A spate of MUA industrial action threatens to lead Australia back to its uncompetitive past
THERE is much more to the ongoing industrial action taken by the Maritime Union of Australia against shipping companies servicing our offshore oil and gas industry than merely the news that there have been five strikes in just two months.
Escalating industrial action and union militancy in the maritime sector will put at risk Australia’s international reputation as a reliable supplier to the world of energy and resources.
Yet Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard is refusing to intervene …

WITH a political lightweight, Kristina Keneally, shoehorned in as NSW Labor Premier, it seems that in next year’s election the conservatives will come to power in Australia’s most populous state.
This is despite the fact that NSW Liberal Party leader Barry O’Farrell is a conspicuous underachiever and a lacklustre media and parliamentary performer.
The fact is the NSW Labor government has well and truly lost its way. It is clearly on the nose and is widely perceived as divided and incompetent. It’s simply not listening to the concerns of voters and not …

WITH the rise of Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott federally and Kristina Keneally in NSW, religion is re-encroaching on politics.
The biggest influence is in NSW. When Catholic World Youth Day descended on that state in July last year, many taxpayers resented being forced to pay $20 million in security charges for the event and $40m for the use of Randwick racecourse. The reason that atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Anglicans and even a few Catholics were being forced to go along with this was essentially because then premier Morris …

TONY Abbott should not be underestimated. His direct approach to politics will have a powerful appeal to regional Australia. Abbott may have a Sydney seat in federal parliament but his greatest appeal may be outside NSW.
Too often much of Australia’s daily media coverage is Canberra-centric and political mood changes in states such as Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania are not likely to be detected in Canberra until a Newspoll or election result has highlighted them.
The reality is the new federal Opposition Leader’s direct, knockabout, open style will be …

From his first drink at the age of fourteen Ross Fitzgerald has struggled with alcoholism. His story is one of despair, courage and hope – and living to see another day.
He writes about growing up in Melbourne, drinking his way through university in Australia and the US, being incarcerated and subjected to electric shock therapy and reaching rock bottom before being saved by Alcoholics Anonymous.

One of Australia’s most widely-published historians, his story is truly inspiring. Insightful and brutally honest, “My Name is Ross” is his account of life as an …

Let me put some of my cards on the table. I turn 65 on Christmas Day. And if I survive until Australia Day 2010 I will have had no alcohol or other drugs in the last 40 years. This means I’ve had 40 more years on the planet than I otherwise would have had.
Like a lot of teenagers who are prone to addiction, I got into trouble with alcohol at an early age , in fact from my first drink of alcohol at age fourteen I drank in a manner …

THE immediate interpretation by much of the media of Tony Abbott’s first federal shadow ministry is that it is a turn to the Right for the Liberal Party and a return to some of the warhorses of the past. In some respects this is true.
But the first decisions by Abbott with respect to his personnel are more multi-layered than that.
In a much-needed move, Malcolm Turnbull, who in recent days has behaved like a petulant narcissist, has been replaced by the much more formidable Abbott.
But otherwise the opposition’s key leadership group …

More than half a century ago, the Catholic Church set out to take over Australian political life. The Church set up an underground organization to infiltrate political parties, to control their agenda, and to assume the leadership of their personnel. With church money, church facilities, and church authority, the organization had some noticeable successes. By 1952 it felt able to report that within a few years, Australian governments, federal and state, would be legislating its policies.
If this sounds shocking today, one should reflect that in a democracy it is legitimate …

THE timing of the departure of Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s highly talented chief of staff Mike Kaiser last Friday could not have been worse. Kaiser’s announcement that he will join the federal government’s national broadband network from December 1, as head of government relations, came only a day after the scrapping of the controversial Traveston dam by federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett.
Brisbane’s Courier-Mail reported that the day before his retirement announcement, Bligh’s office had denied Kaiser had quit.
Kaiser’s retirement and its timing sent a message that the Queensland Labor government …

NEXT week’s ETS debate will reveal whether Malcolm Turnbull has made the transition from gifted amateur to professional politician, argues Ross Fitzgerald.
Malcolm Turnbull believes in an emissions trading scheme. He was the Howard government minister who brought a proposal for one to cabinet and he has never wavered in his view that it’s the best way to impose a price on carbon. But governments and oppositions have different roles. The government has to run the country. The opposition has to hold the government to account. It normally does so by …

THERE has to be a political afterlife that is acceptable to the people of Australia.
Given our national antipathy toward ex-ministers taking corporate jobs while drawing a pension, we must find a better way to put their experience to good use, says Ross Fitzgerald.
For years I have been observing the public debate over what politicians should do after they leave or are defeated in parliamentary politics, and I know there is no perfect answer. Some ex-pollies stay in the political game, others set out to make money as consultants and corporate …