doesn’t do much to help parties stay in power in the long-term. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/leadership-challenges-are-just-a-big-fizzer-with-voters/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/leadership-challenges-are-just-a-big-fizzer-with-voters/#item7688 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/it-takes-selective-memory-to-call-Howard-era-a-golden-age/ Tony Abbott recalls the 11 years of the Howard government as a golden age and one gets the impression he would like Homer to nip back to record its god-like political heroes in an Aussie Iliad. He put passionate nostalgia up front in a speech last week which revealed the core of the Abbott electoral philosophy. He is promising a former Australia preserved in Liberal amber. It would be an Australia where no one had to share a suburban street with boat people, where factories operated in defiance of cheaper, better goods made overseas, and climate change was a minority fad, like fast-speed internet. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/it-takes-selective-memory-to-call-Howard-era-a-golden-age/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/it-takes-selective-memory-to-call-Howard-era-a-golden-age/#item7677 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Gillards-mapping-a-route-but-will-probably-still-be-routed/ Julia Gillard and her advisers believe they can see a narrow path to victory for Labor at the next federal election. They spent the Christmas break devising a political strategy aimed at taking the Government along that path. Wednesday’s speech by the prime minister - titled `Building a new Australian economy together’ - was, in effect, a map of the route she plans to take. Sadly for Gillard, it is almost certainly too late. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Gillards-mapping-a-route-but-will-probably-still-be-routed/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Gillards-mapping-a-route-but-will-probably-still-be-routed/#item7684 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-could-be-better-or-it-could-be-even-kruddier/ As key moments go, it ranked with Gough Whitlam’s dramatic dismissal speech branding Malcolm Fraser “Kerr’s cur’’ or the latter’s lip-quivering concession on election night, 1983. It was June 24, 2010. Before a huge media throng, a teary Kevin Rudd, his composure failing, his bewildered family staring awkwardly forward, detailed his achievements one by one. Long silences exacerbated the tension. It was excruciating. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-could-be-better-or-it-could-be-even-kruddier/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/kevin-could-be-better-or-it-could-be-even-kruddier/#item7685 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julia-gillard-is-on-the-highway-to-the-danger-zone/ Typically, leadership contests have that nagging chicken-or-egg feel about them. They usually involve a period of intense public speculation with various insiders anonymously cited as backing this option or that. It is a process which can leave voters suspicious of motives if only because change, division, and conflict, make great news copy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julia-gillard-is-on-the-highway-to-the-danger-zone/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/julia-gillard-is-on-the-highway-to-the-danger-zone/#item7681 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/politicians-dont-have-to-live-in-their-own-electorates/ How far do you commute to work? One hour? Twenty minutes? Do you work from home? Where’s head office? Do you think a person who has to drive 15 minutes to their workplace is unqualified to do the job? In politics, like no other job, being born and raised in the one area is some sort of political necessity. It’s a ridiculous thought because if we all thought like that, we’d be doing piecemeal work from home on looms. This week, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd called Campbell Newman an ‘alien’ because Newman doesn’t live within the electoral boundary of Ashgrove. Newman lives one suburb away from the seat of Ashgrove. Does this mean he is unqualified to represent the people of Ashgrove? feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/politicians-dont-have-to-live-in-their-own-electorates/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/politicians-dont-have-to-live-in-their-own-electorates/#item7668 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 The Reserve Bank has decided the economy is ticking along for the moment, and airline passengers lists confirm that many Australians have had a bit of cash to spare. On the day the central bank left official interest rates untouched, the Bureau of Statistics revealed millions of Australians have been in a position to take advantage of the dollar’s golden powers abroad. Last year, short-term departures by Australians reached a new record of 7.8 million overseas visits, up from 7.1 million in 2010. Back in 2001 there were just 3.4 million visits. Some 57 per cent of those who left the country for a short time last year did so for a vacation and a further 22 per cent said it was to catch up with relatives. That amounts to a lot of people with the dough to put to travel, a relative luxury.