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Keywords: Treasury

  • AUSTRALIA

    Why public servants leak

    • Tony Kevin
    • 05 June 2008
    3 Comments

    All is not well between the Prime Minister and the Public Service, as evidenced by the leak of Cabinet documents related to Fuelwatch. Such a leak may have been avoided had Rudd removed notoriously Howard-compliant departmental heads upon taking office.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What Kevin Rudd can learn from Gordon Brown

    • Michael Mullins
    • 19 May 2008
    1 Comment

    Last week's Federal Budget showed Kevin Rudd's determination to stare down the prevailing economic wisdom, in order to stay on track as a man of his word committed to building a fairer Australia. The humiliating fate of his UK counterpart Gordon Brown suggests what might happen if he strays.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Tips for a more discerning budget night

    • John Warhurst
    • 13 May 2008
    1 Comment

    This evening's Budget may be the most significant political event of the year. A budget is a particular challenge for a Labor government, given popular skepticism about the party's economic credentials. If Labor wins general acclaim it will have cemented its hold on government.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    What a progressive economic policy looks like

    • Andrew Thackrah
    • 11 March 2008
    3 Comments

    One of our biggest challenges – tackling climate change – has resulted from the failures of free markets. But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and other Australian policy makers remain uncertain about how, and to what extent, governments should intervene in the operations of the capitalist system.

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  • RELIGION

    Now is the moment for political leadership

    • Frank Brennan
    • 06 February 2008
    8 Comments

    Even senior traditional hard men of the Liberal Party like Bill Heffernan and Shane Stone have indicated that it is time to act. It is time for Brendan Nelson to draw the line so that we can move on, committed to reconciliation and improvement in Aboriginal health, education, and life expectancy.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Make foolish haste while the Treasurer smiles through gritted teeth

    • Michael Mullins
    • 08 August 2007

    Opinion polls suggest the ALP's "me too" strategy is enhancing their electibility. But in the end, Australians may just stick with the devil they know. "It's time" may have worked for Gough Whitlam, but only time will tell whether "Kevin 07" will do the same for Kevin Rudd.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    When governments stop listening to advice

    • Jack Waterford
    • 08 August 2007
    3 Comments

    Interviewed a year ago for the biography John Winston Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello complained about the Government's binge spending. Since then, the PM has committed many billions more, and given every indication the pace of spending will increase enormously between now and the election.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Mersey Hospital fix sets scene for wider turmoil

    • Francis Sullivan
    • 08 August 2007

    The Prime Minister's decision to take over funding of Devonport's Mersey Hospital seems to fly in the face of rational analysis of service delivery capacity of the area. It does not set a promising precedent for the health planning prowess on the part of the Commonwealth.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Ramos-Horta landslide best possible outcome

    • Paul Cleary
    • 18 May 2007

    The vote in East Timor's presidential election has unified the nation, and given democracy a second change, after the fractious violence of 2006. It underscores the depth of the antipathy towards the Fretilin government after it badly managed the country’s post-independence development and sparked renewed violence last year.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Rudd and Gillard enjoy the bounce

    • Jack Waterford
    • 23 December 2006

    Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard are enjoying their bounce, and their honeymoon, as John Howard predicted they would. Early polls suggest a marked upsurge in the Labor vote, in approval for the Labor leadership change, and in comparisons between the performance of Rudd and the Prime Minister. Were an election to be held now, one might think Labor would romp it in.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    Industrial relations is the Church's business

    • Brendan Long
    • 26 June 2006
    6 Comments

    The Federal Goverment believes that church leaders will retreat from the Industrial Relations debate to their cathedrals. It does not realise that the proper relationship between economics and the good of society is a central theological concern.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    The boy who cried wolf

    • Jack Waterford
    • 19 June 2006

    John Howard is correct in thinking that the public can discern between a grand lie and a little lie. He’s not, really, a grand liar.

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