2010 Election

UPDATE: As of 5pm all four banks have already passed on the interest rate increase.

For the second time in as many years, the Reserve Bank has helped cement the banking community’s reputation as a cuddly bunch of warm-hearted funsters by using Melbourne Cup Day to stick it to home-owners.

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While you were munching on some prawns the RBA increased rates from 3.25 per cent to 3.5 per cent, resisting the temptation to go for a much more dramatic and painful 0.5 per cent rise, but still sticking by its warning that there would be more more pain to come.

Many people with mortgages will shrug this one off – we’re still about $700 a month better off in terms of repayments than we were when the GFC hit.

Continue reading "Kevin Rudd does not want to own these rate increases" »

It’s a strange time of year in Canberra.

Millions of bogong moths descend upon Parliament House’s Capital Hill during their annual migration. Accompanying them are hundreds of big black birds against a grey sky: crows, magpies and currawongs flooding Parliament’s many courtyards to feast on the clueless prey lying in around the building.

Walking through this bleak scene I was thankful for the fact that I at least wasn’t a Coalition MP looking out my window at huge crows devouring dying and confused helpless moths – it would’ve all been a bit too close to home.

Continue reading "The Liberal Party is digging up enough dirt for everybody" »

Anyone wondering why Kevin Rudd continues to defy political gravity could do well to consider the latest Essential Report that drills down into the issues of importance to Australian voters.

Like a human pogo stick, Rudd just keeps bouncing back: it doesn’t seem to matter what he’s hit with – global financial meltdown, environmental destruction, even an influx of asylum seekers.

No matter the political issue – and we have tested 13 of them – Rudd has the Opposition covered – even the traditional Liberal strong points of economic management and interest rates can not deliver Turnbull a win.

Continue reading "Our beloved Kevin Rudd is a human pogo stick" »