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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David Solomon. Black Lives Matter here, too.
I hate the way we so often slavishly follow whatever fashion is currently gripping the American people. But I make an exception for the protest movement that has taken to the streets prompted by the Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. How the Queen and Kerr were blind-sided
It was both fortunate and fortuitous. The scheming of the Queen and Sir John Kerr to keep their correspondence secret was defeated not on the merits but by accident and thanks to legislation that came into being long after their arrangements were put in place. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. They should have said: No Minister
One of the worst aspects of the sports rorts affair is the way elements of the public service turned a deliberate blind eye to what was known, or assumed, to be a failure by the Minister to be bound by the requirements of the law governing the way the grants could be approved. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. The triumph of federalism?
How good is federalism – Australian style? Until the coronavirus crisis struck, the verdict would have been: pretty ordinary, at best. But at the moment it is flourishing. Can this outbreak of good health last? Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Privacy should be protected
If I thought my privacy would genuinely be protected, I would have little hesitation in downloading the coronavirus tracing app being developed for the national cabinet. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Planning for a better future
Its time to think about – and plan for – what will be on the other side of this coronavirus bridge the Prime Minister keeps talking about. It may be 12, 18 or 24 months away, but the thinking and planning for life after COVID-19 should start now. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. The Government could do better
There’s a simple way for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to assert some real leadership and focus the attention of the nation on how the corona virus pandemic should be confronted: he should sack the two Ministers who have demonstrated most publicly their incompetence in dealing with it. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Don’t panic. The economy is fine.
The economy is in good shape. Got that? Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Sports rorts – illegal, unconstitutional and shonky
Illegal, unconstitutional and shonky. The sports rorts affair, like climate change, is not fading away. Both raise major political challenges for the government, but in somewhat different ways. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Aliens in a racist Constitution.
Almost all the arguments against constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders went out the window on Tuesday, courtesy of a decision by the High Court (Love v The Commonwealth). Continue reading »
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Audit exposes Government’s trust deficit
Trust is a crucial element of government, in two different but related ways. Continue reading »
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Morrison’s scary words on deployment of troops
Although you can no longer believe everything Scott Morrison says, its necessary to take everything he says seriously and examine his utterances carefully – just in case in a particular instance he will follow through on what he has said. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Morrison mis-fires. Leadership or Photo Opportunities!
Since Scott Morrison declared, back in November, that this was not the time to be talking about climate change, people have been talking about nothing else but the fires, and climate change, and Scott Morrison’s attempts to pretend (or pray) them out of existence. But in the past week or so its all gone wrong Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Religious freedom.
Just 10 days after the Sydney Morning Herald/Age revealed at the end of last month that the major religious groups had rejected the draft Religious Discrimination Act circulated for public comment by the Morrison Government, the Prime Minister made public a new draft, that will go a long way towards meeting their demands. Its purpose Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Taylor’s numbers crunched.
When should a minister ‘stand aside’ (that is, be stood aside); when should a minister resign (be sacked)? Prime Minister Morrison has provided his answer in the case of Angus Taylor, his Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Not now. But not ever? – we will see. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. The climate strikes.
The political consensus on climate change is changing – has already changed. Prime Minister Scott Morrison knows it, but is in an awful, strangling bind. He knows he has to adopt policies that recognise climate change and will help alleviate its impact (all the while remaining reluctant to join those countries trying to reduce its Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Whither Labor
Labor’s post-election post-mortem demonstrates conclusively that Scott Morrison’s victory was no miracle. It also shows why so many people thought it was. Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Lobbying? Check the definition.
Let us be clear about this nonsense ban on lobbying contained in the Prime Ministers ministerial guidelines. Its pretty meaningless. The fact is, as the Code of Conduct for lobbyists explains, the only people who are considered to be lobbyists, are third party professional lobbyists. These are people or organisations that sell their lobbying services Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Vote earlier.
Am I missing something? Voting early is becoming increasingly popular, yet the politicians are thinking of cutting it back, and/or making it more difficult. I thought politicians were in the business of picking up, or at least reflecting, the public mood. But somehow, they believe they should resist this particular trend – this very strong Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. A hidden agenda
Extract from notes for a victory speech by Prime Minister Morrison to the Coalition party room: I want to make special mention of the contribution to our victory by my Cabinet colleagues. Now Josh, you had a special role. As Treasurer, you had to let the people know that Treasury didn’t like anything that the Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Rubbishing the electorate.
A golfing friend told me this week that he had been door-knocked during the campaign – ‘by Peter Dutton himself’. He wondered why the sitting MP would visit him, but quickly worked it out. He had filled in a form for a postal vote – a form sent out by, and then returned to, the Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. Who can be an MP?
I find it difficult to believe that there were people nominating for this election who had not made absolutely certain that they would not fall foul of the disqualification provisions of section 44 of the Constitution. It is even more astounding that the political party they sought to represent had not carried out an exhaustive Continue reading »
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DAVID SOLOMON. A strange election with some unknowns in Queensland
This is the weirdest starting point for a federal election that I can recall. Here in Queensland there are nine seats held by the LNP with a two-party preferred margin of 6 per cent or less. Depending on which betting market you prefer, in eight or nine of them the punters reckon that the Labor Continue reading »