Nationals

Note: ABC Breakfast host Virginia Trioli made this “you’re crazy” hand twirling gesture after interviewing Senator Barnaby Joyce on the issue of the ETS. Trioli obviously didn’t realise the cameras were still on. She later rang Senator Joyce to apologise, he quipped to the Punch that he couldn’t quite hear because he had been placed in an asylum.

Apparently some television commentators think that I’m the insane one.

Maybe that explains the place where I work.

Obviously, if I’m not me who am I?

Continue reading "If you think I’m crazy, have a look at the ETS" »

If Malcolm Turnbull achieved nothing else yesterday he may have at least shut Wilson Tuckey up for five minutes.

Yesterday’s five hour joint party room meeting was a victory for Malcolm Turnbull but it was one that doesn’t leave a great deal of time for basking in the afterglow.

Malcolm Turnbull and Ian MacFarlane now have the right to sit down and discuss a set of agreed amendments with Penny Wong and Turnbull’s leadership is safe until at least the end of the year.  And while it’s not much Malcolm Turnbull will take any small mercies at the moment and they’re ones he has fought hard for.

Continue reading "This is the tiniest little victory of them all" »

UPDATE 7:30 PM The Coalition has not agreed to a vote on the alcopops legislation in this sitting, so the earliest it can be approved is August. Yes the ridiculous dance of the alcopops goes on for another few months.

While the Opposition has been struggling with utegate it has quietly embarked on a big policy backflip.

Not because the policy itself is major but after almost a year of calling this 70% tax increase on alcopops the Great Satan the Opposition – or at least some of them - have decided to pass the tax.

Hopefully today there will be a vote on the alcopops tax and it will end this painfully long saga, whose ability to dominate national debate has merely highlighted how seriously we take getting pissed.

Leader of the National Party in the Senate Barnaby Joyce has told The Punch that no Nationals Party Senator will be voting for the tax and that one of his main considerations will be the Bundy drinking and producing voters of Queensland.

“No National Party Senator will be voting for the tax. That means abstaining or crossing the floor. We don’t want a bun fight over it, but we won’t vote for it.”

Continue reading "Not without my Bundy: the alcopops endgame" »