Originally published in The Australian, 15 August 2017 Same sex marriage is a tough issue. It divides families; it splits political parties; often enough, it tears at individuals too. It was definitely rending the Liberal Party in mid-2015 between those sure that the institution at the heart of our society must not be redefined to…
Originally published The Australian, 7 August 2017 The real villain in the same sex marriage imbroglio is Bill Shorten. He is the one who’s playing politics with this issue and stopping it from being resolved in this term of parliament via the plebiscite that people want. It’s Shorten who told church leaders before the 2013…
Originally published in The Australian, 2 August 2017 Bill Shorten must be getting cocky and taking his opinion poll lead for granted because he’s giving people more and more reasons to vote against him. The latest is his commitment to have a plebiscite on becoming a republic in the first term of a Labor government….
Keeping the country safe is the first duty of government and should be the constant concern of those with responsibility for our well-being. I’m proud that the Abbott government successfully stopped uncontrolled people flows into our country that, in different circumstances, could have become an existential threat. I’m pleased that we swiftly rose to the…
REFORM IN THE AGE OF POPULISM – THE NEW BATTLELINES Wherever the Abbott government didn’t need to pass legislation through an intractable senate, decisions were made and decisions were put into practice: the boats were stopped; national security was strengthened; and a big project in limbo for decades, the Western Sydney airport, got underway. Right…
Published in the Daily Telegraph, 1 June 2017 The coroner’s report into the Lindt Café siege should be the wake-up call that Australia desperately needs. There was a litany of errors that ultimately led to the deaths of two innocent people at the hands of an Islamist fanatic: he should never have been granted refugee…
Published in The Australian, 22 May 2017 We read and reread great speeches not just for what they say about other times, but for what they say about ours. Great speeches don’t just speak to their own day, but to all days. Even if not all their facts are relevant, their values most certainly are….
The advantage of being on the backbench is that you have the time to reflect, and the freedom to speak. The advantage of being a former frontbencher, party leader and prime minister on the backbench is that your reflections are informed, perhaps uniquely informed, by the good and the bad of a long public life. …
Pulbished in The Daily Telegraph, 17 April, 2017 For the past 20 years, I’ve done an annual long distance charity bike ride, the Pollie Pedal. It’s raised more than $5 million for numerous good causes (Soldier On, this year) as well as raising awareness of cycling as a good way to see the country and…
Published in the Herald Sun, 24 March 2017 If we are serious about tackling Australia’s looming energy crisis, the last thing we should be doing is closing 20 per cent plus of Victoria’s (and 5 per cent of Australia’s) base load power supply. Yet that’s what’s scheduled to happen next week unless there is an…
