Writer
David Solomon
David Solomon is a former legal and political correspondent. He has degrees in Arts and Law and a Doctorate of Letters. He was Queensland Integrity Commissioner 2009-2014.
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The Defence Strategic Review: Can we rely on the US?
Strategy: ‘a plan designed to achieve a particular long-term aim’. The strategic defence review is presumably intended to produce a plan that will guide decisions by the new Labor government on the acquisition of weapons and the use of other resources (such as people) to protect Australia against future threats to its people, its territory Continue reading »
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Judging the National Anti-Corruption Commission
Next week the Government will unveil its long-anticipated National Anti-Corruption Commission (that’s now the official title) legislation. Experts and critics will be on hand to offer critiques based on comparisons with similar existing bodies in the States, with the Federal ICAC Bill tabled in the last Parliament by independent MP Helen Haines and with the Continue reading »
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Moves began in 2018 for Morrison’s secret government
Scott Morrison and/or his officials prepared the way for the Prime Minister or a Minister to secretly administer a government department in August 2018, just four days after Morrison took power after disposing of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Continue reading »
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Governor-General should have queried Morrison
Scott Morrison’s enabling accomplice in his ministerial power grab, the Governor-General David Hurley, has some explaining to do if he is to resist suggestions that he should resign. Indeed, the political storm the ongoing revelations about Morrison’s extraordinary actions may be so embarrassing for the Governor-General that his early departure from the role cannot be Continue reading »
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Albanese scores a parliamentary goal
For many years, federal governments have done their best to reduce to the absolute minimum the number of days on which they have scheduled sittings of the Parliament. Continue reading »
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Time to listen to the Voice (and act) is now!
Let us be quite clear about the Constitution and the Voice. The Commonwealth Parliament already has the power to legislate to bring the Voice into effect, one of the wishes/demands of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Continue reading »
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Will Speaker Milton Dick really control MPs’ conduct?
Ministers will set the tone and it is unlikely that the new Speaker, Labor’s Milton Dick, will do much to impose himself on them. Continue reading »
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Breakthrough(s) in lobbying regulation..at last!
It has taken far too long but finally two state governments are taking very seriously the threat to the public interest posed by the inherent risks of corruption and undue influence associated with lobbying. Continue reading »
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Integrity reform is difficult but essential
For governments, few things are harder than implementing or improving almost any arm of a fully functioning and effective integrity regime. Every such development – including effective freedom of information, an independent auditor-general, Ombudsman, whistleblower protection, an impartial professional and effective public service, an independent anti-corruption commission – appears to government to involve a surrender Continue reading »
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How much paid help for independent MPs?
There’s a lot wrong with the system that provides MPs and Senators with advisers and other office helpers, not least that it is run by the government and particularly the Prime Minister. That means decisions about staffing for MPs are influenced – and largely determined by – purely political considerations, and not the actual needs Continue reading »
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Government benefits from Opposition’s divisions
The new Albanese Labor Government is facing a host of difficult problems that will thoroughly test its capacity to govern, but politically it is in an enviable position enjoyed by none of its predecessors in the past half a century and more. Continue reading »
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Prince Charles and the battle for the Republic
As a republican, I’m not sure whether to rejoice or rage at the latest display of idiocy by the presumptive future King of Australia, Prince Charles. One the one hand (hooray!) he has demonstrated once again his unfitness to succeed Queen Elizabeth, who, understandably, is beginning to show her considerable age and restrict her public Continue reading »
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The problems with mandates – or lacking one
Within days of the election, the Greens were setting out the ‘mandates’ they claim to have won. In particular, according to their leader, Adam Bandt, his party had a mandate to stop new coal and gas mines. He said it would introduce legislation in the Senate to block any new mines. Continue reading »
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Albanese hastens ‘in an orderly way’
After nine years in the wilderness, the new Labor Party government will have a massive to-do list, notwithstanding the relatively modest policy proposals it took to this election – its so-called small target strategy. For just a moment, when Anthony Albanese announced that he and four colleagues would be sworn in as the new government Continue reading »
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The continuing collapse of the primary vote of the major parties
Labor’s primary vote in the election fell by just over half of one percent to its lowest level in recent history, but it still won an extraordinary victory in Saturday’s election. It did so mostly because the Liberals (minus the National Party) suffered an even larger fall, its vote dropping by over 4 per cent Continue reading »
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Morrison reverts to pre-bulldozer type
The super-salesman’s ploy is working: since his claimed character reformation last Friday – when he said he recognised he had been ‘a bit of a bulldozer’ and that things were going to have to change – the debate about some of his worst behavioural faults as Prime Minister has shifted dramatically. Continue reading »
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Morrison: a more empathetic, consultative bulldozer? It is all about marketing
Only a super salesman like Scott Morrison would think of trying to convert a negative attribute – bully – into something that has perhaps a small positive connotation – bulldozer. But that’s at least partly what last Friday’s makeover was about. Continue reading »
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Even if the Liberals win, Morrison won’t
Since television arrived (and probably a bit before) it has become commonplace to describe Australian federal elections as presidential. All the focus is on the party leader. We talk about the Morrison government, the Albanese opposition. And when people go to the polls they are urged to vote for one or other of the party Continue reading »
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Who is the autocrat?
Autocracy: ‘a system of government by one person with absolute power’. Continue reading »
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Polls don’t suggest a hung Parliament
Three weeks out from the federal election is too long to be confident of predicting the outcome, though the polls suggest Labor has every reason to be more optimistic at this stage than the Liberal-National coalition government. But for weeks now we have had both sides – perhaps all sides including the minor parties – Continue reading »
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Government loses foreign policy edge
The last time a foreign policy/defence issue went really bad for a Liberal Party Government was just over half a century ago – but it also concerned China. Needless to say, the Labor Party was accused of being soft on China. A recurring theme: from the early 1960s the Menzies Government’s election campaigning always included Continue reading »
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Early voter? Think again
More than 6 million people voted early at the last federal elections, in 2019. If you were one of them and were planning to do so again this year, you may have to think again. The Federal Government (with the concurrence of the Opposition) has decided to greatly restrict access to this particular highly convenient Continue reading »
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Why Morrison is dodging an Integrity Commission?
There is a very simple reason why Prime Minister Scott Morrison broke his pre-2019 election promise to introduce into parliament legislation to establish a Commonwealth integrity commission. Continue reading »
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What price democracy?
For the second successive election, billionaire Clive Palmer is using his wealth to try to determine or at least significantly influence who will govern the country for the next three years. Continue reading »
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The advertising propaganda rort
The Morrison Government has ramped up its multi-million dollar spending on its most egregious rort of all, propaganda. Paid for from the public purse, to try to influence (in its favour) the way the public votes. Continue reading »
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Cynicism rampant in this election
Cynicism is the order of the day, far more so than in any pre-election period in the past 50 years. It seems to be the prevailing mood of those who are reporting and recording the issues and events that dominate the federal election that will take place one Saturday in May. Continue reading »
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Labor’s plan for an anti-corruption body
The ALP this week released an outline of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) it would introduce if it were to come to power at the next federal election, a body based on the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that has operated (mostly) successfully in New South Wales for more than three decades. Continue reading »
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National Cabinet is not to blame, unless you ask the State Governments
There has been a subtle but nevertheless significant shift in the operation of the National Cabinet. It reflects the growing evidence that Prime Minister Scott Morrison recognises he is no longer in control of Australia’s response to the Covid pandemic and that many people are questioning his increasingly inept performance. Continue reading »
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ICAC wants real regulation of lobbying with its unfairness and the inherent risks of corruption.
ICAC tried 11 years ago to persuade the NSW Government to introduce a basic system to regulate lobbyists in the state, but only the bare bones of its proposals (essentially, just 5 out of 17 recommendations) were put into effect. It has now revisited the problem and determined a far more comprehensive scheme that would Continue reading »
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Lobbying: British ex-PM shows the way, Australia pretends there is no problem
Don’t you pity David Cameron, the former Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain, who led the charge (from the Opposition leadership) against the evils of lobbying, but discovered, after he ceased to be PM, that he could profit greatly from his former office by becoming a lobbyist? Continue reading »
