Isobel Redmond

“Worn down, cut off and out of ideas.” That was Friday’s headline on the resignation of Liberal leader Isobel Redmond, but it pretty much sums up the pitiful state of the South Australian parliamentary Liberal team as a whole.

Now that Izzy has fallen on her sword, we can only hope this squabbling bunch of brats has a quick reality check, remembers that we pay their wages and finally understands that we expect them to play a role in the direction of South Australia.

I am so sick of hearing about leadership instability, factional brawling and petty personal bickering (bickering that apparently dates back to the 1970s in some cases and parental spats in others).

Continue reading "Hey Liberals, how about a bit of opposition?" »

Welcome to another edition of I Call Bullshit. Today we’re looking at the leadership spill in SA, and asking: How does a leader limp on, her team in tatters behind her?

State Liberal Isobel Redmond has clung on by a fingernail, after she managed to shake off the clawing hand of challenger Martin Hamilton-Smith (yes, the Libs do double-barrels in SA). 

In a twisted plot worthy of the Labor Party, Mr Hamilton-Smith is himself a former leader of the party. He was toppled when he fell for “dodgy documents” that he thought showed the Labor Party soliciting donations from the Church of Scientology.

Continue reading "ICB: Did the leadership spill lance the boil?" »

Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond has sparked controversy over her advice that young women should sometimes just ignore discrimination.

Just get on with the job at hand, she said. SA Senator Penny Wong disagreed with the gently gently approach, saying: “I don’t think silence in the face of unfairness leads to greater equality.” Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said if people didn’t complain change wouldn’t happen.

Listening to the talkback radio this morning showed there’s plenty of confusion about the issue. Some people thought she was telling people to stay quiet about sexual harrassment or bullying. What do you think? See what was said below.

Continue reading "Do women need to know when to walk away?" »

Things are reaching fever pitch in the City of Pubs Slash Churches.

The election that everyone thought was going to be a low-key shoe-in for Labor has turned out to be quite the ride.

There haven’t been any really sexy promises – there’s not enough spare cash around. There’s been a Liberal Party pledge to have a good hard look at a particularly pesky roundabout. South Australia’s one-way freeway might end up being a two-way freeway, which just draws embarrassing attention to the original decision to make it only go one way.

Continue reading "SA’s whispering campaign has Adelaide by the balls" »

Bruce Hawker is the director of Hawker Britton and is advising the Rann Labor Government on its campaign.

We are now at the business end of the South Australian election campaign and the contest is going down to the wire.

After years of internal division the Liberal Party had - until this week - managed to develop an appearance of unity on the back of Mike Rann’s problems following the Michelle Chantelois allegations.

With four leaders in four years and little more than a veneer of unity following an acrimonious leadership spill involving former deputy leader Vickie Chapman and current leader Isobel Redmond, the Liberal campaign settled on a “small target” strategy.

Continue reading "SA election: A party that can’t run itself…" »

Jamie Briggs is the federal Liberal member for the South Australian seat of Mayo.

In his book, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, the exiled Czech novelist Milan Kundera, explains how to rewrite a states history:

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory.  Destroy its books, its culture, its history.  Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history.  Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.”

Mike Rann must own a dog eared version of this book if his Punch interview is anything to go by.

Continue reading "SA election: Why Mike Rann’s time is up" »

It’s been pilloried in song by Paul Kelly as a stuffy and boring place where nothing interesting ever happens, but if someone made a film about the past five months of politics in the City of Churches it would probably attract an MA rating.

Economically and culturally South Australia is humming along. Just 10 years ago, in the backdraft of the $3.15 billion collapse of the State Bank on Labor’s watch, it was an economic basketcase which young people were queuing to leave.

Last Thursday, on the day I started this piece by sitting down with Premier Mike Rann, the national employment figures confirmed that SA has yet again registered the lowest jobless rate in the land.

Continue reading "Bunny boilover" »

South Australian Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond, who’s first action when she won the post was to ban swearing in the party room, has today said she’d be happy to be tasered.

So having 50,000 volts of electricity shot through your body might not be as embarrassing as say, sniffing a colleague’s chair, or being outed as having carried a teddy bear around in your uni days, but it’s pretty stupid.

And it makes you wonder what we’ve done to deserve politicians who think we’re so easily bought with cheap stunts.

Continue reading "It’s the lot of the Opposition Leader to humiliate oneself" »