Politics

Essentially, the Nats have become the political arm of the mining industry as the climate debate has gained substance and momentum. What is most worrying is that they are now also dictating Liberal Party policy.

Far from rattling the Albanese government, Paul Keating’s verbal pyrotechnics over the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal have been taken as confirmation its credentials on national security are firmly anchored in the United States alliance – exactly where most Australians want it to remain.

J.D. Vance is fascinating. Not for who he is now, but for who he has been and who he may become. I doubt either presidential candidate, Harris or Trump, walked his road, asked his questions or did his reading.

Albanese believes it will take a long time to heal the wounds created by the referendum and regain the considerable loss of momentum in reconciliation. He needs no convincing that Dutton will ruthlessly exploit subterranean and even explicit community prejudice in his pursuit of power.

To anyone interested in decency in politics, there should be nothing short of total disgust at how easily Dutton and his media mates have dragged the debate over Indigenous disadvantage into the gutter – or should I call it out as a mire of misinformation, into which they are determined that this country will sink, lower and lower with every utterance.

It is frustrating how readily we have accepted the underfunding of education, especially universities, and importantly, research.

None of the seats won by independents in the past 20 years were defined as marginal by the Australian Electoral Commission ... While the steady decline in support for the major parties has been well documented, many strategists and commentators are yet to comprehend how disruptive this trend is to the political binaries of left and right or government and opposition.

In Australia, if the polls are any guide, neither major party leader is capturing voters’ imaginations. One senior minister says that after the experience of Tony Abbott, ‘no one believes that Dutton is unelectable’.

Labor should frame itself as the party of security and strength. It should frame Dutton as weak on economic policy, weak on wage growth and workers’ rights, weak on climate, weak on housing, and weak on healthcare. Those weaknesses are to be feared.

The events of this week have indeed been a very sad commentary on the ugly and dangerous state of US politics, the outcome of a longer-term slide into extreme tribalism, reliance on inflammatory and poisonous rhetoric and provocative actions.