Keywords: Hung Parliament
-
AUSTRALIA
- Tony Thompson
- 31 August 2023
In an era where victories are celebrated and mistakes are concealed, the power of the simple phrase 'I am sorry' seems to be vanishing. From personal slights to public gaffes, our society seems increasingly averse to accepting responsibility and offering genuine apologies. But why has this sentiment become so rare, and what does its absence say about the values we hold?
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Binoy Kampmark
- 21 April 2022
7 Comments
Few sights are more desperate than old political parties on the run. In this Australian federal election, the challenge from independents and smaller parties has sparked a nervous reaction, much of it negative and most of it misplaced.
READ MORE 
-
AUSTRALIA
Most of us accept that over the last twenty-odd years, something has shifted in the way politics in Australia is conducted, and not for the better. Notably, our government (and media) are seen by most voters as a dividing force within society rather than a uniting one.
READ MORE
-
ARTS AND CULTURE
- Barry Gittins
- 14 January 2022
4 Comments
We’ve been in a pressure cooker, these past two years. More than a score of historians had memorably described 2020 as the sixth-most ‘stressful year ever’. Predictions and speculations look ahead; I looked at the past trends of the past two years and make these humble observations. With the stage set for dire times, here are six trends to look for in 2022. Here’s hoping.
READ MORE
-
INTERNATIONAL
- Kerry Murphy
- 28 October 2021
6 Comments
Mark Twain is reported to have said ‘history does not repeat, it rhymes.’ Watching a US helicopter evacuating people from the US Embassy in Kabul, that was rhyming. Many have seen this picture before, 30 April 1975, but then it was Saigon. The massive confusion, mixed messages, terrified people, lack of human rights protection happened in 1975, and still happens in 2021.
READ MORE
-
INTERNATIONAL
- Binoy Kampmark
- 13 December 2019
16 Comments
Tired and world weary, the British electorate went to the polls. Rarely in history can there have been such an assemblage of unelectable or disappointing types standing for office or trying to remain in it. It proved to be an ugly boredom, though it was uglier for some than others.
READ MORE
-
PODCAST
Former FBI Director James Comey's latest testimony, foreign donations to Australian political parties, and freelance hackers reportedly triggering a diplomatic crisis in the Arabian Peninsula: what does it all mean? We also touch on the implications of a hung parliament in the UK, including lessons from recent Australian experience. We finish with Wonder Woman and the elements that made it work.
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Andrew Hamilton
- 02 June 2016
8 Comments
David Marr describes Shorten at work in the claustrophobic world of the Labor factions and the unions where great haters abound. Annabel Crabb has a lighter touch, describing the career of Turnbull, with all its energy, intellectual and tactical brilliance, and victories with obvious enjoyment and in sunlit prose. The accounts raise two questions: Do the qualities of leaders matter much? And what insight do the leaders' stories provide into the likely achievements of the government they would lead?
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- John Warhurst
- 31 May 2016
16 Comments
When the big parties condemn the idea of a hung parliament it is just self-interest, as when both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten expressed their horror at the prospect of any sort of alliance with the Greens. It was surprising that Shorten missed the opportunity to defend the legacy of the Gillard government, a successful minority government which executed a considerable legislative program. If he allows 2007-13 to be portrayed as disaster years it will hurt his chances of becoming prime minister.
READ MORE
-
- Michael Elligate
- 10 June 2015
'The Institutional Church has so often taken smug refuge in pushing the need for an informed conscience. However this does not certainly mean personal freedom must bow to the stand of the establishment. The rights of partners to be honest in their own sexual matters is given due place in this new book.' Fr Michael Elligate launches Fr Frank Brennan SJ's book Amplifying That Still, Small Voice at Newman College, Melbourne, 5 June 2015.
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Tony Kevin
- 25 November 2014
22 Comments
Jacqui Lambie has resigned from the Palmer United Party, apologising to the nation for weeks of acrimonious sniping and instability in parliament. We can understand the hostility of the major parties, and even the Greens, to independent and PUP senators who took office mid-year. But it is not in their self-interest to try to exploit differences and to weaken and destabilise the newbie senators.
READ MORE
-
AUSTRALIA
- Frank Brennan
- 11 April 2014
8 Comments
'We should abandon talk of taking Australia off the table. We should also abandon talk of taking the sugar off the table. The collateral damage of that is too great. The best we can do ethically and practically is to put the sugar out of reach while leaving it on the table for those who make it here with a visa or in direct flight from persecution.' Frank Brennan contributes to a Palm Sunday panel at St Michael's Uniting Church, Melbourne.
READ MORE