Morrison’s health handout is bad policy (but might be good politics)
Dec 15, 2018 16:31 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The A$1.25 billion Community Health and Hospitals Program Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week should be awarded a big policy fail. The move sets back Commonwealth-state relations by decades and its...
The John Birch Society is still influencing American politics, 60 years after its founding
Dec 10, 2018 02:47 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The retired candy entrepreneur Robert Welch founded the John Birch Society 60 years ago to push back against what he perceived as a growing American welfare state modeled on communism and the federal governments push to...
Hokey-pokey politics as the government is shaken all about
Dec 08, 2018 17:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
In the topsy turvy Liberal universe, just when the right is trying to tighten its grip on the throat of the party, the government is haring off to the left, with this weeks legislation to allow it to break up recalcitrant...
Abiy's big steps shouldn't obscure undercurrents in Ethiopia
Dec 08, 2018 17:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
Positive headlines about Ethiopia have been frequent since the countrys new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took over in early April. One of the biggest steps hes taken has been the rapprochement with Eritrea, which ended the...
Back-to-work legislation may come back to haunt Justin Trudeau
Dec 08, 2018 17:27 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
The Justin Trudeau governments use of back-to-work legislation effectively put an end to the rotating strikes waged by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). But the legislation could haunt the governing Liberals in...
Liberals adopt new rule to stop the revolving prime ministership
Dec 04, 2018 16:40 pm UTC| Politics
Scott Morrison has announced a major change in Liberal party rules to ensure a prime minister who wins an election serves the full term, unless two thirds of the party decides otherwise. Morrison said the Liberal party...
New hope in Nigeria, but Zimbabwe struggles with the same old problems
Dec 04, 2018 16:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics
There has been a sense of transition in both Nigeria and Zimbabwe recently. In Nigeria, Obiageli Oby Ezekwesili launched her presidential election campaign. She is not expected to win in the 2019 election. At best, she...