Post mortem

The Liberal’s effort to bury their own election review has predictably backfired, with the Streisand effect ensuring the scathing report has received even more publicity than its publication would have done.

The immigration question

Both political blocks have encouraged immigration to boost economic growth for decades but right wing parties are now riding high on the public backlash, forcing a rethink on immigration policy, and very different rhetoric than before.

Not waving, but drowning

The Liberal’s leadership switch is an admission of how bad things have become as the party loses support on the right to One Nation and the left to the Teals, but the new leader’s grand plan amounts to ‘Trust me, Bro.”

Is it really getting harder to govern?

Is governing harder in the 2020s than in earlier decades? The instinctive, and popular, answer would be “of course it is” but the truth is always more complex.

Hastie pulls his hat from the ring

The battle over the Liberal leadership took a dramatic turn late on Friday when Andrew Hastie announced he was pulling out.

The Liberals’ phony leadership war

Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor are now jockeying for position in their bids to become the next leader of the Liberal Party, given Sussan Ley’s struggles to keep the Coalition together and offer a compelling agenda of her own.

A plague on both houses

Sussan Ley may pay the price for the implosion of the Coalition, but the blame rests squarely with Nationals leader David Littleproud whose leadership should also be on the line.

Bondi royal commission finally announced

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prides himself with being in tune with the public mood, but holding out for weeks against a royal commission into antisemitism misjudged that mood, making Thursday’s backdown a humiliation.

Albanese stumbles over a Royal Commission

Anthony Albanese’s refusal to call a national royal commission in the wake of the Bondi massacre may have any number of political motivations but sorely misjudges the public mood.

Australia’s security shake-up

Australia’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies are to be reviewed in the wake of the Bondi massacre which they singularly failed to predict or prevent.

Too little, too late?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a suite of legislative and other action to combat antisemitism including new measures against hate speech and extra power to reject visas, but is it too little, too late?

Bringing it all back home

The Bondi atrocity remind us how quickly the political landscape can change and how Australia’s increasingly multi-cultural society now reflects and replicates the problems of the world, rather than offering a haven from them.