Tag: Australian Labor Party

Is This the Election the Liberals Had to Lose?

Commentary In this esteemed publication, I wrote a few weeks ago that when the Australian Liberal Party moves closer to the Australia Labor Party (ALP), it dismays its own best supporters without gaining any new ones. And so it has come to pass. Completely underwhelmed by a lack of centre-right product differentiation—in other words—a lack…


Anthony Albanese Sworn in as 31st Australian Prime Minister

Anthony Norman Albanese has been sworn in as Australia’s 31st prime minister just hours ahead of a trip to Tokyo to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden. With counting from Saturday’s election yet to confirm whether he will govern in majority, Albanese on Monday attended Government House in Canberra. He was accompanied by incoming Deputy…


Labor’s Election Promises to Inflate Budget Deficit By $7.4 Billion

The Labor party has announced its policy costings, which are expected to put a $7.4 billion (US$5.19 billion) dent in the federal budget over the next four years if the centre-left political party wins the election on May 21. More specifically, the promises made by Labor during the six-week election campaign will cause the budget…


Knowing Your Left From Right

Commentary It’s astonishing how the old left-right political polarity influences not only our lives as political animals (to play with Aristotle’s famous definition) but also our thinking about social and moral questions. You can usually spot a person’s beliefs from one bumper sticker. One favourite fashionable belief usually lines up with a whole raft of…


Labor Commits $1.5 Billion to Domestic Medical Manufacturing

Australian Labor party’s leader Anthony Albanese has announced his plan to create a new $1.5 billion (US$105 billion) fund to secure Australia’s medical goods supply chains. The money would be used to boost domestic medical manufacturing capability, such as creating medical technologies, producing rapid antigen tests, and creating vaccines. The investment, which is part of Labor’s…


Labor Treating Medicare Like ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’: Former Howard-Era Advisor

The Labor Party is simply “throwing money” at Australia’s universal healthcare program Medicare with its near $1 billion (US$700 million) election funding pledge, which one Howard-era advisor says will do little to reform the system despite the hefty price tag. In an announcement on May 14, the centre-left Labor Party followed up its pledge to…


Labor Deputy Leader Claims ‘Transparency’ Over Chinese Embassy Visits

The Australian opposition’s deputy leader Richard Marles has been forced to explain his high number of visits to the Chinese Embassy over the past five years—more than the foreign minister—despite not holding the shadow foreign policy portfolio. Marles is alleged to have engaged with Chinese diplomats at least 10 times from 2017 despite deteriorating bilateral…


Conservatives Are Being Outplayed by the Left in Australia

Commentary A new post-centrist style of politics is emerging worldwide as the political centre weakens and voters shift both right and left. The same has been happening in Australia as ever-more voters lose faith in the legacy two-party system—destabilising the old way of doing politics. The current Australian federal election illustrates how disruptive the shift…


Victoria Labor Announces Payments to Save on Energy Bills

The Victorian Labor Government has announced a new $250 (US$176.4) one-off payment for all Victorian households as part of the new Power Saving Bonus program for energy bills. “This is a great opportunity for Victorians to save money, ease the cost of living, and cut their energy bills,”  the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews said. Under…


Labor Vows to Pip Liberals in Cutting Cost of Medications

The centre-left Australian Labor Party has promised to cut the cost of common medications for Australians slightly more than the Liberal Party will if they are elected to government later in May. Labor will reduce the maximum cost consumers pay for medicines covered under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) from $42.50 to $30, a saving…