“Tony Abbott’s behaviour in recent weeks is throwing up pretty compelling evidence that he is poised to rush to the polls as soon as he thinks he has a better than even chance of winning.”

“Nowhere does the ‘hook or by crook’ doctrine reveal itself more dramatically than in the mounting evidence that the government is now in the people-smuggling business.”

“Immigration Minister Peter Dutton shrouds everything he does in ‘operational’ secrecy. North Korea couldn’t do it better.”

“One voterland issue finding its way into Canberra is same-sex marriage. Do not be fooled by reports the issue has become an inevitability.”

“Half a billion dollars has been saved by stopping the boats, says the budget. That’s dwarfed by the $913 million a year that implementing the policy is still costing.”

“There are signs Hockey is feeling very insecure in his job. His embarrassment is compounded by his invisibility in the past couple of weeks and Scott Morrison’s in-your-face presence everywhere.”

“Sounding like a politician who wants to win an election rather than fix his budget, Hockey said: ‘It’s only Labor that wants to increase taxes on superannuation.’ ”

“According to the polls, when it comes to one of the Coalition’s favourite mantras of ‘returning the budget to surplus’, the electorate is of little faith.”

“Real pressure is mounting on the coalition to come up with something meaningful on emissions reduction before the Paris conference at the end of the year.”