Politics
First step is accepting Israel's right to exist
VIC ALHADEFF It is easy to be sidetracked by the pace of politics in the Middle East and to lose sight of the big picture. We need to stand back from the heat and dust to be able to assess the reality on the ground.
Biffo over health may come out of the blue
PHILLIP COOREY Wednesday was one of the busier sitting days, with the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, addressing Parliament, and Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott at each other's throats over paid maternity leave.
Tribunal must tighten leash on Karadzic
GIDEON BOAS War crimes defendants are given free rein to use their trials as a soapbox.
How high-speed broadband will be the death of Telstra
KENNETH DAVIDSON The national broadband network will come at much too high a cost. The legislation's intent is to force households and businesses that rely on the copper network to take the service from the $43 billion national broadband network.
Abbott Show needs less clowning, more action
JOSH GORDON The Opposition Leader is good at getting attention, but that may not be enough.
Abbott goes on an agenda bender
PAUL DALEY He may not get the credit come election time but the Opposition Leader is forcing the government's hand by setting the policy pace.
All eyes south as states vote to put federal pollies in a spin
MICHELLE GRATTAN The elections in Tasmania and South Australia will be fought on local issues but will be closely watched by Canberra.
Stephanie Peatling
Risk of throwing out baby with bathwater
STEPHANIE PEATLING The stance of the Greens and independents is jeopardising the introduction of any form of paid maternity leave by the government.
Future of conservatism can be found in its past
WALEED ALY Since 2007, the fall of conservative parties in the Anglosphere has been as steep as the rise. By embracing neo-liberalism, conservatives backed themselves into an ideological corner that forced them to violate the philosophical tenets of liberalism and conservatism and adopt reactionary politics.
Abbott gives business mates a bout of postnatal depression
MIKE CARLTON So there I was, lunching at the Union Club on Monday, when who should walk in but good old Todger Fingleton. Lovely chap, Todger. We've known each other since we rowed in the Eight at King's; these days we share a ski lodge at Aspen, the yacht at Antibes, and we sit on half a dozen corporate boards together.
Ideas out of the Ark: what in creation is Fielding doing?
RICK FENELEY Noah steers the Ark through perilous flood and finds a perch in the mountains of Ararat. Animals begin to disembark, two by two. Steve Fielding watches from a vantage point. He smiles as two of Noah's sons play a familiar tune on their eight-stringed lyres. Duelling Banjos, isn't it?
Season's bleatings before the poll
LENORE TAYLOR Most journalists call summer the ''silly season'' because there's not much news. But in political journalism the season before a federal election can get even sillier. There's plenty of news but the debate is scatty, as politicians test their sound grabs but aren't ready to show us their fine print.
Welcome to Hillaryland, feel free to complain
LOIS ROMANO Hillary Clinton's hands-on approach at the State Department has seen her debate everything from Pakistan policy to food in the canteen - and it's won her many fans, writes Lois Romano.
Let's not throw Abbott's baby leave out with the bathwater
ADELE HORIN Big business is on the rampage over Tony Abbott's paid parental leave plan and the Opposition Leader has come in for a terrible savaging. Anyone inclined to regard him as flaky has seized on his announcement with unfeigned glee: now he's really made an idiot of himself.
What Indonesia can teach Burma
HAMISH MCDONALD An intriguing sidebar to the story of the Indonesian president's visit to Australia this week has been the additional insight into Jakarta's role in trying to solve South-East Asia's biggest problem: the brutal grip of Burma's military regime.
Power but little glory in polluted politics
TONY FITZGERALD We look to our MPs for leadership. Instead we get political game-playing.
My attempt to engage President on Balibo
SHIRLEY SHACKLETON This week during the first Australian visit of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, I was confident for the first time in my activist life.
Pox on both houses
SHAUN CARNEY The government's intentions are becoming clear: a double dissolution election will be held within six months.
Hockey takes a stand, muzzling the loose cannons
PETER HARTCHER Joe Hockey is making a commendable effort to be a serious figure in Australian politics. The pink fairy tutu he wore on TV didn't help. Actually, he didn't wear it, so much as clutch over his groin and sway his hips self-consciously while waving a wand in a game of charades.
To stop this hogwash, pull trigger
JESSICA IRVINE In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray is a TV weatherman forced to cover the same story about a groundhog emerging from hibernation four years in a row, forced to relive the same unbearable day over and over again. For what seems an eternity, every morning is reset by a bedside clock ticking over from 5.59 to 6, triggering Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe until an announcer chimes in with: ''That's right woodchuck chuckers, it's Groundhog Day!''
Have a stickybeak at the Crow-eaters
RICHARD ACKLAND So many good ideas flow out of the tiny state of South Australia it's a wonder the world isn't paying closer attention. The latest offering from the Premier, Mike Rann, is another criminal justice reform.
Cautionary tale of two policies
MICHELLE GRATTAN The political battle is currently raging over two huge reform plans: Kevin Rudd's proposal for Canberra to become the major funder of the nation's hospitals, and Tony Abbott's $2.7 billion parental leave scheme. The contrast between how the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader have put together these plans could not be greater - and the government is hoping voters will absorb from this a wider message.
Political spin undermines democracy
SUSHI DAS Taxpayers are being led up the garden path - and paying for it.
Senate in alignment with the planet Ron
DAMIEN MURPHY Up there on a planet in a galaxy far away, Lafayette Ron gazed down on the Senate yesterday and must now be considering honorary membership of his inner sanctum, the Sea.Org, for Labor and Coalition senators and Steve Fielding.
Goanna Tracks
Abbott's Parental Leave Recipe: How to make a policy without a policy
THE GOANNA Tony Abbott sat down one morning at the kit-chen bench and thought "I need to cook up a new idea to bug the hell out of the Rudd govern-ment... but I'll need to write a recipe first." He took a pen and began to write...
Government launches First Tent Owners Scheme due to crippling house prices
CHARLES PURCELL Every day we read headlines like "The transport system is stuffed", "Sydney hospitals filled with wombat poo", "Police give biker gangs free hugs and lollipops". At times like these it's clear that there is only one way to fix Sydney — to appoint a benign dictator. Apppointed for the standard Roman period of six months – mercifully shorter than the four years it takes to get rid of an unpopular political party – he would have the power to finally address the state's many problems with an iron fist.
Boffa's biff over trash talking Tony
JACQUELINE MALEY Knock him, knock his style, but don't knock Barry O'Farrell's strategy, dude.
Travel warning system hindering ties
DANIEL FLITTON Only an Indonesian president could do it. Successive Australian leaders have tried and failed, but Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has set a new tone for ties with our crucial northern neighbour.
Yudhoyono calls for change
PETER HARTCHER Indonesia's President has broken out of the polite ceremonials of a state visit to Australia to tell us bluntly the central problem with the relationship.
Doctor in the house, but Abbott still has both eyes on the jugular
DAMIEN MURPHY TONY ABBOTT kissed a baby yesterday, but it was a temporary display of softness. He was hard again within hours.
