Was Turnbull Right about Rudd?

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Dan Rowden

In short, yes he was, but we may never know if his reasons were sound or not.  Like so many other aspects of his political life, he may have done the right thing by accident.   Continue reading →

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The Parlous State of Oz Political Journalism

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Dan Rowden

Murrow Real

You’d think the Wizard would have it sorted by now that he can’t control the Elphaba narrative if he doesn’t exercise proper superintendence over the flying monkeys and make them work even harder at those keyboards … Continue reading →

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Has Social Media Lost It?

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Dan Rowden

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For me that question is simultaneously complex and simple; simultaneously self-evident and yet invalid. Such is the heterogeneity of social media – and I guess the nebulosity of the meaning of “it”. Continue reading →

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Well, that was depressing.

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Dan Rowden

one nation

Image: news.com.au

The election result, that is. Then again, I suppose that’s only true if you voted Labor, Greens or any of the progressive minor parties or anyone that came nowhere, much like the progressive minor parties. For Coalition voters and members I suppose it was, at worst, disappointing.

Continue reading →

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Yes, Labor can win an election in 2016

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Dan Rowden

For months now it’s seemed as though the Labor Party’s political fortunes rested on factors almost entirely out of its control, i.e. the fortunes of the Coalition. Shorten seemed to many to be a dud, a mistake not of their choosing. The best hope we had was Tony Abbott and his wretched Government, and for a while there things didn’t seem entirely hopeless given how bad they were. Then the unthinkable happened and Turnbull deposed Abbott. So much for hope. Things suddenly looked bleak. Continue reading →

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The New Politics of the Right

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Dan Rowden

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The Federal Election of September 7, 2013 was one fought on a psychological rather than policy battlefield.

Policy matters were almost an after thought, a distraction from the real game in play.  It was all about hearts and minds.  Of course, lots of previous elections have been about one side or the other trying to capture the hearts and minds of the electorate.  Usually that meant developing a policy platform that was designed to achieve that very end – to speak to the values, aspirations and ideals of a given voter base.  This election was different.  It was about simple, base psychological manipulation.  It was arguably something new in Australian politics. Continue reading →

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Doubly Disillusioned

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Dan Rowden

The Australian Independent Media Network

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There are lately some Labor supporters who are expressing a somewhat fervent hope that Australians will face, at some point in 2014, a Double Dissolution election, brought on by whatever trouble Labor and Green Senators can cause the Coalition Government.

I can only guess that this hope is driven by the understandably desperate desire to be rid of the Abbott Government, given what it represents and what we are likely to face as its legacy.  I say that because I can see no political reason to wish for such a thing.  In my estimation the most likely outcome of a Double Dissolution election would be a disaster for the Labor Party (and potentially the Greens and smaller groups in the Senate).  The Coalition in all likelihood would gain control of both houses.   I don’t know how you feel about the pox, but I’d prefer to avoid it.

My case…

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The hyperbole and histrionics that is Bob Ellis

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Dan Rowden

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Warning: for the sake of ease of language the following opinion piece utilises a simplistic model of the Left-Right dichotomy of the Australian political landscape.

The political vanguard that is the commentariat of the Internet-Left is always swift to jump on the excesses and baloney of the commentariat of the Right.   Social commentators and pseudo-journalists like Andrew Bolt, Piers Ackerman, Peter Reith and various members of the shock jock fraternity are regularly rounded upon, ridiculed and even vilified.  This is as it should be.  The warped and neurotic perspective they bring to political discourse in Australia is entirely deserving of analysis, critique and derision.  But this sort of mental maladjustment is not the sole preserve of the political Right, even if it can boast a far greater percentage of people intent on trying to make distortion and hyperbole a literary virtue. Continue reading →

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