If you read Adam Bandt’s blogs and media releases, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he was the best thing since sliced bread. Adam Bandt’s campaign is all about how sending him to parliament is somehow “historic”. He campaigns on the slogan that he would be the first Greens MP to be elected at a [...]
Labor in Melbourne
Posted on 26. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Campaigning, Elections
I’ve written here about how the Greens Party are burying the record of first ever Federal Greens MP Michael Organ in order to promote Adam Bandt yet another white male lawyer (a second being the Greens candidate for the state seat of Melbourne). Cath Bowtell is the Labor candidate for Melbourne. If elected, she would [...]
Tony Abbott on Facebook
Posted on 22. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Elections, Technology
A quick search of Facebook reveals that Tony Abbott has a massive presence on Facebook. Tens of thousands of people are fans. Unfortunately, most of those people aren’t fans of Tony’s, but of sanitary napkins or of leaving the country if he’s elected. The biggest fan page for Tony Abbott is “Friends don’t let friends [...]
The first Green in the House of Reps?
Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Elections
By making history and sending the first ever Green to the lower house, Melbourne will send an enormous message to all the parties that these issues are important and need to be agitated and pushed in parliament. So says Adam Bandt, wannabe Greens Party candidate for the seat of Melbourne (emphasis mine). The campaign being [...]
Significant IR changes possible through regulations, other Acts
Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Elections, Industrial Relations
Tony Abbott said that he won’t change the Workplace Relations Act in his first term of government, and Eric Abetz says the only “tweaks” will be to regulations. Significant changes to the industrial relations regime in Australia is possible through regulation changes, and to amendments to other Acts. For example, the Higher Education Workplace Relations [...]
Election Diary, day 4: Joe Hockey and Paris Hilton
Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Elections
Wayne Swan is to surpluses what Paris Hilton is to celibacy. They remember it once existed, but they’ll never see it again. Joe Hockey, today at the launch of the Liberal Party’s economic policy. While Tony Abbott laughed Hockey’s use of a woman’s sexuality for political purposes as Joe being a “good communicator”, it’s statements [...]
Election Diary, Day 3: the wisdom of Tim Dunlop
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Campaigning, Elections
On day three of the 2010 Federal Election the Greens Party did a preference deal with Labor. It was widely reported as some kind of master stroke, or devil pact. According to the Greens Party, the decision was made on the basis of climate change policy: The government’s campaign spokesman, Chris Bowen, said the deal [...]
Disaster at LP
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Technology
Just when the election starts off, pre-eminent progressive blog Larvatus Prodeo has suffered an attack (and/or code malfunction) that has effectively taken it off air. While they are continuing to blog on a WordPress hosted blog, I must say that this downtime is extraordinarily bad timing.
Election Diary, Day 1
Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Campaigning, Elections, Politics
When I got up this morning, instead of cartoons on Channel Nine, there was live coverage of Julia Gillard’s trip to the Governor General’s resident at Yarralumla. The election was being called. All this week, I’ve heard “insiders” say it would be called today, so I’m sure they’ll be gratified that they’ve been proven right. [...]
100% renewable energy in Australia by 2020
Posted on 16. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Environment
The target in Australia of 20% renewable energy by 2020 is the lowest it can respectfully be. There is no reason for the target number other than “it sounds good”. We’re currently around less than 5% in Australia. A recent report by Zero Emissions Network and the University of Melbourne Energy Research Institute shows that [...]
A case for reforming the election of Labor leaders
Posted on 13. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Politics
Labor members are able to directly elect the Federal President, and through representative delegates at conferences both rank-and-file members and union affiliates are able to elect State Labor Presidents. The most important leadership position, that of Parliamentary Labor Leader, is solely the preserve of Members of Parliament. This state of affairs had led to leadership [...]
The refugee debate dilemma: you can’t be “too tough”
Posted on 12. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Politics
The big public relations dilemma faced by progressive asylum seeker activists is that the overwhelming view from Australians is negative. A case in point is today’s Essential Media report, which asked about the Government’s approach to asylum seekers. The most alarming figures is the high number of people who think that the Government is being [...]
The NT Intervention: a case study in dog whistle politics
Posted on 09. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Policy, Politics
I wrote earlier in the week that dog whistle politics is about saying one thing that is interpreted differently by a specific, targeted section of the community to the rest of the community. In 2007, the Howard Government was hemorrhaging support to Labor from its traditional “base” in the mortgate beltways. The Rights At Work [...]
Trust and unions: some polling
Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Politics
Possum Pollytics reports on the 2010 professional rankings for honesty, conducted by Roy Morgan. The rankings are part of a ten-year series and asks people to rank various professions on their “perceived levels of honesty and ethical standards”. The list is an interesting one in and of itself, but I’m particularly concerned about the ranking [...]
Dog whistles
Posted on 06. Jul, 2010 in Blog, Politics
There’s a bit of discussion around the traps to do with dog whistling. The idea is that Tony Abbott is dog whistling to the electorate on the issue of refugees by talking about “being tough on boat people” (one of his 12 point plan is “Enforce strict border security and control”). Similarly, Abbott’s ad showing [...]
-
Lessons from the (Modern) Prince, Part 4: Understanding the Greens in Tasmania
12. Apr, 2010
- No Clean Feed campaign needs to drop their "censorship" obsession 06. Jan, 2010
- Alan Kohler shows he doesn't know about politics 04. Feb, 2010
- The Robin Hood Tax 26. Mar, 2010
- Seven ways for unions to use Twitter 04. Aug, 2009
-
Adam Bandt cures cancer
26. Jul, 2010
-
Labor in Melbourne
26. Jul, 2010
-
Tony Abbott on Facebook
22. Jul, 2010
-
The first Green in the House of Reps?
20. Jul, 2010
-
Significant IR changes possible through regulations, other Acts
20. Jul, 2010
-
alexjpwhite: Completely agree. ...
-
@chrisabruns: It gets worse. Even the Greens electric car plan ...
-
alexjpwhite: I think it's specious of Adam Bandt to sugges...
-
lachlanr: I don't think Adam meant to deliberately disp...
-
Alexander White: Yeah. I watched the interview online, and he didn&...
Lifestream
-
— 5h ago via Twitter
-
RT @TurnbullMalcolm Melb Ports launch - dog upstages pollies as usual http://twitpic.com/29lz7q [alexanderwhite]— 15h ago via Twitter
-
RT @Matt_Kunkel RT @seanjhross: For someone in the Senate only because of Labor preferences, Sarah Hanson-Young speaks on behalf of ever... [alexanderwhite]— 15h ago via Twitter
-
http://is.gd/dQzBx John Della Bosca quits Parliament. Wow. [alexanderwhite]— 16h ago via Twitter
-
Rachel Stanford commented on Stefan Taylor's status.— 17h ago via Alex\'s Facebook Feed
-
Stefan Taylor commented on his status.— 17h ago via Alex\'s Facebook Feed
-
Rachel Stanford commented on Stefan Taylor's status.— 17h ago via Alex\'s Facebook Feed
-
Stefan Taylor commented on his status.— 18h ago via Alex\'s Facebook Feed
-
Alex Conlon commented on Stefan Taylor's status.— 18h ago via Alex\'s Facebook Feed
-
Alex Conlon commented on Stefan Taylor's status.— 18h ago via Alex\'s Facebook Feed

Recent Comments