Labor’s decision dodgers

AS Treasurer Wayne Swan and other senior ministers urge employers not to sack their workers after Christmas, Environment Minister Peter Garrett has put more obstacles in the way of 3500 new jobs in Tasmania. Welcome to Kevin Rudd’s world, where almost nothing is quite what it seems. Tony Abbott

In a fervour for a Fuhrer

Imre Salusinszky

‘WE are all fascists now” would seem to be the message of Liberal Fascism, an original, well-written and occasionally barmy new study by US social commentator Jonah Goldberg.

Subtitled The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, Goldberg’s book searches for the philosophical roots of social phenomena as diverse as the US progressivism of the early 20th century, contemporary environmentalism, Hollywood activism, the organic produce cult, identity politics, gay marriage, More

O’Farrell faces test of mettle

ON the face of it, last month’s Newspoll - which put the NSW Coalition comfortably ahead of the beleaguered state Labor Government - should have been the best possible Christmas present for the conservative Opposition. Malcolm Colless

Age profiles great acting helmswoman

Following a puff-piece by its Sydney stablemate, the Spencer Street Soviet yesterday ran its own profile of the acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Age opted for an interesting headline and layout treatment (right), given Gillard’s history with the Victorian Labor Left and, in particular, her membership of the Socialist Forum. The SF was set up in the mid-1980s as a gateway through which members of the declining Communist Party of Australia could enter the ALP. That is not to infer that Julia Gillard was ever a member of the CPA, but to indicate the position she occupied on the political spectrum. More

SMH barracking for Gillard

The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday used the experience of an impressionable 12-year-old girl, who met the acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to declare a national love affair …

The gushing puff piece by Mark Metherell, focusing on politics by gender, reported the meeting of Gillard and 12-year-old Amanda Tangas More

Debate about conservatism continues

Eduardo de la Fuente commented on the weekend about the new book on Australian conservatism and the Howard era, The Times Will Suit Them by Deakin University lecturers Geoff Boucher and Matthew Sharpe. De la Fuente asserted that “[t]he crux of Boucher and Sharpe’s argument is that conservatism morphed into a form of relativism. Under the former prime minister, they claim, universalistic normative principles such as international human rights gave way to nationalistic assertion and cultural particularism. Values were appealed to ‘not because they are just but just because they are ours’”.

The authors respond to de la Fuente in The Australian today.

“Our argument, however, is that conservatism has changed. De la Fuente comes close to agreeing with us when he complains that the rhetoric of the culture warriors in the literature and history wars has in the past 10 years come to replace the more measured conservatism he values. More

Barry O’Farrell boosts Mike Baird

NSW OPPOSITION leader Barry O’Farrell will promote leadership rival Mike Baird to become the Coalition’s treasury spokesman when he announces a reshuffle of his shadow front bench today. Sunday Telegraph

Traditionalists know the limits of theory

IT’S not easy being a conservative. Most of the time your colleagues and peers regard your views as embarrassingly old-fashioned. The culturati and the academy love to poke fun at you. And, when you’re at a dinner party, there is no more sure-fire way to upset the bonhomie than to express sympathy for a conservative position on any subject matter.

Then, just as conservatism seemed destined to remain decidedly unfashionable, Deakin More

NSW Liberals preparing for power

A RESHUFFLE and radical restructure of the NSW Coalition front bench, due to be unveiled by Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell tomorrow, will provide the first solid clues on how a Caolition government intends to run the state. The Weekend Australian

Kevin Andrews dusted off to think Coalition policy

KEVIN Andrews, the former Howard government minister at the centre of the Mohamed Haneef affair, has been promoted to head the Coalition’s policy unit as part of a political rehabilitation. The Weekend Australian

Double standards a threat to democracy

The Rudd Government cannot undertake electoral reform unless Labor looks at the undue influence of unions, the union money that flows into Labor coffers via donations and affiliation fees, and the cashed-up campaigns unions run on behalf of Labor. Janet Albrechtsen

Hockey rumour double-edged

Last week’s outstanding rumour was the one about Joe Hockey moving from federal politics to take over the state parliamentary leadership of the NSW Liberals from Barry O’Farrell. But, as far as one can establish, it is completely untrue. David Barnett

Rudd in a spin on carbon “pollution”

Cory Bernardi

In politics, as in many areas of modern life, the detail can often be ignored in favour of the spin.

Seldom does the headline found in our newspapers or press releases reflect the full story. At first blush, this appears to apply to Kevin Rudd’s emission trading scheme (ETS) announced yesterday.

My initial reaction to a five per cent reduction in carbon emissions was actually disbelief. A reduction of five percent would (by my basic arithmetic) reduce global emissions by a paltry 0.07 per cent over 12 years. More

Turnbull needs to get tough

Turnbull can win the economic arguments hands down in the House. He has been well ahead of the Rudd Government in his understanding of the nature of the economic collapse but being right in Opposition is not a Lotto ticket. Piers Akerman

Posturing is poor policy

POOR polls are always disappointing but little should be read into them two years out from an election. It’s hardly news that the Government’s stocks have risen when almost half Australia’s households have received a well-advertised Christmas bonus. Tony Abbott