Commentary
Daily Cartoon
It’s hard to see America made great again if this is the message
There is much to support in the Trump agenda. But it’s almost unimaginable that any previous president would have made a media spectacle of a brave ally so that he could look strong.
Trump shows strong hand, but we hold AUKUS ace
The US President’s speech to congress played to his strengths, but his announcement to ‘resurrect shipbuilding’ may present Australia with a golden opportunity.
Lesson buried in the data: it’s all about productivity, stupid
The economy is still travelling below trend and the most important message in these national cccounts is the continuing decline in productivity.
Voters don’t share Coach Albo’s jolly view
Season 24 ended with a win but Team Australia is playing far below its potential.
Kyiv is collateral in Trump’s showdown with Xi
US leader wants swift denouement in Ukraine so he can pivot to main business of his presidency.
China’s navy reveals Albanese as Pacific’s biggest jellyfish
The Chinese government’s flotilla of warships produced an aquatic circus, and the clownfish were aplenty. Beijing succeeded in intimidating and humiliating our PM.
Plenty of boasting, yet Trump short on substance
The President’s speech demonstrates other advantages he has in governing for the news cycle rather than the state of the nation after he leaves office.
Small uptick in growth welcome
It’s a modest start but, without a substantial improvement, maintaining and improving living standards will be increasingly problematic.
Time to reform heritage laws
Taxpayers are being asked to stump up millions in funding for controversial heritage claims. It’s time to reform these laws.
Trump’s isolationist policy threatens to diminish America
China and Russia will fill the global void left by America under an isolationist Trump, and American allies will learn not to trust America.
Nation has not learned the lessons of ‘worst floods in a lifetime’
As we wait to be deluged again, the question here is whether the community will ever learn. Lismore and other towns were built on the rivers for transport in the era before road transport.
Last Post: US slips from world leadership status
Trump’s “America first” strategy is about leveraging America’s wealth and power to plunder at will across the globe. Trump has taken the US from leader of the free world to enemy of the world.
Feeding the Chooks
David Crisafulli’s Olympic-sized problem
If the Queensland Premier obeys the main advice from his hand-picked Games panel, he’ll be breaking an election promise.
Big business outspends union movement to oust Labor
Queensland’s mining and building sectors tipped an enormous $3.8m into third-party campaigns to defeat Steven Miles’ Labor at the recent state election, outspending the union movement by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
‘Mates State’ lives on under Crisafulli’s Queensland LNP
After nearly a decade of attacking the Palaszczuk-Miles government for shoe-horning Labor mates into taxpayer-funded jobs, the LNP has picked up right where the ALP left off, with a slew of plum appointments.
Wayward Labor MP returns after legal woes
Wayward Queensland Labor MP Jimmy Sullivan will make a surprise reappearance at the party’s caucus love-in next week, but will factional treachery kill the vibe?
Musk cuts to bleed US military, and allies will feel pain
The sheer size of Elon Musk’s impending cuts mean Pentagon and US military power will be in the frame along with everything else.
A funny thing happened on way to the punchline
Misinformation comes in all shapes and sizes. Quite often it comes in the form of feel-good stories.
Not sure of your heart disease risk? This new research is for you
If you have lost a family member early to heart disease, you will want to know your own risk. A new Australian study that tracked patients for three years shows what you can do if you are in the ‘intermediate’ zone.
The final piece falls into place for Virgin listing
Conditions are currently booming in aviation. But Virgin Australia’s owner is gambling it can still land the multibillion-dollar airline IPO later this year.
Drop in franked dividends comes at the worst possible time
Franked dividends, which are the key income stream for many investors, have declined and the outlook is far from encouraging.
Be warned, this is no ordinary trade war
The trade war repercussions will shape the world in ways we never anticipated when Donald Trump returned as US President. Now, terbium and other rare earths have become potential trade weapons.
Fruit rage shows state rules border on the ridiculous
Trying to sneak fruit across the border from NSW to SA, I discovered, is not worth the grief from the guard. But what’s stopping the fruit flies arriving by air?
The best version? Why not just be yourself?
Patience, grasshopper. There’s still time to work out who you really are. Or maybe you already know.
Trump’s strongman tactics serve to diminish America
Donald Trump brings a reality-TV culture and real estate mentality to his rewriting of history and promotion of lies from the President’s office.
Law students ‘gender shamed’ in week one
Postgrad students became a captive audience when forced to endure a lengthy slide show hectoring them on how poorly women were doing in the law and how the rich were doing very nicely.
Green hydrogen pipedream more hot air than energy
Unfortunately for the government, to date Anthony Albanese’s green hydrogen ambitions are stalled with 99 per cent of a $100bn project pipeline failing to progress beyond the concept stage.
Post-war order reaches a low ebb
Donald Trump’s blatant favouring of Vladimir Putin’s tyrannical regime could put countless Ukrainian lives at risk, depending on how long the ban extends.
Building on Eddie Mabo’s legacy
It is time that billions of dollars in accumulated resource royalties be unlocked from charitable trusts and used to benefit Indigenous people’s economic development.
Trump gambles US economy on new trade war
Donald Trump has fired the opening shot of a new trade war by imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, a major gamble which risks a voter backlash against his America First agenda.
Act of God, or at least Alfred, may decide the election date
The timing of the federal election could very shortly be taken out of Anthony Albanese’s hands.
Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary