Freelance journalist and broadcaster, columnist for The West Australian.
Albanese’s truculence and the rise of One Nation have set the scene for a long pre-election debate about migration that Labor can’t win.
Paul Murray
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has a catch-cry when he is in spin mode — which is just about all the time — to describe passing political events as ‘a good thing’.
Government is complicated. Politics can be very messy. Economic expertise is a rare commodity. So the Liberal party needs to heed the wake up call of One Nation’s polling threat before it’s too late.
It’s no shock that this generation of Labor MPs stumbled into this Budget mess. They go straight from university into the office of a union or a Labor MP. And they then get a factional ride into the parliament.
It’s show time for One Nation. The Budget was an important opportunity for the party to put policy meat on the bones of discontent. It needed to be more than slogans.
In the middle of Budget season, the future of Australia as a socially cohesive society is just as critical as our financial future, says Paul Murray.
Welcome to the welfare State. That noise you hear is other Labor Treasurers sharpening their knives.
Perth motorists have had a rude reminder of life under Big Brother with the introduction of AI traffic cameras.
When government ministers blow their own trumpet, they need to make sure they are using their mouths and not just any old orifice that expels gas.
This cannot be a Budget that shirks the many difficult issues facing the nation. Some of the necessary solutions would require substantial political skill to co-opt citizens to the cause.
Does Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen not read his own department’s reports that detail Australia’s critical reliance on fossil fuels?
If BP and our politicians could turn back time, would WA still have an oil refinery at Kwinana?
