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Brian Toohey

Building rush hurts school funding

Posted: 22 Jun 09 | Julia Gillard is facing her toughest test in a career that has soared so smoothly that almost no effort appears necessary. |

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How many Kevin Rudds are out there?

Posted: 15 Jun 09 | Kevin Rudd provided plenty of fodder for cartoonists who poked fun at him last week after he objected to media questions by resorting to archaic slang — "Fair shake of the sauce bottle, mate!" |

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Luckily, Swan's Treasurer, not Keating

Posted: 08 Jun 09 | Wayne Swan has done much better job as Treasurer in combating a serious economic down turn than Paul Keating. Despite his constant boasting, Keating made the 1990-91 recession much worse than necessary. |

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Bluster only risks South Korean lives

Posted: 01 Jun 09 | North Korea does not pose a serious threat to Japan or the US at present. But it has a large arsenal of old-fashioned weapons that could do terrible damage to the South Korean capital, Seoul. |

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Making up for Costello's failures on ageing

Posted: 25 May 09 | About the only news the Rudd government didn't leak before the budget was the decision to increase the qualifying age for the age pension to 67 by 2023. |

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Time to risk some political skin, PM

Posted: 27 Apr 09 | Prime Ministers with high approval ratings are in a great position when times turn tough. They can afford to risk the loss of a little political skin. The only trouble is that most politicians, not surprisingly, love being popular and want to stay that way. |

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Turning a trading saviour into a foe

Posted: 20 Apr 09 | A disturbing gulf has opened up between Australia and the US over defence policy. Few suggest the US takes potential threats lightly. But it has a far less hawkish view of China than policy makers in the Australian defence department and cabinet. |

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Wireless is good, cable's better

Posted: 13 Apr 09 | There's nothing inherently wrong with using debt to create a productive asset. It's not usually smart to fund spending on consumption with debt, other than on a temporary basis. Kevin Rudd is using debt for both purposes at present |

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No case for subsidising private wealth

Posted: 06 Apr 09 | Friends and foes jumped all over Cory Bernardi when he suggested recently that the first home owners grant should be scrapped. Which is a pity, because the South Australian Liberal senator has raised a topic worth discussing. |

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Rudd's blind spot on defence

Posted: 30 Mar 09 | The ability to stay relaxed is a great virtue in a prime minister. It is not a quality Kevin Rudd possesses in abundance, except when it to comes to alleged misdeeds of officials involved in national security issues. |

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Soldiers and civilians will die in vain

Posted: 23 Mar 09 | After two more Australian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan last week, the nation's politicians were quick to claim their deaths would not be in vain and that our commitment the war must remain as strong as ever. |

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World sinks, Wall St makes merry

Posted: 16 Mar 09 | Those who believe that Wall St investors inhabit the same planet as everyone else should look at what happened last week. |

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Cash splash vanishes, jobless remain

Posted: 09 Mar 09 | Some people have short memories. It was only in December that "self funded" retirees received a $1400 cash handout from the government. |

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Turnbull offers better emissions plan

Posted: 02 Mar 09 | The Rudd government's carbon cap and trading scheme is now so badly distorted by narrow political calculations that the Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull is well placed to offer a better alternative. |

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It's easy to blame the bureaucrats

Posted: 23 Feb 09 | Bashing "bureaucrats" is a popular sport. Low level public servants are lambasted as unfeeling bureaucrats when they follow normal anti-fraud procedures in cases that tug at the nation's heartstrings. |

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Coalition sings outdated song on debt

Posted: 16 Feb 09 | Peter Costello's continuing role in demonising government debt will do little to further his goal of taking over as Liberal leader if Turnbull stumbles. |

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Stimulus is fine, pity about sugar hits

Posted: 09 Feb 09 | Malcolm Turnbull came up with a good line when he described the Rudd Government's $10.4 billion stimulus package last October as amounting to little more than a "sugar hit". |

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In Rudd's world, the Aussie soul is spotless

Posted: 02 Feb 09 | It is not easy to recognise the picture of modern Australia outlined by Kevin Rudd in a recent series of speeches delivered in quick succession across the nation. |

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Competence missing, not coordination

Posted: 29 Dec 08 | Three distinctive features of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's approach to government are likely to dominate in 2009. |

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Next step, don't give Telstra a reprieve

Posted: 22 Dec 08 | Telstra and Woodside Petroleum have spent much of the past 12 months annoying Rudd government ministers with their aggressive lobbying behaviour, Brian Toohey writes. |

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