John Birmingham's Australia Day
John Birmingham writes in The Brisbane Times: I don’t know whether it’s the increasing numbers of gaudy little plastic flags sticking out of car windows, or the braying jingoism of furniture superstore and gym equipment megabarn advertising that all but [...]
Turnbull on Prince William, Australian identity and the Republic
Intriguing to see that Malcolm Turnbull is about the only Australian political figure who’s put Prince William’s visit into some sort of political context. Writing in The Times, the erstwhile Liberal leader puts his finger on a conception of Australian [...]
Tony Abbott: Dogwhistling towards destiny?
Tony Abbott gave an Australia day address in Melbourne last night (a few days early, but what the hey…). The Shorter Tone? Immigrants should adopt Australian values and that Mufti character was dodgy; A big population is good, but John [...]
Detailed programmatic specificities in Australia Day speeches
Maybe it was all in the delivery, but Rudd’s Australia Day reception speeches were inspiring stuff, weren’t they? Productivity improvements to fund retirement incomes? I mean, who can hear a line like “by implementing microeconomic reforms to cut red tape [...]
National debate on our national day
I’m inclined to think that Kevin Rudd sank to new depths of populist patheticness when he replied to Australian of the Year Mick Dodson’s call for a debate on the timing of our national day with “no”. There was all [...]
Cronulla Day?
What’s with this? In the Sydney suburb of Manly, hundreds of youths draped in “Aussie pride” livery wore slogans declaring “f–k off we’re full” as they smashed car windows and ran up the famous Corso targeting non-white shop keepers. A [...]
Lazy Sunday long weekend! (Lunar new year edition)
Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all! <img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/2256617555_f87b2474d8.jpg" Chinese New Year in Sydney. Image courtesy of yewenyi at flickr [...]
Mick Dodson: Australian of the Year
<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/dobson.jpg" align=left Indigenous activist, academic and co-chair of Reconciliation Australia Professor Mick Dodson has been named “Australian of the Year”. This award makes an interesting contrast with the selection by The Australian of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and Bart Cummings. [...]
Do they know it's Christmas?
By Mark Bahnisch on January 7, 2010
The summer holidays are perhaps the time of year when the dissonance between most people’s lived experience and the obsessions of the political and pundit class is most starkly on display. While everyone else is lapping up the sun, or [...]
Posted in Australiana, Federal Elections, Film, TV, Video etc, Media, Politics | Tagged Australia Day, AWB, climate change denial, commentariat, Federal Election 2010, Kevin Rudd, Media, media strategy, opposition, political communication, Sunrise, tactics, The Australian, Tony Abbott | 24 Responses