Tomorrow morning my bride and I go sailing on some big plastic looking cruise liner otherwise known as the Pacific Dawn. We are set to roam the Pacific without access to phones or the web for 12 days all as part of the celebration of our enduring and enjoying each other’s company in married bliss [...]

JULIA Gillard is to create a Citizens Assembly to forge a national consensus on action on climate change and a commission of experts to help inform its deliberations. The Prime Minister will also today recommit Labor to carbon trading, but pledge that it will be introduced only when “the Australian economy is ready and when [...]

AUSTRALIA might be asked to fund detention centres in Indonesia to help Jakarta deter asylum-seekers from using the nation as a staging point. Jakarta’s plan, which would lock up all asylum-seekers currently free in the community, comes amid pressure from Julia Gillard for a regional solution to the politically explosive problem. Jakarta’s plan would also [...]

Joe Hockey on the ALPGreens agenda for their second term from last nights 7:30 report JOE HOCKEY: Well if they are going to fix the problems of the first term, that is their second term agenda. Labor’s second term agenda is to fix up all the problems of its first term. That will keep them [...]

KEVIN Rudd is reportedly being considered by the United Nations for a top-level job as an adviser on climate change. Mr Rudd spent several days in New York last week meeting with UN officials. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is now considering creating a dedicated role for him as a top-level adviser on climate change, according [...]

JULIA Gillard promised today that a report into the Building the Education Revolution program will be released before the election. The Prime Minister made the commitment during a radio interview, despite the BER taskforce yesterday refusing to confirm that it would hand over its report to the government before August 21. If she is prepared [...]

JULIA Gillard’s comments yesterday put the issue beyond doubt — she is the first Prime Minister to seek election on the platform of a smaller growing Australia and rejects the current growth model as “irresponsible”. It seems Gillard’s over-arching election strategy is to slow Australia’s population growth, a populist pitch long available to Australia’s leaders [...]

Now the ALP has morphed into the ALPGreens I thought readers might like to read Jack the Insiders definitions of the various Green factions. Green Greens (evangelis environmentalis) are veterans of environmental battles from days of yore. They have spent their youths chained to trees and all own a collection of embarrassing photographs where they’re [...]

Gillard at her best. Labor has promised to provide $200 million funding for local councils in regional areas in an effort to boost stocks of affordable housing. It is estimated that up to 15,000 new homes would be built in regional cities over the next three years under the initiative. Cut and Paste in todays [...]

Well colour me green and give me a tree to hug. Labor and the Greens are on the verge of a comprehensive preference deal that would boost the government’s prospects of holding on to power while helping the Greens achieve the balance of power in the Senate. If you think the Greens achieving balance or [...]