Comment

The whole proposal is really a smokescreen. It is designed to hide the reality that a Coalition government would keep burning coal and gas for decades … No part of it is real, plausible or sincere. As a proposal, it is probably the most dishonest ever put before the Australian electorate.

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.

This place is killing her. She has to get out, but how? Robert won’t listen. Too enamoured with his important war task, he accepts all restrictions. She’s stuck.

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 Burke ... [Albanese] has a minister every bit as pragmatic as he needs to be to rebut the Liberals’ default claims that Labor is soft on border security and weak on keeping the community safe.

The main concern should be that this deal further locks Australia into US exceptionalism and attempted hegemony in our region ... Moreover, it’s likely Australia’s learning and launch activities will further integrate this country into ... the American war machine...

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.