politicalowl

The federal government will lobby states to make sport mandatory in schools in a push to improve children's health and performance in class. Federal Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie said physical activity was not just good for kids' health and wellbeing, with research now linking it to better learning. "Sport is a powerful platform for a whole lot of things, not just for the fun of it (and) I want to use the power of sport whenever I can,'' Senator McKenzie told News Corp on Monday.

Wednesday, 7th March, 2007    - Richard Farmer   Perhaps there is a clue to what Labor Party researchers are finding about attitudes to John Howard in this collection of recent quotations from Labor Party frontbenchers. When it comes to Mr Howard, as a clever politician, deciding to sack Senator Campbell today, he was deploying standards that were invented on the run in Parliament last Thursday –  Kevin Rudd, 5 March 2007 On the question concerning Senator Campbell, my view is plain that Mr Howard, a clever politician, decided to sack Senator Campbell to gain political advantage…  Kevin Rudd, 5 March 2007 … his objective is not to get in the road of Mr Howard’s political attack right now because Mr Howard, a clever politician, wants to establish a case in the lead-up to the election …  Kevin Rudd, 5 March 2007 He's using his office as prime minister to be a very clever politician but is not using his office of prime minister in th...

Wednesday, 7th March, 2007    - Richard Farmer   The Labor Party clearly believes that Australians do not think the word clever has the meaning "mentally bright; having sharp or quick intelligence; able" that my web dictionary list first among four meanings. The policy of calling Prime Minister John Howard a clever fellow, as outlined by the Owl yesterday, clearly refers to definition two: "superficially skillful, witty, or original in character or construction; facile: It was an amusing, clever play, but of no lasting value." So perhaps if Labor continues to apply the clever tag we will see a Liberal Party advertising campaign based on definition number three with the Prime Minister portrayed "showing inventiveness or originality; ingenious: His clever device was the first to solve the problem." Not that definition number four is likely to be given an airing by either side of politics. No one who has seen John Howard bowl could describe him as...

Monday, 20th June, 2005    - Richard Farmer   The best way to blunt the impact of a critical report is to make changes before the report becomes public. No one knows that better than Prime Minister John Howard. So we have had some concessions on the way illegal immigrants are treated in detention camps. Stand by for the report into the system which resulted in an Australian resident being held in detention. The PM might not have had the report of former Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer in his hand when he reached agreement with the backbench critics of the detention policy, but he would surely have known the broad thrust of Mr Palmer's findings. The Immigration Department is sure to get a caning and Mr Howard will continue trying to get the public service to carry the can for the detention abuses. As the impact of the report is played out over coming weeks we should note it down as the formal end of the Westminster principle of ministerial re...

Sunday, 8th May, 2005    - Richard Farmer   When politicians talk, what they do not say is every bit as important as what they do say. Consider this exchange on yesterday's Channel Nine Sunday program: LAURIE OAKES: ... I mean, people must wonder how two people with a relationship as apparently poisonous as yours and John Howard's can get together and produce the right budget for this country. PETER COSTELLO: Well, I can because I've been fully focused on the budget. LAURIE OAKES: He hasn't? PETER COSTELLO: Since — well, since February. And I take responsibility for the budget. Of course I do. I'm the Treasurer. Treasurer Peter Costello did not even try to deny that his relationship with Prime Minister John Howard is 'poisonous'. Nor did he pretend that the leader and deputy leader of the country are working together on the budget. According to Mr Costello he has been fully focused on the budget but since February Mr Howard has not been. ...

Tuesday, 3rd May 2005    - Richard Farmer   John Howard gave a perfectly understandable answer to those journalists who asked him questions about his plans for the future. Of course he gave no hint of an impending retirement. To have done so would have made him a lame duck for the 12 months or so more in which he will be Prime Minister. The only surprise about this whole affair was the response of Treasurer Peter Costello. He reacted as if he had somehow been dudded. And to think just two weeks ago I made the mistake of writing how relaxed he was about the future. ( Changing the Guard  - 20th April 2005). Peter Costello should return to being relaxed. The only way he will not be the leader of the Liberal Party at the next election is if he upsets his colleagues to such an extent that they either implore John Howard to stay on or choose someone else as their leader.

Wednesday, 20th April 2005    - Richard Farmer   There is little doubt in my mind that John Howard is planning his orderly retirement as Prime Minister. For a start he is engaging in an orgy of international travel which is not at all surprising. If you want to be remembered as a major player on the international stage you have to tread the boards in foreign parts as well as having foreign leaders starring in your own political theatre. Then there is the fascinating spectacle of John Howard taking the rap for the decision to blatantly abandon a key part of last year’s re-election strategy. Substantially increasing the Medicare safety net will cause considerable anger and that anger will grow as the months go by. A Prime Minister considering yet another term in office would have flicked the announcement to his Treasurer or his Finance Minister. Instead the PM is doing the decent thing by his successor in the hope, perhaps, that the anger will depart wi...

Edition 1SUN 27 APR 1997, Page 043 PM can't ignore demons of the Right By RICHARD FARMER   LIBERAL Party tacticians could do worse than read the history of the party during the 1950s and early 1960s as they grapple with how to handle the growth of fanatical parties of the Right. Back in the pre-Whitlam days, Labor was reduced to political impotency by not knowing how to react to the various shades of Marxism within its own ranks. The Liberal and National Parties now risk the same fate as they try to work out how to live with Pauline Hanson and the motley collection of parties springing up on a belief that the established conservative Coalition does not take its policies far enough. The Labor Party's dilemma of old has many similarities with that of Prime Minister John Howard today. Within the Labor Party there were many who agreed with the Marxists about the utopia of the socialist State to come. The differences were about how to get to the promised land, rather than what wou...