• Time to say goodbye
    To me, Ad Astra, “Time to say goodbye” are among the saddest
    words in our language. Yet say them now we must. I chose Ad Astra
    as my moniker because my secondary school’s motto is ‘sic itur ad astra’,
    which can be liberally interpreted as: “Here is the way to the stars”.
    How inspiring these words have always been to me.
  • Have we got a deal for you
    There is a conspiracy theory that suggests that birds (in the USA
    at least) aren’t real. The claim is that all the birds in the USA were
    hunted down by the government between the late 50’s and early
    70s and replaced with bird like drones to spy on you.
  • Get out of the gutter
    You may not have heard of Mike Rinder. A Scientologist for most
    of his life, at the age of 52 he walked out, and as a result lost his
    family, friends, employment and pretty well everything else in his life.
    RInder has written a book on his time in Scientology, runs a
    website that questions Scientology beliefs and practices...
  • Was Amtrak Joe derailed?
    Prior to becoming President, Joe Biden was a US Senator for around
    36 years. He is known as Amtrak Joe as he routinely took the daily 90
    minute each way train trip (on the USA’s national passenger train network
    - Amtrak) from his home in Delaware to Washington DC to represent his state.
  • If employers can measure well-being...
    Last September, you might have seen Qantas CEO Alan Joyce
    received a pay increase of $278,000 per annum. It seems that Joyce
    has met or exceeded the performance goals set by his employers and
    contractually has earned the reward. It does, however, raise a larger question.
  • Coming back to haunt you
    In his recent Budget reply speech, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton
    laboured (pun intended) on the increasingly difficult to achieve promise by
    Prime Minister Albanese that power bills will be $275 less in 2025. While the
    government is claiming the modelling done in 2021 supports the accuracy of
    the promise, 2021 modelling doesn’t account for changes in circumstances since then.

The Political Sword

Get the inside track on the media and government.

The day the Canberra Press Gallery believed it was governing the country

It’s not possible to pin down what day that was. Takeovers can be abrupt or ever so subtle. This one was subtle, at least initially. It probably derived from about the time that Kevin Rudd retreated from his response to climate change, his ETS, and put it on the back burner for a couple of ...

Read More

The Day News Limited Took Over Our ABC

Mark the day – Sunday 13 March 2011, the day Andrew Bolt took over as compère of the ABC’s Insiders, bullied his way into the dialogue and eventually ruled the roost, leaving Barrie Cassidy looking defeated. That day the panelists comprised three current and past News Limited jou...

Read More

The People’s Revolt goes ‘On the Buses’

G’day Swordians! A group of Coalition supporters need transport to get themselves along to one of the Peoples’ Revolt rallies. They have put an ad in the Oz and have been contacted by a taxi crowd called CT (“CabTeam”), under the proprietorship of J Gillard and W Swan. How...

Read More

It Ain't Half Hot Mum

G’day Swordians! The cultured choristers of the Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery Concert Party, under the tyrannical oversight of Warrant Officer Tony “STOP THE...” Abbott, have been sent to East Timor to entertain the troops. And, at 50-degrees-plus in the shade, it Ain&rs...

Read More

Tony Abbott’s Great Big New Tax

No, that can’t be right – Tony Abbott and Great Big New Tax in the one phrase. Isn’t it Julia Gillard and the Labor Government that’s addicted to the Great Big New Tax – on Everything! Well no. Not to be outdone by Julia, Tony has his own Great Big New Tax – in...

Read More

Simplicity – the opiate of the people

It was Karl Marx who said: "Religion is the opiate of the masses". An opiate relieves pain, numbs, and before it wears off, gives a sense that all is well with the world. But knowing that opiates are addictive, Marx went on to say: "The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolitio...

Read More

The War Against the Kleptocrats & the Oligarchs Starts Here! Now! Today!

I know this blog will probably be read by 2 men and a dog sitting by their computer, also that my Call to Arms will have all the effect on the political discourse of the world at large of a cry in the wilderness, however I decided to set my sights pretty high this time. I'm as 'Mad as Hell, and I j...

Read More

The ugliness of political opportunism

While most politicians are political opportunists from time to time, as are some partisan journalists, some have made an art form of this form of political behaviour. This piece cites some examples and questions the place of opportunism in politics. There are hundreds of examples of naked political ...

Read More

Leadership – what do the people want?

There is a gathering storm about Julia Gillard’s leadership. Pundits express learned opinions about the leadership she exhibits, and more stridently about what they believe she ought to. Some predict that she will never make the grade. Mungo MacCallum believes she is an example of the ‘P...

Read More

The Fox Fish Rots from the Head Down

Ever since the 'kindly' Commission Salesman bowled up to my front door and enthusiastically informed me that I was lucky enough to have Foxtel running down my street now(!), and for the 'Low Introductory Price' that he was offering me I could have access to all those shows that you'll never get on F...

Read More

Question Time – Rumble in the Jungle Book

G’day Swordians! Question Time in the House of Representatives was a bit demure this week, so both sides decided to come back for a bit of overtime and try to get one over on the other. However, the extra session was no sooner underway when Tony ‘King Louie’ Abbott and his troop of...

Read More

Abbott in the Toilet: Shit Happens, Tony

Katharine Murphy wrote in The Age on Thursday in an article titled Foul Day At The Office For Abbott:     "Getting stuck on a rhetorical stumble does us no good when there's serious criticisms to be made of opposition tactics. “Tony Abbott is serially scatological. It's a pro...

Read More

Poisoning the well of our good nature

Julia Gillard's earlobes, Tony Abbott's budgie-smugglers. Is discussion about politicians' appearance getting too personal?• Yes, it's irrelevant 81.83% (5440 votes) • No, it's fair game 18.17% (1208 votes) Total votes: 6648It was about the time that this poll came out, beside the now infa...

Read More

The Right to be Angry

Have you noticed how much anger there is in the community? Listen to talkback radio and hear the anger there. If you have the stomach to listen to shock jocks like Alan Jones you will hear plenty there. There is road rage and a level of anger and assaults in our city centres, often alcohol-fuelled, ...

Read More

The media needs to pull up its socks in 2011

If it doesn’t, it will become increasingly irrelevant to thoughtful people, and will serve only to provide flimflam for the unthinking, the disinterested, the feckless. In case some of you are groaning, ‘not hammering the media again’, my response is ‘yes, yet again’, f...

Read More

Welcome to The Political Sword 2011

Whereas in previous years we have taken a break at the end of the year, this time we have kept a thread going at the request of some users of The Political Sword. They have enjoyed the conversation with each other, and have missed it whenever the site was down, as it was recently as we upgraded to ...

Read More

TOE-KNEE’s Australia Day

G’day Swordians! I trust you had a great Australia Day. I had a very interesting time myself – did a bit of backpacking in Queensland and actually met up with an old aboriginal guy when I was doing a bit of walking there. He was boiling his billy, and as I was feeling a bit peckish mysel...

Read More

Why can’t we live together? We’re all part of the human race, after all

As I intimated in a comment on my previous blog, I was going to strike out in a philosophical direction for this, my latest blog. I thought it might be especially pertinent in the light of the two major tragedies that have occurred in the Western Hemisphere over the End of Year/New Year ...

Read More

What were you expecting - fireworks?

I was just watching some vintage Paul Keating in full rhetorical flight the other day as I was recuperating and contemplating the ramifications of Wayne Swan's Banking Package, released in early December. Which seems eons ago when you've been to Hell and back, as I have been since then. And it o...

Read More

What does Tony Abbott stand for?

As a political exercise, why not begin by jotting down what you are convinced Tony Abbott stands for? It may not take you long. Don’t feel inadequate if you can muster no more than ‘end the waste, pay back debt, stop new taxes and stop the boats’. But wait, there’s a change i...

Read More