Conroy should go back to drawing board

THERE are occasions in politics when an embattled minister is forced to put on a brave face, hold the line and try to sound tough and decisive, despite deep down knowing the decision they are announcing will almost certainly lead to tumultuous and more worrying times ahead. Nick Minchin

Obama escapes media scrutiny

Our media have been in awe of Barack Obama’s physique, his workouts and basketball skills. But his lies about the proposed federal “stimulus” plan are what really deserve scrutiny.

Mike Allen of Politico.com quotes Republican consultant Frank Luntz as complimenting Obama for coming up with the deceptive phrase, “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” to describe the largest federal spending bill in history that is mainly designed to bail out state and local governments that have already spent too much taxpayer money. More

Flawed: NZ republic opinion poll

A recent widely reported poll by Research New Zealand was seriously flawed. The poll was reported to have shown increased, but still minority, support for New Zealand becoming a republic. It did not. David Flint

The warmaholics’ fantasy

THE warmaholics are fond of using the phrase “official records going back to 1850″, but the simple facts are that prior to the 1970s, surface-based temperatures from a few indiscriminate, mostly backyard locations in Europe and the US are fatally corrupted and not in any sense a real record. Jon Jenkins

Patronising pollies just don’t get it

SADDLED with the legacy of past Labor government’s failed Aboriginal policies, the Rudd Government is about to pump a further $30 million into remote communities in yet another job creation project, Working on Country. Piers Akerman

Refuse Guantanamo Bay inmates

Malcolm Turnbull

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has called on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to immediately reverse his decision to accept Guantanamo Bay inmates for resettlement in Australia.

“It would be difficult to imagine the circumstances in which any claims on humanitarian grounds should take priority over the many applicants for humanitarian entry currently awaiting approval,” Mr Turnbull said.

“It is understood that there are around 250 inmates currently detained in the military prison, with 60 considered by the United States authorities suitable for release. More

Choice needed for education revolution

Kevin Donnelly

Kevin Donnelly writes: On being elected as leader of the then Opposition in 2006, and now as Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd has signalled education as a key policy issue. Mirroring then British prime minister Tony Blair’s cry of education, education, education, Rudd and Julia Gillard define their Government’s success in terms of overcoming disadvantage, raising standards and making Australia’s education system more internationally competitive.

Over the past 12 months state and federal More

Labor pushes Rudd for republic vote

PM Kevin Rudd is under pressure to commit to a timetable for testing public opinion for an Australian republic. The Age

Rudd could secretly resettle Guantanamo inmates

TERROR suspects held at Guantanamo Bay could be secretly resettled in Australia within the year as the Rudd Government joins the British in moving to help Barack Obama shut down the notorious military prison. The Australian

Make hay as storm clouds gather

ENJOY New Year’s Day 2009 because this may be as good as it gets. Piers Akerman

Quid pro quo for a powerful judiciary

WITH the exception of former High Court judge Ian Callinan and prominent QC Peter Faris, not many members of the legal fraternity are arguing against the introduction of a bill of rights. Alan Tudge

Rudd reprising a scratchy old ‘78

Last month, the National Archives office released, under embargo, the 1978 cabinet records. In contrast to its parliamentary supremacy, those records show a government still struggling not only with the catastrophic Whitlam economic legacy but also the consequences of its own economic errors during 1976 and 1977. John Stone

Hot air is helping nobody

AS this year of global financial turmoil draws to a close, it is timely to look at the penchant of our governments, state and federal, to prick the conscience of the community on the varied social crises confronting the country. Malcolm Colless

Crush Hamas and brave the backlash

Missing from CNN International’s coverage of the weekend’s fighting in Gaza was even a fleeting glimpse of the tens of thousands of Israelis who spent last night and much of last week in bomb shelters; of the house in Netivot, where a man was killed by a Grad missile; or indeed any of the hundreds of rockets, mortar shells, and other projectiles fired by Hamas since the breakdown of the so-called ceasefire. Michael B. Oren

New Year union pranks that will hurt workers

Far-left unions haul Australia off to some labour law tribunal in Switzerland to complain that Australia is in breach of International Labour Organisation conventions. It doesn’t matter whether we have a Coalition government or a Labor government, the song remains the same. Janet Albrechtsen