Archive for the 'campaign 2004' Category

God is not a Liberal

Friday, September 10th, 2004

And in an article about the relevance of religious issues in the campaign, Kevin Rudd is quoted as saying:

Nothing revolts me more than anyone who is a Christian seeking to publicly exploit their private faith for political purposes,” he says. “Secondly, there’s a bit of a view being put around by the conservatives that God […]

Howard - why he should not be returned to power

Thursday, September 9th, 2004

Man, I wish I could write like this

Sometimes I wish

Tuesday, September 7th, 2004

Sometimes I wish I could be more conservative. Truly. Seriously, I don’t know how on earth I ended up a lefty, but I can remember at the age of 7 yelling slogans about saving the franklin river. Sure, at the time, I wasn’t able to articulate why saving the franklin was a […]

And they’re off!

Monday, August 30th, 2004

Yep, as anticipated, the little bald man has announced that the election will take place on October 9. For our international readers, the commentary on our federal election will heat up in the next 6 weeks. Some may find this exotic, but if you are not one of them, feel free to ignore […]

who cares anyway?

Tuesday, August 24th, 2004

And the award for the most predictable result ever goes to the recent poll indicating that the children overboard lies will not sway voters:

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported a Galaxy Poll found 47 per cent of voters believe Mr Howard lied about the issue before the 2001 election.
It also found 31 per cent did not […]

the PM’s feeling for time

Tuesday, August 17th, 2004

From this interview today, the following struck me:

BENSON:
Yeah, we had a long stretch where no vice regal representative was forced from office, we’ve had two forced from office in the last year.
PRIME MINISTER:
There was one in Victoria.
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes, Guy Murray quite recently, he was pushed out.
BENSON:
Okay. But can […]

truth in government

Friday, August 13th, 2004

I don’t care whether you are for or against the statement of the 43, but I have one minor suggestion regarding truth in government. How about the PM stops dicking around with the election date. If you are not going to call the election this weekend, just say you are not going to. […]

Capitulation

Thursday, August 12th, 2004

Well, the man of steel has capitulated and decided to accept Labor’s proposed amendments to the FTA enabling legislation, in order to tie up the FTA before parliament takes a break for a couple of weeks.
Sedgewick has described it quite aptly as a non-core back flip in the comments section of this thread over at […]

stop that flora and fauna smuggling!

Wednesday, July 28th, 2004

The latest “campaign” promise from the man of steel is all about protecting those ever fragile borders of ours:

I am pleased to announce today that the Australian Government has awarded $135m worth of contracts to ensure the continued effective monitoring and protection of our maritime borders.
Involving five Dash 8 aircraft, three Reims 406 electronic […]

on muck-raking

Monday, July 5th, 2004

And the prize for best line a political blog today goes to Back Pages in an analysis of the propensity for muck-raking in politics to backfire:

Second, as with the footie example, insofar as the dirt just remains regular knockabout larrikin fare, over which the victim can be remorseful, as necessary, the stuff can bond all […]