LATE last month, Peter Costello was toasted to the rafters at a sumptuous event in Melbourne. Among Liberal true believers he is acclaimed as the main architect of Australia’s economic prosperity in the past 10 years.
Who knows, if he had become leader in June 2006, it could have been him and not Kevin Rudd sitting in the Prime Minister’s seat in the House of Representatives today. But then prime minister John Howard would have none of that and as we say, the rest is history.
Tomorrow, …

ROB Oakeshott’s thumping win on Saturday in the NSW north coast federal seat of Lyne may have wide repercussions. The loss of the seat held by retiring Nationals leader Mark Vaile since 1993, and by the Country-National Party since 1949 when the seat was created, spells trouble federally for the Nationals.
Despite a strong performance in the June by-election for Gippsland (which is the Nationals heartland), Oakeshott’s crushing victory in Lyne is a clear example of how, if they are offered the choice of an independent candidate with a strong track …

AT the same time as Kevin Rudd’s popularity with electors remains solid, Labor is starting to hit glitches at a state level; a near-death experience in the Northern Territory and knife-edge polls in Western Australia show political incumbency is no longer an unambiguous advantage.
In the Sunshine State, Queenslanders are almost exactly one year away from a scheduled state poll. But already Labor insiders are working through the pros and cons of calling an early election.
Party pollsters following the Northern Territory and West Australian campaigns reveal that voters weren’t annoyed only …

There’s been a predictable black and white response over the last fortnight to former federal resources minister Ian Macfarlane’s advocacy of nuclear power as a realistic energy option for reducing greenhouse emissions.
But what has largely been ignored is the role of gas-fired energy generation.
The deleterious impact of emissions trading on our economy will be felt most severely in the Latrobe Valley of Victoria where such a scheme will result in significant job losses in a number of brown-coal fired power stations. The same applies to New South Wales, because …

ABC television’s satire The Hollowmen introduced Australians to a type of professional unfamiliar to many citizens: the federal government policymaker.
In reality, unless reasoning is clear and ideology is jettisoned, policy making can have unintended deleterious consequences.
Take, for example, the Coalition’s Work Choices and the Rudd Government’s tax hike on ready-to-drink alcopops.
While it may be too early to definitively conclude whether the increased tax on premixed alcopops has reduced binge drinking, especially among young women and men, early evidence suggests this policy hasn’t achieved its intended goal and has possibly led …

IN the space of a month, former Howard government minister Mal Brough has gone from being touted as a possible conservative saviour in his home state of Queensland to being a potential conservative wrecker.
A little over a month ago, Brough stormed back into public life when he romped home in a ballot for the presidency of the Queensland Liberal Party. But that’s where his triumph ended. Brough had made a mark for himself as the straight-talking, military trained politician who led the politically popular intervention into the Northern Territory’s indigenous …

IN 1957 the Queensland Labor premier Vince Gair, who had comfortably won two state elections, found himself at war with his own party over the issue of union influence. So they sold him out.
As a direct consequence of the rift – and despite Labor’s previous strong performances – the conservatives soon took power and there they remained for 32 years.
The stoush also precipitated the rise and rise of Joh Bjelke-Petersen and all it meant for the Sunshine State and Labor’s electoral future.
It’s with a chilling sense of deja vu that …

Tomorrow at Sydney’s historic Mint Building in Macquarie Street, the Heritage Council of NSW and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter) launches a major publication, ‘New Uses for Heritage Places’, which showcases seriously sustainable uses for Australia’s heritage buildings.
But you won’t find the federal government taking a similarly forward-looking approach to heritage matters. The Australian government continues to significantly under-fund heritage protection, especially our Aboriginal and historic sites.
There is no excuse for this inattention, particularly as Australia is now at the cutting edge of heritage conservation. The ideas …

A key plank in the Australian Football League’s plan to expand the national competition is to establish permanently a second Aussie Rules team in the Harbour City. Not that Sydney’s proposed second AFL team will be housed anywhere near the Harbour foreshore; their headquarters will be in western suburbs and most likely based at Blacktown.
Perhaps surprisingly, the long-time chairman of the Sydney Swans, Richard Colless, said to me yesterday that he is “enthusiastic about any move to grow the game in New South Wales and the ACT. However Colless makes …

TEN years ago today, the Queensland Nationals lost their last premier, Rob Borbidge.
Having defeated Wayne Goss, Borbidge seemed likely to return Queensland to long-term conservative rule. Yet just over two years later, his government fell to Labor’s new Opposition leader, Peter Beattie, for years left out in the cold by Goss.
Borbidge lost, not just because of a lacklustre governmental performance, an adverse reaction to a secret Nationals deal with the Queensland Police Union, and indecision over how to deal with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, but more importantly it was …

As the marvelous Margaret Fink, Anne Deveson, and Robyn Williams know better than most, my stunningly beautiful wife, Lyndal Moor, and myself are contributing co-editors of GROWING OLD (DIS) GRACEFULLY.
As if we didn’t feel old enough already, recently at Parliament House, premier Morris Iemma launched the book to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Seniors’ Week!
Yet one of the advantages of being seniors is that we can say what we like – which is precisely what Lyndal and I and all other contributors have done in this book.
Of course truth …