In politics, the sweet spot between good policy and good politics is elusive. Too often, governments must choose between doing what works and doing what wins. In Queensland’s 2025–26 State Budget—the Liberal National Party’s (LNP) first in more than a decade—Treasurer David Janetzki sought to strike that rare balance. It’s a budget that is political […]

Home truth: political parties exist to win elections. It’s their sole purpose. They don’t exist to govern; elected representatives and their departments bear that responsibility. They don’t exist to drive the economy; the private sector, particularly small business, largely does this. They don’t exist to cure souls; that’s the work of the church. Political parties exist to […]

The final results are in for the 3 May federal election, and Labor can’t stop smiling. Meanwhile the Liberal-National Coalition is decidedly dour, and the Greens are, well, green.  In the House of Representatives, Labor has been returned with a thumping majority. It holds 94 out of 150 seats, the largest majority in five decades. Conversely, […]

When the Federal Parliament resumes on 22 July, it will come with a glaring visual reminder of the size of Anthony Albanese’s election victory. Labor returns to Parliament with 94 House of Representatives Members, but the seating configuration in the chamber will only accommodate 87 MPs on the government benches. So significant was Albanese’s victory […]

Although the final count is yet to be determined, this is the biggest win for federal Labor since 1943. They have cleaned up in Tasmania, won at least seven additional seats in Queensland, secured a substantial swing to Labor in NSW, and have even picked up some Liberal seats in Victoria – largely unthinkable just […]

The key to clickbait is shock and awe … but even those who trumpet the most farcical of ‘facts’ could not have eclipsed the astonishing certitude of the 2025 election result. This was not a Labor Landslide. It was an Albanese Avalanche. But let’s not succumb to amnesia. The flabbergasting outcome of May 3, and […]

The red wave that washed through the House of Representatives on Saturday also trickled into the Senate.  Bear with me a moment, as I’m a dork for the Senate and have been since I was a child (my mother must have dropped me on my head as a baby). As the House of Review, the Senate […]

The 2025 election has delivered a resounding result for the Australian Labor Party and has instigated deep soul-searching within the Liberal Party. What shouldn’t be quickly forgotten, however, is the anti-incumbency mood that dominated political commentary for so long. Before the campaign proper, globally we saw the removal of the UK Government, US administration and […]

Two rays of hope have emerged from the smoking rubble of the 2025 election result for Bob Menzies’ once-proud Liberals. In the affluent urban suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney, green shoots have appeared.  Two Liberal candidates, Tim Wilson and Gisele Kapterian, have risen from the dead and are on track to reclaim Goldstein (Melbourne) and possibly Bradfield […]