Comment

Multiple points of failure are built into this program, coupled with the deep flaws in its strategic logic. AUKUS will become an embarrassing memory, if it is remembered at all.

Paul Keating says it is the worst reporting he has ever seen. Not known for his own sense of understatement, he is appalled by the hyperbole. “Today’s Sydney Morning Herald and Age front page stories on Australia’s supposed war risk with China represents the most egregious and provocative news presentation of any newspaper I have witnessed in over 50 years of active public life,” he said in a statement.

Budget repair is the major fiscal policy challenge the Albanese government faces right now. Although it has committed to expenditure savings, such efforts are unlikely to be sufficient to do much to repair the structural deficit. That means the net burden of tax will need to be increased.

There was a discernible shift in the national political calculus this week, with mounting challenges confronting the almost year-old Albanese government. It confirmed, if confirmation were needed, that there is no magic wand for easy solutions. The 10th interest rate rise in a row, announced on Tuesday, came in a week where three opinion polls showed a softening in support for the government.

Serving and former bureaucrats are glued to the hearings because the evidence has ranged beyond details of the unlawful debt recovery scheme to the wider culture of the federal public service and how it has interacted with executive government. What’s being exposed reveals how dramatically that relationship has deteriorated.

In my recent two-month travels across Australia, my most painful experience was the meetings with the refugees. People from all backgrounds and legal statuses, long after release from offshore camps, are still grappling with the Australian asylum system.

The line has always been that Rupert Murdoch does not direct his editors. This is the pretence of his empire: that he doesn’t need to direct his staff because they already think the way he thinks. The only problem with this is that it’s not true.

Australia has reached a pivotal point. There is very strong and increasing demand for government to provide a wide range of services, support and policy frameworks, coming to a head at a time when the federal budget already has a $37 billion hole and we are approaching $1 trillion in debt. This calls for a mature debate about priorities.

This week Anthony Albanese trod where many thought he would never dare: he raised taxes on excessive savings held in superannuation. While he did it in a way that can wedge his political opponents in the run-up to the next election, he also handed them a big stick with which to beat him in the meantime.

The bells had barely rung for the first sitting weeks in parliament when Opposition Leader Peter Dutton cracked open the playbook of his predecessor Scott Morrison regarding women … Bang. There it was. Us versus you. Right versus left. A reflexive deployment of partisan weaponry, with a Morrison-style ‘people in glass houses’ flourish.