Search / 27 posts tagged 2007 federal election

At one stage, having read a lecture by Mark Davis in Overland, I thought his new book was going to be an update of Gangland. I’ve just started reading The Land of Plenty: Australia in the 2000s (expect a full review in due course), but it appears very much as if at some point in the course of writing, it turned into an update of the late Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country.

Here’s another don’t waste your $34.95 book review, and for many of the same reasons as Mark identified as failures in an earlier 2007 federal election tome from Melbourne University Press - Christine Jackman’s Inside Kevin07. If anything, Peter Van Onselen and Philip Senior’s Howard’s End: The Unravelling of a Government is an even more tedious read.

Here’s an article close to my heart. The best thing about the year in analogy is how diverse the comparisons have been. Almost simultaneously, Obama has been described as 2008’s version of 49-state winner Ronald Reagan as well as its incarnation of 49-state loser George McGovern–in fact, he’s been compared to every presidential candidate since World War II.

While it wasn’t quite as prominent as WorkChoices and climate change, Kevin07 did make some fairly ambitious promises for the health care sector as well. As the Pandora archive reveals, “Whenever there’s a problem, the question of adequacy of funding for hospitals, automatically there’s a ping-pong match which erupts between the federal and state health ministers,” says Labor Leader Kevin Rudd.

Last year I shared some thoughts on the state of political blogging in Australia. Trevor Cook has just examined the claim that the blogging phenomenon is “losing impetus”. I’m not sure that’s so, and coincidentally, I’ve just sent off a write up of the talk I gave at the Public Right to Know Conference

Hunter S. Thompson, who’s repeatedly if repetitiously quoted in Christine Jackman’s Inside Kevin07: The People. The Plan. The Prize., would be turning in his grave. I’m unable to think of any good reasons for parting with $34.95 for Jackman’s book, which is touted as the ultimate insider account of the Labor Party’s campaign strategy in the lead up to last year’s federal election.

There is a new posting over at the Owls and Roosters Blog entitled: Equalization: Premier Brad Wall sets new standard for hypocrisy and betrayal; elephant in the room is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, not litigation. It's well worth the read.

There were numerous examples of the “exciting excerpt from new book on politics” thing around in the weekend papers, a phenomenon noted earlier here with regard to Peter Van Onselen and Phillip Senior’s Howard’s End.

Fran’s our man Federal Election 2007 The Age reports that the Federal Court has ruled on Labor’s appeal against its 12-vote defeat in the Victorian seat of McEwen at last November’s federal election, confirming Liberal member Fran Bailey’s victory.

You could be forgiven for thinking that politics in this country is a combination of astroturf and the pursuit of financial advantage, if you draw a few dots connecting stories that have had a lot of play in the media over the last couple of days.