FEDERAL elections usually come down to a struggle for the hearts, minds and votes of Australians living in marginal seats.
The demographics of many of these seats are remarkably similar, located in the outer suburbs of our main cities or inland regional or coastal areas.
The issues that concern voters in marginal seats are also remarkably similar. Concerns about employment are paramount, followed by housing affordability, mortgage pressures and the cost of living: electricity, groceries, healthcare, childcare and education. It is no accident that federal political parties focus primarily on the hip …

COPING with a hung parliament is increasingly an unenjoyable experience for the federal government but it did not need to be so. The Prime Minister’s bleak prospects stand in sharp contrast to what happened under her great Labor predecessor, John Curtin, when he was in the same situation. The wartime parliament of 1940 to 1943, in which no one party had a majority, saw him gain office and wield power magnificently.
One point of contrast, in particular, is quite eerie. It is not widely known that Curtin’s task in removing Australia’s …

IN their wisdom, the organisers of last week’s World No Tobacco Day decided to devote the main thrust of their message to the evil tobacco companies and their interference in the politics of people quitting smoking cigarettes.
The WNTD posters show a dark, malevolent man who looks like a badly dressed Mossad agent, defacing a No Smoking sign.
The word “Intimidation” is written big and red across the top of the page. Apart from the fact the message behind the image is not at all clear on first viewing, negative campaigns like …

THREE years down the track after being unceremoniously ejected from the Roman Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Brisbane, the community of St. Mary’s in Exile (SMX) has more than survived. It continues to attract people who are disillusioned by the doctrines and dogmas and liturgical practices of institutional religion. Indeed, each week up to a thousand attend SMX.
Fathers Peter Kennedy and Terry Fitzpatrick took most of their community with them, just down the road from St Mary’s Church to the Trades and Labour Council building in South Brisbane. Kennedy …

THERE has been no shortage of hypocrisy in the saga that engulfs the beleaguered federal MP Craig Thomson.
Rational people tend to act out of self-interest, and politicians are no different. It is therefore understandable that Julia Gillard should have sought to prolong her time as the head of the government by seeking to protect Thomson.
Similarly, it is perfectly legitimate for the Coalition to apply pressure to the government and Thomson as it seeks to take over the reins of power.

However, as deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop cogently stated in the …

PATRICK Victor Martindale White was born in Knightsbridge, London, 100 years ago this month. As befits his standing as a winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, his centenary is a significant cultural event for Australia and deserves serious analysis as well as celebration. From 1935 until his death in Sydney on September 30, 1990, White published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.
This year’s centenary will most likely reinforce White’s standing as an Australian icon, but we need to remember that, as a writer, he toiled away for …

PERHAPS the funniest recent satire about writers’ festivals is Michael Wilding’s Superfluous Men, published in 2009.
Having recently re-read Wilding’s expose I thought I’d go to see and hear him at this year’s Sydney Writers’ Festival, which is being held from May 14-20.
Imagine my annoyance when I noticed Wilding was on at the same time as Frank Moorhouse. This seemed more than a bit careless since Wilding and Moorhouse have, over the years, attracted virtually the same audience: “The two parts of a pantomime horse”, as Martin Johnston rightly called them. …

THE issue of gambling addiction is still a political hot potato that no one seems too keen to handle. The issue is wider than just poker machines and the ponies, however, and we should also look at the addiction to alcohol, which seems to have been largely forgotten. Smokers are pariahs and problem gamblers objects of pity while the drinkers drink on. Meanwhile the alcoholic or compulsive gambler (often these two problems are combined) still receive little help in Australia. So, too, their families.
Recently Christopher Lawford Kennedy, the only son …

WHILE most government members were trumpeting the Peter Slipper defection at the end of last year as a triumph for Julia Gillard, I recall one Labor frontbencher privately likening the situation to the Prime Minister knowingly lighting up an exploding cigar.
Designed to deliver a two-vote turnaround in the House of Representatives, with the former speaker Harry Jenkins returning to the government benches and the Coalition losing Slipper to the Speaker’s chair, it was a political fix destined to blow up in the PM’s face.
But despite intense media speculation surrounding the …

Scrutinise MPs’ networks as well as their wallets
Parliamentarians don’t take interest declarations seriously, ROSS FITZGERALD writes

When the Australian Sex Party’s president, Fiona Patten, called for a register of religious interests to be set up for federal MPs a couple of weeks ago, it piqued my interest. She claimed that within the register of members’ interests, section 13 required them to list their involvement with religious organisations. As the federal government gives millions of dollars to religious organisations every year, she argued that religious affiliation had the potential to cause a …

IN a desperate bid, Heather Beattie has entered the fray. How the ALP handles its defeat in NSW, Victoria and Queensland will determine the length of time it spends in opposition. In NSW and Victoria the party still has time to rebuild but in Queensland the ALP is facing another crucial electoral test with national ramifications.
In Queensland, Labor finished with a meagre seven out of 89 seats at the March 24 election; the worst result of the three states. But the next test for the Labor party is not three …