election

1 December 2022

This article was originally published in The Australian Financial Review on or about 1 December 2022 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication. It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone. Jordan Peterson has no problem appealing to young people but, as demonstrated in

21 November 2022

This article was originally published in Sky News Australia on or about 21 November 2022 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication. It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone. While the Coalition want to increase gas supply and combat ever-climbing electricity prices, Labor

17 November 2022

This article was originally published in The Australian Financial Review on or about 17 November 2022 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication. It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone. Government debt has grown to such an extent that both sides of politics

14 January 2022

Allow me to be the first political commentator this election season, as far as I’m aware, to invoke the immortal motto of one-time Bill Clinton acolyte James Carville, from Clinton’s successful 1992 presidential campaign: This election is about the economy, stupid. And, unusually, an election about the economy is bad news for the incumbent Coalition government. While it will wheel

16 December 2021

The fear the “Voices of” independents are striking into the Coalition can be measured by the tone of the language Scott Morrison has used to attack them. While in Queensland this week, he described them as “the voices of Labor” backed by “big financiers” from “down there in the southern states”. That’s a lot of attention from the Prime Minister for an

2 December 2021

At the beginning of every election campaign every politician proclaims “this is the most important election in our lifetime and the future of the country is at stake”. At one level that’s certainly true – elections are important, especially when governments change. But whether election outcomes are quite as significant as is sometimes made out is debatable. If Bill Shorten

12 November 2020

It’s a global High Vis vest frenzy, because whether or not he’s President going forward the global legacy of Trump is a realignment of politics, with heartland conservatives switched on and centre-right parties around the world looking for blue collar voters. To what extent can this be said about Australia and can it explain what’s happened this week in the

6 November 2020

A few days ago Alexander Downer wrote on these pages that if he were American he would have voted for Donald Trump – but through gritted teeth. My view is different from Downer. I would have voted for Trump eagerly and enthusiastically. You could argue that in 2016 there were arguments for both Clinton and Trump. Not this time. In 2020, the

5 November 2020

There’s some grieving from Gideon on the Podcast as indications are that Joe Biden will be sworn in as President, though his fabled ‘blue wave’ failed to eventuate. Trump confounded the polls and energised a mass base of Americans in a way that suggests his political legacy will live on. Is this at the expense of the right’s traditional free

29 October 2020

Scott Morrison’s mid-year plan for a COVIDSafe economy is back on track having been derailed by Victorian bungling, but with vaccines uncertain and international borders closed, what is the outlook for Australia’s coronavirus Endgame?  Can services like education and tourism ever rejoin king coal and iron ore as the foundations of our prosperity, at least any time soon? Why would