opinion
Paul Bongiorno
immigration November 3, 2018
PM Scott Morrison’s sinking popularity
There is a sense that Scott Morrison’s government has reached the point of no return as the realisation dawns that Bill Shorten’s Opposition is now the government-in-waiting. The near 20 per cent shift against the Liberals in Wentworth is the...
politics October 27, 2018
Morrison and the tide of Wentworth
The cascading waters of Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains are an apt metaphor for what happened to the Liberal vote in the seat of almost the same name in last weekend’s byelection. Both were named after the explorer William Charles Wentworth...
politics October 13, 2018
Scott Morrison and his nine-year-old daughter, Lily, had the thrill of their lives last Sunday as white-knuckle passengers in a Bathurst Supercar. They were in the capable hands of champion driver Mark Skaife who skilfully avoided the safety fences...
politics October 20, 2018
Judgement day cometh in Wentworth
The previous time a byelection was held to replace a prime minister dumped by his own party, the government lost the seat. It was 26 years ago, when Bob Hawke’s seat of Wills fell to the independent Phil Cleary. The Morrison government is giving...
economy October 6, 2018
The haunting of Scott Morrison
Not even the west coast of Australia was far enough away from New York to protect Scott Morrison from the ghosts of governments past. In full campaign mode the prime minister headed to Perth to pick a fight with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and to...
environment July 7, 2018
Tony Abbott’s latest demolition job
Last Tuesday night, Tony Abbott was in his element. Surrounded by climate change sceptics and deniers he set about destroying Malcolm Turnbull’s signature energy policy. And he did so with panache, his opening line more a battle cry: “It takes...
politics June 30, 2018
Heartfelt efforts to persuade the government’s climate change deniers and coal champions to embrace the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) have failed spectacularly. But you may not have noticed because on the same day former Coalition leaders Tony...
politics June 23, 2018
Turnbull’s aspirational targets
It was John Howard’s favourite word and now Malcolm Turnbull has latched on to it like a drowning man lunging for a life raft. “We’re not mystified by [aspiration],” he said this week. “We recognise it, we embrace it.” Had the prime minister stuck...
politics June 16, 2018
Parliament fixes its focus on the election
All is fair in love and war, and the same is true in elections. Whatever it takes to win. That is the context for the next two sitting weeks of the federal parliament. There are strong indications this could be the last time the parliament meets...
rural June 9, 2018
The latest Barnaby Joyce fallout
This past week marks a watershed in Australian politics. Politicians’ private lives are no longer off limits. We have arrived at the same place as the United States. But unlike the Americans, it isn’t coming from a puritan tradition; it’s coming...
environment June 2, 2018
Barnaby Joyce wreaks havoc again
The exasperation in the government is palpable. “The only thing anyone is talking about this week is the Barnaby Joyce soap opera,” was the reaction of one fed-up backbencher. But it is not only the distraction that is the issue; it is the spectre...
