Bill Shorten learned the hard way that issues animating 'doctors' wives electorates' don't fly in seats where overloaded infrastructure, ever-rising electricity bills and unassimilated immigration are far more pressing concerns. As Labor mulls its next next leader and direction, an important new book urges the rejection of identity politics

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Success has many fathers, as they say, while failure is reckoned to have only one. After a political lifetime of scheming and posing, most recently as Labor's firebrand class warrior, Bill Shorten's parentage of his party's failure makes the case. There are many reasons why he came spectacularly undone, but these strike us the greatest of his stump follies

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Bill Shorten heeded the economic counsel of Chris Bowen and threw away the unlosable election. Meanwhile in Warringah, a quite astonishing number of voters jettisoned a seasoned, dedicated and decent man for a blonde political confection preaching the utter nonsense of climate catastrophism. Celebrate the Coalition's win certainly, but take no comfort in it

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Some believed Bob Hawke's death would generate votes for the ALP. But when I thought of the late Labor leader it was not Billl Shorten who came to mind but Scott Morrison -- a man comfortable in his own skin, like Hawke, and thoroughly pleased with his lot as a regular Australian

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The bookies said it wouldn't happen, couldn't happen, not with the way the polls were pointing. Yet it did happen, that 6-to-1 proposition, and Australia can heave a sigh of absolute relief that, just once and for the better, the longshot came home

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Jacinda Ardern dons a hijab when cameras are at hand and expresses her shared grief with Christchurch's Muslims. But it seems there are Muslims and then there are other Muslims, like the legions of imprisoned Uighur whose oppression by Beijing draws not a word of protest. Perhaps Switzerland could teach us how to get better leaders

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Having seen the PR disaster of Julia Gillard’s open alliance with evidence-averse extremist Greens, Labor now hides its absolute dependence on that party of eco loons and arrogant, authoritarian arbiters of what can and cannot be said. Brace yourself, Australia. Should Shorten claim victory on Saturday night, what's coming won't be pretty

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While 'The Secret Barrister' details the shocking state of Britain's legal system, with particular attention to its gullible, incompetent, politically correct and politically motivated police force, I challenge any Australian reader to absorb its litany of outrages without a gross and recent injustice in a Victorian court coming immediately to mind

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At some point on Saturday evening -- early if the bookies' current 5-to-1 against a Coalition victory is any guide -- Australia will have a new government, a new leader and a newly acquired green tint to the rash of fresh policies and spending about to be implemented. Here's a guide to the near future, written with tongue jammed only minimally into cheek.

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The Tories have given their supporters, most particularly those who voted for Brexit and feel themselves betrayed, particular reason to back to Nigel Farage in the looming European Parliament elections. Many will now do so, as the astounding polls all but confirm, and may well never return to the fold. Like adultery, straying is much easier the second time

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