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Church and state are confronting one another right now over the federal freedom of religion bill and the Victorian anti-discrimination bill. Whenever such confrontation occurs it reveals our priorities. We define our identity by what we choose to fight for hardest.
The next month will be full of sugar-hits and sweeteners, whether they be personal tax cuts, grants or special deals for organised interests. Every candidate and party is guilty of this in their scramble to win. Citizens are complicit too if their main concern is 'what's in it for me'. Churches play the game as much as any pressure group.
Deals struck between Prime Minister Gillard and Independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott saw hospitals in their electorates receive preferential treatment ahead of regions with greater needs. Pork-barrelling has always been part of politics, but that does not make it any less of a scandal.
Newly-elected Tasmanian independent MP Andrew Wilkie is basing his quest for power on ethical conduct. There’s nothing new about politicians talking about doing the right thing. Wilkie’s point of difference is that he quickly follows his words with action.
Brendan Nelson told Kevin Rudd to direct his war on binge drinking at his own backyard after Young Labor delegates hosted a drunken party in a Canberra hotel. But Australia's addiction to the bottle runs deeper than mere substance abuse.
Jack Waterford writes that Australia is likely to have a new government by December 2007.
Both Government and Opposition seem committed to economic reform. But the fact that the Howard Government's fiscal policy is currently being steered by a drunken sailor is cause for alarm, as is Kevin Rudd's lack of experience and seeming inability to come up with his own economic policies.
It is worth contemplating the dismal failures of conservative coalitions at state level while John Howard’s star has increased, and his own revolutionary shifts in the federal compact.
First time voters, paper castles, songs of joy, bounteous gifts, signs of the times