Editorial

It is an assumption of the Westminster tradition that good government requires good opposition. It is something like Newton’s third law of motion, the stability depending on the equalness of corresponding forces.

Madeleine King’s press release is a little shorter than this editorial. For her, there is not much to explain. The announcement of a new gas field licence and the further opening of the country’s coast for marine drilling is simple enough. The logic is obvious.

Thirteen years ago, on a Thursday in early March, Adam Giles became the first Indigenous person to lead an Australian government. Then a member of the Country Liberal Party, he was sworn in as chief minister of the Northern Territory.

When Bill Shorten began his reform of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the agency responsible for the scheme commissioned “narrative” work to help sell the changes. The man tasked with reviewing the scheme was shown the research before he was shown any modelling on cuts.

Jim Chalmers flew to the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings this week in the American capital. It was there almost 20 years ago that his former boss, Wayne Swan, noted the early panic surrounding what became the global financial crisis.

Tony Abbott is not known for his instinct or his sympathy. This was obvious on Tuesday, after Ben Roberts-Smith was charged with five war crime offences.

This is how Anthony Albanese works: he takes too long to make a decision and when he finally does the decision he makes is too weak.

You might think, when a company’s work is so slipshod that it is known in government circles by the nickname “Accidenture”, when behind that company is a trail of blowouts and extensions, millions and millions of taxpayer dollars jemmied out in so-called variations, that it would at some point become hard for it to win competitive tenders. For Accenture, this is not the case.

Aged care in this country is a disgrace. The sector is at once rapacious and seemingly insolvent. It is bankrupt in every sense, especially morally. It grubs out money wherever it can. Care is cut. Food is cut.