DAVID FORDE: Based on the latest leadership challenge that wasn’t a challenge and the public reaction, the federal election on September 14 is a foregone conclusion. If we even try to ignore that latest debacle and just went by the polls – and they are generally accurate when averaged over a period of time – it is also over if it is a contest between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, which it now seems destined to be. Some blame Kevin Rudd (and his supporters) along with the media. Of … [Read more...]

ANGELA RANKE: So I interviewed the Minister for Education Peter Garrett recently and I'm sorry, but I just couldn't take the man seriously. It's really hard to keep a straight face and listen to the merits of the Gonski Review when you half expect and so dearly wish he'd bust out a move from his Midnight Oil days. I can just see it. We'd all be there, the reporters holding their mikes or scribbling down notes with the cameras rolling and Garrett would stop mid sentence, suddenly fling out his … [Read more...]

SARAH MCGOWAN: Today’s Israeli elections will have a profound effect on the momentum and direction of the peace process with Palestine and with the nation’s increasingly patchy relationship with the US.  Benjamin Netanyahu appears well positioned to win the vote and remain in power, thus prompting serious concerns for Israel’s outlook in coming years. It is no secret that Obama and Netanyahu have a somewhat strained relationship.  Dialogue between the pair is usually characterised … [Read more...]

BECI VIRGEN and ANGELA RANKE: “It is my God-damn, God-given right to own a gun. If someone is charging at you, who are you gonna call? The police? They won't help you. I'll pull out my gun and shoot 'em dead!” Yes, these people don't just exist in movies. This soliloquy spilled from the bearded mouth of a passionate, Arizonan man; a short, stocky character with all the makings of a cowboy, gun included. I toured the Grand Canyon with him just a day before the Connecticut shootings, and … [Read more...]

SARAH McGOWAN: Good political reporting is about critiquing elected officials to keep them accountable.  It is the foundation of a functioning democracy. In trying to perform this task, the media has gone beyond the usual role of discussing politics and governance. Instead, the issue of Gillard’s personal character has become the main focus to the press and the public.  No other Australian leader has had their personal life so intently scrutinized. For too long now Gillard has been … [Read more...]

SARAH MCGOWAN: When US networks predicted a Romney defeat on election night, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief.  Though on foreign and domestic policy, Obama and Romney found considerable common ground, the sharply contrasted ideological stances of the Democrats and Republicans is where dissention appears.  It is the oldest debate in the world and continues to divide American society.  But is the debate becoming more one-sided? Despite the number of opinion polls … [Read more...]