Comments for Wonk News

Comment on Marieke Hardy’s piece on Christopher Pyne removed by ABC (but it’s still in Google cache) by hughbris

hughbris — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:52:43 +0000

and the ex-page returns 404 like it never existed. fail. The cached copy probably won't last forever either.

Comment on The Green Tide by David

David — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:10:12 +0000

Myself, I’m wondering if the Greens are going to be able to hold on to the staggering swing they have had advantage of this general election.

The Greens have a strong branding based on environmental issues. With both parties eschewing strong climate change policy in the run-up to the election, The Greens have probably picked up a noticeable amount of votes on that issue alone. It would be interesting to see what would happen to The Greens’ primary vote if either Labor or the Coalition took a strong stance to prevent climate change.

Comment on Sparrow: Manufacturing political reality by Jeff Waugh

Jeff Waugh — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:20:24 +0000

Very tough piece. Here’s one of the lighter moments:

Annabel Crabb recently wrote up events on the campaign trail as commentary on a wrestling bout. Her piece was satire but, actually, pro-wrestling makes a pretty good analogy for where we’re at: an election is a product designed for TV, in which the wacky antics of assorted larger than life characters disguise how little’s actually at stake.

Comment on Australian Christian Lobby incredulous at lack of Coalition support for ISP filter by David

David — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:22:16 +0000

They actually use the term incomprehensible but I think incredulous is the word they are looking for.

Comment on Tanner: Vacuous media descends into “collective psychosis” by Jeff Waugh

Jeff Waugh — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 05:19:36 +0000

No greater example of this than the press conference we’ve just seen… Julia Gillard announces significant changes for pensioners, press pack asks about anything but — including “distractions”, Kevin Rudd and Mark Latham, who was there on 9′s payroll.

Then, finally, the first policy question… was the last question of the 40 minute press conference. Mind blowing.

Comment on Hobby writers keep pros on their toes by Jeff Waugh

Jeff Waugh — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:13:23 +0000

“But one of the most frustrating things can be knowing what to read” … enter Wonk News!

Comment on Miranda Devine quits Herald, returns to Telegraph by David

David — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:10:15 +0000

“Fairfax is a small company”

Comment on Miranda Devine quits Herald, returns to Telegraph by Jeff Waugh

Jeff Waugh — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:52:33 +0000

Hilarity.

Comment on GetUp! High Court win overrules Howard’s electoral roll changes by David

David — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:06:21 +0000

I really enjoy reading HCA transcripts sometimes:

GUMMOW J: “The United States is a country in which some millions of people are disenfranchised because at some stage in their life they were convicted of a felony, a sentence for which has long since been served. It is not necessarily an attractive place to go to for analogies if you are talking about franchise as we understand it in our country.”

Comment on GetUp! High Court win overrules Howard’s electoral roll changes by Jeff Waugh

Jeff Waugh — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:03:06 +0000

… and a media release from AEC regarding the decision:

http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Media_releases/e2010/06-08.htm