Diminishing returns on urban water - posted by Graham

There's less water than there used to be, because of global warming, so to make up the shortfall we build desalination plants, which are the most energy intensive way of harvesting water, leading to more greenhouse gases, leading to less... More

Premiers to wooden spooners - posted by Graham

It's hard to believe that in the course of only three years the federal Liberal party could have gone from being some of the best campaigners the country has seen to the butter-fingered, fumbling no-hopers that they appear at the... More

Have the Liberals run out of money? - posted by Graham

The Labor Party has shot so many ads, that now they are running ALP TV. Their latest ad features a scare campaign on Global Warming, and I've already seen it a number of times on terrestrial TV. But where is... More

Querulous and shifty v unctuous and shifty - posted by Graham

I think Kevin Rudd won the debate tonight. Apparently the worm, which Channel Nine managed to save from extinction, thought so. But after 2001 when the worm gave the debate to Kim Beazley, but John Howard ended up winning the... More

"He said." "No he said" - posted by Graham

It was supposed to be Kevin Rudd who would be "playing with the Prime Minister's mind", but it seems like the PM is doing some tinkering of his own. Yesterday's Liberal ad targets Kevin Rudd's positive attack ad, targetting the... More

Predictable campaigns - posted by Graham

The latest ALP attack ad is cute - it's the "wounded innocence" approach. John Howard opened his campaign with some negative advertising hanging L plates around Kevin Rudd's neck. Rudd responds with an ad which opens with Howard's ad and... More

Gaffe and counter gaffe on interest rates - posted by Graham

If you pick on someone for being ignorant, it's a good idea to know what you're talking about yourself. Wayne Swan broke that rule when he tried to capitalise on John Howard's gaffe when Howard failed to accurately name the... More

Kev07 can no longer be Me02 - posted by Graham

The announcement today by the government of lowered direct tax rates stymies any more "Howard lite"pitches by Kevin Rudd. By locking increased revenue into tax cuts the government makes it a clear choice for Labor - you can either back... More

Whose interest rate record is worse? - posted by Graham

I've just been trawling news sites and The Australian links to this ad, obviously evidence of how positive Kevin Rudd's campaign is going to be: So, whose record is better on interest rates? The graph below of 90 bank bill... More

Brisbane Central harbinger of gloom for Liberals - posted by Graham

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has scored well in her debut as campaigner-in-chief in the Brisbane Central by-election. The ALP has scored 50.06% of the vote to date, which compares with 50.48% last time. This probably means that there was virtually... More

Trashing the dog whistle - posted by Graham

I don't understand this speech by John Howard "If re-elected, I will put to the Australian people within 18 months a referendum to formally recognise indigenous Australians in our Constitution - their history as the first inhabitants of our country,... More

Bad timing - posted by Graham

As reported on Australian eDemocracy Special Minister of State Gary Nairn is calling for submissions on the idea of a Government Blog for Australia. Full marks to the government for coming up with the idea, but their timing couldn't be... More

Brown-out for Costello supporters - posted by Graham

One of the arguments for replacing John Howard with Peter Costello, even at this late stage, was the high standing in the polls of Tony Blair's heir, Gordon Brown, immediately after he inherited the job. The lights have dimmed on... More

Howard fluffs three year anniversay question - posted by Graham

Kev07 must be driving a bandwagon with very strong halogens on it. He's certainly got the Howard bunny so caught in the headlights that it fluffs even the easiest of questions. Today is the third anniversary of the last election,... More

Howard's Ryan debacle - posted by Graham

Leaked Liberal Party research says that the once-blue-ribbon seat of Ryan in Brisbane is "ultra-marginal" as a result of John Howard's decision to fund the $2.3 B Goodna by-pass, rather than widening the existing Ipswich Motorway, according to this morning's... More

How serious is this man about global warming? - posted by Graham

That's what the headlines should have been when it was revealed that Kevin Rudd and his wife have been looking for beachfront property to buy. Although I don't agree with ALP front-bencher Tony Burke that the politics of envy are... More

Steeling some Greenhouse cred - posted by Graham

How do you get away with this? If ADMA isn't interested, surely the ACCC should be. I've just seen a BlueScope steel ad on TV trumpeting their greenhouse credentials because steel can replace trees in building, so you're saving the... More

Rudd does Captain someone - posted by Graham

Maybe Kev07's going to decriminalise marijuana (not a bad idea to my mind)? Was it a strip club or a strip joint he was caught in? Perhaps there was something other than tobacco in the stogies that Col Allen coerced... More

Announcement rolls back Rudd's hospital "reforms" - posted by Graham

One of the earliest things that the Goss government did when it gained power in Queensland in 1989 was to abolish the hospital boards that up until then had helped to administer the state's hospitals. It was part of their... More