The Policy Post

  Labor: the fightback begins The Albanese Labor Party’s fight to retain government is under way. Despite doomsayers, a swag of evidence points to a second win – and an increased majority.

  The Peter Principle and the Dark Triad: why we have such lousy leaders. The machinations inherent in modern political parties keep many of the best people away from public life and promote some of the worst.

  Have the Greens already peaked? The Australian Greens are betting their future on a high-risk switch to hard-left opportunistic populism. It could backfire.

  Quietly, Albanese springs a $20 billion budget cut on the states. The federal government is slashing its funding for national roads and railways – and shifting the cost to the cash-strapped states.

Dutton’s Gaza adventure turns into electoral suicide. The Liberals are betting the election on yet another terrorism scare campaign – but they’re alienating the very people whose votes they must have.

  Can liberal democracy survive? Yes, actually. The fear and angst in western democracies is palpable. The threat from populists of the right is serious. But the reasons driving all this aren’t the ones you’ve been told.

  Assassination: the political strategy nobody admits to. Political assassination has always been an element of statecraft. But is it ever ethically justified? And does it work?

  The meandering mess of Tasmania’s politics. Tasmania’s three Lambie-ist MPs, now propping up an unpopular and inept state government, are getting cold feet. When will the plug be finally pulled?

  The budget that forgot health. Every element of Australia’s health system is in trouble. But you’d never know it from looking at this year’s budget.

  Jacqui Lambie’s imperial ambitions take a tumble. She tried to turn her idiosyncratic brand into a sort-of party. But, as with so many of those arrangements before, it’s quickly falling apart.

  In their last redoubt, the Liberals lurch further to the right – and oblivion. The Tasmanian election was a disaster for both major parties, but only Labor has a path back.

  The campaign to destroy the GST. Australia’s GST system – despite some serious mutilation by WA – remains one of the most effective and fairest in the world. That’s why the NSW government wants to blow it up.

  How not to run a government. There’s a reason Tasmania’s hospitals and essential services are the nation’s worst. It’s because the state government underspends its own infrastructure budget by 27%.

Medicare is bleeding to death. Will Labor ever do anything about it? GP visits are down 37% since the government took office. But all we get is spin.

We need to talk about Gina and Andrew. Natural resources are owned by the people of Australia, but mining companies don’t like paying us for the resources they take out of the ground. And when they look like having to pay more, their response is swift and brutal .

  Populism and the fight for democracy. Liberal democracy is facing its most perilous time since the rise of fascism a century ago. Between the GFC and now, their number has fallen by a third. Populist authoritarians thrive. What’s happening? And why?

  WA’s $40 billion fraud on the rest of us. Jim Chalmers has just added $11 billion to the cost of Western Australia’s dodgy GST deal. It’s an extraordinary case of political extortion. But is it even legal? And will WA have to give the money back?

  An unbroken record of failure. The last time the Labor party in Tasmania won a parliamentary majority was seventeen years and six leaders ago. Even against a tired, inept Liberal government, they still look unelectable.

The decline and fall of the intelligent political insult. It’s not that our politics have become unexpectedly polite. It’s just that the wit has vanished.

How alien abduction explains Donald Trump. When given a choice between truth and a lie, vast millions of people unerringly choose the lie. What on earth is going on – and what does it mean?