Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has built himself a reputation over the course of his political career as a supposed convictions politician.
Peak hour commuters arriving at Melbourne’s Flinders Street, Sydney’s Martin Place and Brisbane’s Roma Street railway stations last week could not avoid the WorkChoices: whatever the name, never again campaign.
The announcement yesterday by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott that a Coalition Government would end the current protection policy of Australia's waters highlights a lack of leadership over marine parks, according to environment group WWF-Australia.
As part of our coverage of the key seats that will decide the 2010 federal election, our reporter gives us an overview of the events and outcome in the famous bellwether seat of Eden-Monaro on the NSW South Coast.
Just twenty-three days after deposing Kevin Rudd, our ranga (redhead) Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called a general election for 21 August. The Oz blogosphere is looking for substance not just spin in this campaign.
The treatment of deposed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is set to play a major role in the federal election campaign as early polls continue to echo voter disquiet over the manner of his ousting.
It's been some time since we've seen Labor in government and last week's removal of Kevin Rudd as leader revealed their inexperience and obsessions with opinion polls.
He hadn't contested the leadership spill called by former deputy Julia Gillard, allegedly because the numbers were so embarrasingly against the former PM that to contest would have been foolhardy
The next few weeks will be ablaze with commentary and analysis of the federal Government's 2010 budget, detailing the winners and losers of Treasurer Wayne Swan's third budget.
It appears that the current government is being held hostage to the opposition's agenda, though this is problematic as the Opposition appear not to know quite what the agenda is themselves.
Tony Abbott is often said to carry out his politics in the same way he used to approach his boxing.
The Liberal/National Opposition's Tony Abbott, Julie Bishop and Eric Abetz, joined by Finance spokesman Barnaby Joyce, are seemingly carrying out a successful formula for losing the next election.
With only a couple of days since federal politicians returned to Parliament for the start of the sitting year, so far we’ve seen a deluge of hot air and rubbish from the Tories, especially Tony “The Monk” Abbott and even Joe “The Tutu” Hockey who look to be attempting to make mileage from speaking...
By Rich Bowden: Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has turned up the heat on the Queensland Labor Government, calling its proposed legislation to protect a number of wild rivers in the State’s north “outrageous.” Mr Abbott promised to introduce a private members’ bill into the federal Parliament which would would reverse the Queensland Government’s...
By Rich Bowden: Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has signalled he will return to a hardline refugee policy accusing the Government of lacking “steel” against asylum seekers who attempt to arrive in the country on boats. Speaking to reporters in the wake of the intervening of the third Australian-bound refugee boat in the last...
By Rich Bowden: Recently deposed Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull has launched an extraordinary attack on his colleagues calling the opinion of Tony Abbott, the man who replaced him as leader, “bullshit” on the subject of an emissions trading scheme. Mr Turnbull was rolled in a very public leadership spill last week after Mr Abbott...
By Rich Bowden: Liberal party officials have claimed weekend by-election results offer a ringing endorsement of new leader Tony Abbott after a fortnight of party infighting not seen since the Howard/Peacock battles of the 1980s. The Liberals Paul Fletcher (Bradfield) and Kelly O’Dwyer (Higgins) continued the blue ribbon seats’ tradition of not having to...
By Rich Bowden: The Australian Government is today considering whether to call an early election after its emissions trading scheme legislation failed to pass the Senate for a second time yesterday. Despite two Liberal senators, Sue Boyce and Judith Troeth, crossing the floor to vote with the Government on the amended bill, the Government...
By Simon Hukin: The outcome of the leadership ballot today has demonstrated Tony Abbott will find it devastatingly difficult to unite his party room. With only one vote in it, it should be clear to the newly anointed leader that the party does not stand resolutely behind him. The wets – led as ever...
By Alex Schlotzer: Well what a whirlwind week in Australian politics that was, starting with the defection of most of Malcolm Turnbull’s frontbench and culminating in the win by Tony Abbott (by one vote) in today’s leadership spill. The tragedy (for Turnbull supporters) was that it was bound to happen as the now former...
By Rich Bowden: The leadership crisis of Australia’s Liberal party, which has pitted moderates against conservatives over whether or not to agree to the Government’s contentious Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) legislation amendments, took another turn yesterday as so-called unity candidate Joe Hockey met with fellow frontbencher Peter Dutton at his Sydney home. The two...
By Simon Hukin The ire raised by Mr Turnbull’s recent decisions regarding the CPRS legislation has brought about some of the most bizarre scenes in Australia’s political history. Following his unilateral announcement late on Wednesday that he was the leader, and the party was largely in support of the passage of the amended emissions...
By Rich Bowden: Five Liberal frontbenchers have resigned over its leadership’s decision to ram through an agreement with the Government on an emissions trading scheme. Tony Abbott, Sophie Mirabella, Tony Smith and Senators Nick Minchin and Eric Abetz have handed in their resignations saying they cannot agree with their leader Malcolm Turnbull’s decision to...
By-Elections: A Final Commentary
Political analyst Alex Schlotzer writes on the Higgins and Bradfield weekend by-elections; what it means for the leadership of the Liberal Party, Australia's political landscape and whether the issue of climate change will be a vote changer in the run up to the next election.
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