First published on The Drum: 06/12/2011

It’s the timeless sales pitch for joining a political party: A megaphone and bad hair will only get you so far, the real way to effect political change is from ‘inside the tent’.

But when it comes to politics, we’re not happy campers. Membership of mainstream political parties is on the slide, with Labor’s shrinking and disaffected base a key area of debate during the weekend’s National Conference.

Essential polling this week shows meeting the Prime Minister’s target of 8,000 new members this year will be a serious challenge for the party. In fact, to achieve the target will mean improving the current performance by a factor of about 8,000.

This week we asked about membership of all sorts of social, community, recreational and political organisations and of all these categories, it is the political parties that are suffering the most.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 28/11/2011

It’s been a year of big political fights: about the future of the world; about the future of the nation; and then some that seem to be akin to war over a barren piece of rock in the middle of the Atlantic.

If carbon tax has been the battle for the planet and the mining tax the battle for the nation; then the fight over bringing the budget into surplus could well be the Gillard Government’s Falklands War.

Because while Tony Abbott huffs and puffs and Wayne Swan blows back over who has the littlest one, the presence of a budget deficit in 2012-13 is regarded as a matter of little consequence to most Australians.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 22/11/2011

For the recovering alcoholic, every day is defined by the decision not to have another drink. The Opposition leader should know how this feels as he attempts to swear himself off WorkChoices.

As the business lobby and former Coalition danger-men like Peter Reith urge him to take a tipple, Tony Abbott is attempting to stay off the juice even as every fibre in his being wants him to say ‘just a little one’.

And the public? They’re just waiting for him to fall off the wagon.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 15/11/2011

If you thought coverage of the Queen’s hats and curtsey-gate was bad, just wait until Air Force One touches down in Australia this week.

There will be excruciating live crosses counting down the minutes until president Obama lands on Australian soil; describing in detail each element of the motorcade snaking through the roundabouts of Canberra.

It’s hard – make that impossible – to imagine an Asian head of state receiving such fanfare.

But it turns out media overkill is no guide to the way Australians understand our place in the world.

We might admire the Queen’s class and staying power, we might love the thrill of a POTUS visit; but we hold our cultural allegiances at arms length from our views on our future prosperity.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 08/11/2011

Amidst the industrial carnage wrought by Qantas CEO Alan Joyce last week was a brief glimpse of what survival for the Gillard Government might look like.

It would start with a corporate leader arrogantly putting his commercial interests ahead of the national interest, to the cheers of his fellow CEOs.

It would move into a debate about whether loyal Australian workers had a right to expect any sort of say in the way their workplace was run; or whether they should be forced to cop whatever the latest management team cooked up.

It would give voice to the federal front bench, for once united on a matter of principle they truly believed in, providing a platform to speak up for the values of their movement.

And it would end with the Federal Opposition, stripped of any pretence of policy, in a tangle over the WorkChoices bogey, simply barracking for the big end of town because that is what they are conditioned to do.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 01/11/2011

Protest about corporate giants holding the nation to ransom and you’ll get hauled away by police under cover of darkness.

Be a corporate giant and actually hold the nation to ransom and you’ll get a $2 million pay rise and a pat on the back from your mates.

Only slightly less bizarre than Qantas CEO Allan Joyce’s decision to ground his fleet over the weekend, stranding thousands of innocent punters, has been the muted response by the nation’s media.

Imagine a union leader taking wildcat industrial action and grounding an airline, with no thought of the implications. The tabloids would scream “industrial thuggery” and “un-Australian bastardry”; there would be calls for deregistration of the union, possibly jail for the rogue official.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 11/10/2011

With the carbon debate set to hit the pointy end of Federal Parliament this week, get set for more character analysis of our beleaguered Prime Minister.

With her public persona now inextricably tied to her decision to accept that her approach to carbon pricing amounts to a broken promise, it’s worth looking into what’s fuelling the ‘Juliar’ phenomenon.

After all – Politician Lies – there’s hardly a headline in that right?

Q. Which statement best reflects your view:

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 04/10/2011

Canberra will be pointy-headed heaven this week, with Dating Agency RSVP possibly the only organisation in Australia that hasn’t released a lengthy policy submission ahead of this week’s tax and jobs summits.

Pity, as RSVP’s surveys consistently show tradesmen are top of the list of men women want to date. Tradies are hot property. Tax consultants don’t really rate.

With policy, as with dating, blue-collar jobs beat tax hands down. And it’s jobs – not tax – that offer the most promise of innovative government policy this week.

On tax, the Federal Government already has an ambitious agenda with its fraught carbon and minerals resource rent taxes hitting parliament in succession.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 27/09/2011

When Rugby League legend Phil ‘Gus’ Gould stopped his on-air spruiking of sports betting for long enough to attack the Gillard Government’s responsible gambling laws on Friday night, he was blowing the opening whistle for what is looming as the match of the season.

Cash-Strapped Clubs versus Wilkie’s Wowsers shapes as a classic encounter, a contest where there can’t be any compromises, where a loss could spell death for one side, a victory worth self-evident, if ill-gotten, riches for the other.

Cash-Strapped Clubs, traditionally one of the principle sources of funding for NRL clubs, have been targeting New South Wales and Queensland Labor MPs for months claiming they would be driven to the wall if people were given the option of nominating a maximum losing amount before they hit the poker machines.

Now a number of AFL notables, several with strong Liberal Party ties, are parroting the dubious proposition that sporting clubs need the proceeds of problem gamblers to remain viable entities. Ignore the millions in broadcasting fees just secured; if people who can’t control their gambling are protected from themselves, the code itself is in peril.

Read more »

First published on The Drum: 20/09/2011

Sex scandal! Now I have your attention, I want to talk about politics. That’s the show on TV where the woman with dyed red hair swaps insults with the boofhead in the suit.

These overpaid and out-of-touch liars run the country. But they never listen to us ordinary folk. While we are fed up with living costs and boats they just want to waste our money.

Labor’s hopeless: they stuffed up pink bats; wasted zonks in school halls; they can’t stop the boats and they want to bring in a big new tax on everything. And the other mob? Not much better: he says no to everything and wears budgie smugglers. I can’t stand either of them.

This is a pretty fair summary of the state of contemporary political debate; a series of swapped insults thrown at a disengaged electorate who has neither the time nor inclination to engage.

Read more »