01-Nov-2007
By Tony Smith
Some political professionals would like to see the state behave just like the market, operating as a heartless machine for maximising outcomes. However, truly rational electors realise that if the system is to be imbued with compassion and humanity, the heart must play a role no less important than the head.
01-Nov-2007
By Brendan Byrne
The Coalition's election campaign portrays union officials as industrial thugs. But far too often, they are the only support mechanism standing between stressed Australian workers and human tragedy.
18-Oct-2007
By Scott Stephens
The great hypocrisy of Kevin Rudd’s style of politics is that he launched his challenge for the Labor leadership twelve months ago with an appeal to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One cannot help but be sickened by his recent rebuke of the politically and morally courageous Robert McClelland, for expressing unbridled opposition to capital punishment in Indonesia.
18-Oct-2007
By John Warhurst
Shadow Minister for the Environment Peter Garrett has suffered substantial damage to his reputation over the Tasmanian pulp mill. What Garrett thinks personally doesn't actually matter, other than ultimately to his conscience.
17-Oct-2007
By Ursula Stephens
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Voters want their government to ensure that Australia’s economic prosperity benefits those who most need it. A strong economy is not enough — rather, it is the social economy, made up of nonprofit, community and other organisations working primarily for the common good, that plays a major role in making our country fairer and our local communities stronger.
20-Sep-2007
By Tony Kevin
Australia has ceased to believe in a rules-based international order. Our increasing cynicism about the UN, and participation in coalitions with powerful world players, effectively denies our sovereignty. Rudd Government foreign policy would need to involve more than fine-tuning.
20-Sep-2007
By Vivienne Kelly
Tim Costello was recently asked whether he thought his brother would ever be Prime Minister. He gave a wry and elegant answer that played with the notion of the difficulty of relinquishing power in the saga of the Lord of the Rings.
20-Sep-2007
By John Warhurst
The Coalition leadership controversy shows how easy it is to change leaders in a Westminster parliamentary system. A number of senior Canadian journalists were in Canberra. They were staggered at the power vested in the hands of so few.
20-Sep-2007
By Frank Brennan
The Howard Government must be given credit for increasing the size of our migration program, including the refugee and humanitarian component. But the deliberations of civil society should provide a fair go for all refugees, including those who arrive by boat without a visa.
10-Sep-2007
By Tony Kevin
It is looking more and more that Labor will win, and that the present unforeseen Coalition government majority in the Senate may be lost too. There are interesting moral questions arising from this analysis for us "bleeding hearts", among whom I am happy to count myself.
23-Aug-2007
By Les Coleman
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.
23-Aug-2007
By Andrew Hamilton
It is surprising how little the political parties have to offer in the lead up to the Federal Election. They do not present themselves as nation builders with visions of a prosperous and happy society, but as technicians with a bare promise that we will be better off financially.
09-Aug-2007
By Michael Mullins
Opinion polls suggest the ALP's "me too" strategy is enhancing their electibility. But in the end, Australians may just stick with the devil they know. "It's time" may have worked for Gough Whitlam, but only time will tell whether "Kevin 07" will do the same for Kevin Rudd.
09-Aug-2007
By Jack Waterford
Interviewed a year ago for the biography John Winston Howard, Treasurer Peter Costello complained about the Government's binge spending. Since then, the PM has committed many billions more, and given every indication the pace of spending will increase enormously between now and the election.
26-Jul-2007
By Philip Mendes
The ALP has historically been committed to government intervention in the free market to promote a fairer distribution of income. However, since Hawke and Keating, the ALP moved towards a free market agenda focusing on the alleviation of poverty rather than structural change.
26-Jul-2007
By John Warhurst
Much of the flesh of an election year grows on a skeleton made up of public opinion polls. But they are only as good as the interpretation that accompanies them. Sometimes commentators see only what they want to see.