#Columns

Seven West Media’s masthead misfires with actress, producer and unionist Margot Robbie

A nuclear energy debate for Queensland is on the cards ahead of the 2024 state election.

The Queensland LNP state conference has exposed the dysfunction over Indigenous policy. Littleproud’s no treaty with Indigenous people conflicts with Crisafulli’s support for the Queensland government’s Path to Treaty.

Voters shouldn’t expect too much from the release of the First Nations Voice referendum pamphlet released today. Professor Emerita Anne Twomey is a constitutional law solicitor and spoke recently about the contents of such documents from past referenda which may contain misinformation.

Peter Dutton issues statements from Western Australia ahead of Queensland vote

The Far North Queensland Liberal National Party operative Trent Twomey

The naysayers of the Noalition

Australia’s Solicitor-General, Dr Stephen Donaghue KC, has backed the constitutional change to give First Nations people recognition and a voice to the parliament in advice released today.

Queensland Greens deny any involvement in the Extinction Rebellion disruption to state parliament. The intrusion could have criminal consequences for those partaking. In Queensland, disturbing the Legislative Assembly is an offence. How this law came into being dates back to 1939.

In his speech against being censured, Scott Morrison inferred he hadn’t been questioned by journalists about arrangements for ministers who fell ill from covid-19. Yet the press conference of March 9, 2021 was his opportunity to explain to the Australian people what he’d initiated.

News Corp editor & Qld LNP linked Peter Gleeson’s history of intellectual theft continues to be exposed. Not only has he stolen from the ABC but he’s committed plagiarism against his own colleagues.

Of political interest are documents showing interaction between Queensland Liberal National Party (LNP) federal member for the electorate of Fadden, Stuart Robert, and the company.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Sussan Ley has sensationally claimed that no one in the world is making electric utes.

The former Australian agriculture minister, David Littleproud, received a May 9 briefing about the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia from Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Mark Schipp.

Queensland opposition over-reach and media speculation over a false claim of a government raid has received a misinformation warning from the Crime and Corruption Commission

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has committed to going full-term to 2024. Beyond that it’s for Queenslanders to decide her future.

The media went into full meltdown mode on Wednesday afternoon when Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that due to dental surgery she wouldn’t be able to hold a media conference on the Coaldrake Review.

Current power price crisis it’s useful to separate Queensland’s energy generation from market supply.

Scrutinising the federal opposition leader and the deputy are important, especially when they are Queensland’s Peter Dutton and David Littleproud.

OCOG president confirms Premier’s committee membership responsibility

There’s a zombie with one hand above the grave and Peter Dutton wants to give it a hand up.

Peter Dutton’s press conference transcript shows he was making a prediction that by 2025 the ‘forgotten Australians’ will be created. They don’t actually exist at present but he’s made everyone think they do. It’s a future fund of forgotten Australians he can nurture.

NoFibs Australian election coverage. The media’s obsession with the gotcha-gaffe spills into today.

NoFibs Australian election coverage. The rise to Independents.

NoFibs coverage of the Australian election. Poll date set for May 21, 2022.

The Queensland paradox. Some of the factors in the complex political system of the Sunshine State.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison remains in slow motion on the election date as court action on the Liberal Party pre-selection process drags on.

Threatening to become a hot election issue, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has reversed his decision on contributing funding to the Queensland flood recovery accusing the state government of playing politics.

April 6, 2022 – Table of contents Increased nurses for aged care recommendation from royal commission Labor pledge for newborn screening Pre-selection continues to haunt PM Feds reject Qld third round flood recovery funding Election fever goes hypersonic Independents day updates Electioneering and dirty tricks . Increased nurses for aged care recommendation from royal commission […]

COMMENT: Before jetting off to Glasgow via Rome, Scott Morrison was in full ‘fatherhood’ mode. As prime minister he pledged to shield the nation from the nasty side effects of committing to net zero emissions; and the cherry on top is that we’ll benefit from all the economic opportunities on offer. Maybe we’re even front […]

As the next federal election looms, there’s much more focus now on centre-right candidates running against Liberal incumbents in blue-ribbon seats across Australia, especially inner-urban seats in Sydney and Melbourne, but also more generally. In this latest edition of @transitzonepod we continue our side-bar series on grassroots democracy and the growing independents’ movement, modelled by […]

The independent MP for Indi, Helen Haines, has accused the Prime Minister of “pulling the wool over our eyes” on a Federal Integrity Commission (FIC) by proposing an MP “protection commission”, and pledged to force Coalition MPs to vote on her bill during parliamentary sittings beginning next week. She also linked climate policy with the […]

On Sunday ABC Insiders, Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s accusation was re-aired that the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was engaging in holding the federal government to ‘ransom’, ‘extortion’ and ‘shakedown politics’ by asking the Commonwealth for more support for the national hospital system as the country neared its covid-19 vaccination targets. David Crowe supported the government […]

Backgrounding against the Palaszczuk Government prior to the state election A hot microphone at a press conference in Queensland on Friday, September 4, 2020 exposed just how the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) attempts to influence journalists against their political enemies. Nine News Queensland journalist, Lane Calcutt, confirmed he was not relaying the PMO questions they […]

Misunderstood by many media commentators & some politicians is the declaration of a public health emergency such as for covid-19. In Queensland this grants extraordinary powers to the Chief Health Officer (CHO), Dr Jeannette Young. “During a public health emergency, the Chief Health Officer can issue Public Health Directions to assist in containing, or to […]

Queensland’s new deputy premier Dr Steven Miles began his rise to national prominence in August, 2020. The mild-mannered philosopher first entered state parliament as the member for Mount Coot-tha (now Murrumba) riding the wave of the ‘Palaszlide’ – the stunning 2015 election victory that saw Campbell Newman’s Liberal National Party (LNP) government ousted from power […]

AS I CONSIDER how to contribute at the next federal election, I thought I’d republish, with permission, a chapter I wrote for the Fremantle Press anthology Women of a Certain Rage, in January 2020 after the failed 2019 ‘Climate Election’, amid the worst bushfires Australia had ever seen, before COVID changed everything.  #AustraliaBurns: Rage, A Climate […]

What Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk actually said about the covid-19 national plan this week. The Australian has accused the Queensland premier of ruining holiday plans reporting that she had said, “lifting border restrictions even after vaccine coverage reaches 80 per cent would be a “backward” step.” However, Thursday’s press conference didn’t exactly pan out like […]

Women are at the forefront of the ‘Voices for’ movement in safe Liberal seats because the Liberal Party’s pre-selection process is “absolutely patriarchal in nature” according to the independent MP for Warringah, Zali Steggall. A closed-door preselection policy designed to maintain the status quo to keep women out, is how Steggall described the process in […]

PETER CLARKE: As we record another #transitzone podcast our two most populous states, New South Wales and Victoria, are still in lockdown, with rapidly rising locally acquired COVID Delta cases. Victorian new cases today are up sharply, and, in New South Wales, still well over 1000 cases each day. The intensely infectious Delta variant has pitched us, and […]

Another podcast in the continuing #transitzone side-bar series on grassroots democracy in Australia and the emerging and evolving “Voices for” independents movements gearing up for the looming federal election. Margo Kingston and Peter Clarke in conversation with Zali Steggall, the federal independent member for Warringah in Sydney, a “safe” Liberal seat until Steggall ousted the […]

Peter Clarke: Let’s get back to the elephant in the room. Mr Turnbull, recently you said you can’t think of “a bigger black and white failure of public administration” than the Morrison government’s failures in procuring covid vaccines and their design and execution of the vaccination rollout. Now, as you well know, we in Australia […]

Transcript part 1 Peter Clarke: Our guest is somebody who’s experienced democratic politics from the outside as a lawyer, banker and journalist, and from right inside the corridors and backrooms of power, where the sausages are actually made, the 29th Prime Minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018, Malcolm Turnbull. Mr Turnbull, welcome to the […]

MALCOLM Turnbull would consider voting for a strong moderate liberal independent in the Sydney federal electorate of Wentworth, and has named NSW seats he believes could be vulnerable if ‘voices for’ groups nominate outstanding moderate liberal independents – Wentworth, Mackellar, North Sydney, Bradfield and Hume.  In an interview for the #transitzone podcast, the former prime minister […]

First published on The Echo May 25, 2021 Anyone remember ‘Modern Liberals’? They’re the ones who stood at the last election in safe Liberal seats like Goldstein in Melbourne (Tim Wilson), North Sydney (Trent Zimmerman) and the formerly safe Liberal seat of Wentworth (Dave Sharma).  The idea was to differentiate from un-modern Liberals, you know, […]

A photo told the story. Scott Morrison went to the footie on Saturday March 27. His team lost, so he entered the winner’s dressing room to a raucous, ‘Skull one, Scotty’ welcome. The only woman present, scientist Tahleya Eggers, stood tall, arms folded, and death-stared his back. After the photo went viral, she tweeted the next […]

First published SMH September 26, 2018. I celebrated Malcolm Turnbull’s ascension to Australia’s leadership by publishing a photo on Twitter of my mother and I toasting him with champagne. “Small l liberalism” – socially progressive, economically dry, environmentally green – was on the rise again in the Liberal Party. Of course, the right wing clipped […]

“This place attracts and rewards narcissists, and many narcissists are sociopaths,” a ‘Coalition figure with a long history working in Parliament’ told ABC reporter Andrew Probyn last week. Hard truth last month on who and what our political parties pick for us when we follow the brand not the person. Brittany Higgins’ steel-eyed testimony saw […]

Also: Reporting Indi: A reflection by Margo Kingston My interest in community independents began when I covered the successful Cathy McGowan race for Indi in 2013, on Twitter and through my website No Fibs. In 2018, I became Kerryn Phelps’ unofficial Twitter campaign manager for the Wentworth by-election and focused on independents at the 2019 election, […]

First published on Echo NETDAILY February 11, 2021. A long time ago, maybe 20 years, I mentioned climate change in conversation with Professor David Flint, a man who proclaims his deep conservatism and convened Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy. He laughed, saying a stray meteorite would blow up the planet someday, so we may as well do […]

First published on Echo NETDAILY January 18, 2021. As a Brisbane teenager in Sir Joh’s stifling, authoritarian, corrupt police state, I’d buy a Nation Review each week to read Mungo on federal politics. His dark humour grounded in passionate belief gave me a way to see a Queensland politics that had hope in it. When I mentioned […]

Hello.  It’s been a while.  My last published piece was an editorial before the federal election. Two months later my plan to write an #IndependentsDay book ended when my mother was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia the day after my 60th birthday. Solitude in the home my mother and I shared for 14 years. Solitude spent taking […]

Having been immersed in US and British politics for a while, and seen how groups with common core values can’t seem to get together to fight for them due to disagreements on other matters, I noticed a tweet by Greens leader Richard di Natale. YES!  Consider: The centre and centre right, (Steggall, Sharkie, Haines), centre […]

Kerryn: That was an extraordinary experience and Darrin and I worked hand-in-glove because I couldn’t have done without Darrin and his connections in the Labor Party. The Labor Party had been fiddle-farting around with its refugee policy for a really long time and they were completely paralysed, they weren’t game to step up and do […]

The fact that just days after the election an article was published boasting that Prime Minister Scott Morrison had a mandate to, “do whatever the hell he likes” shows just how little scrutiny of the government there has been. Morrison grabbed the microphone on day one & never handed it back. Annabel Crabb wrote, “Having […]

May 18, 2019 – Table of contents The only poll that counts . The only poll that counts Only one poll matters. It may be a cliché but it’s true. All the polling throughout a government’s term might shift a prime minister or two but only the one on election day that can shift or […]

May 17, 2019 – Table of contents Farrer Independent Kevin Mack believes Farrer deserves more than a ‘BYO Australia’ The scare campaign in Chisholm Hume MP Angus Taylor’s name has popped up again Pastoralist Kate McBride calls for change in river country Tributes for Bob Hawke on the final day of the campaign . Farrer […]

We await the people’s verdict on May 18, but I’m panicking. It should have been a landslide. A deeply divided, deeply cynical, deeply corrupt government incapable of concerted action on climate change, protecting the rorts and lurks of the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us, bereft of policy ideas or vision, is […]

May 16, 2019 – Table of contents Jeremy Miller is running to win Lyne A student and first time voter in Higgins Twisted Sister, Clive Palmer copyright infringement case Standing with a nervous nation that still believes Follow up to yesterday’s negative gearing discussion Campbell Newman sized cuts to hit federal public service Senator Bridget […]

Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) spoke with Julia Banks (@juliabanksmp) in the final days of her campaign as an Independent candidate for the safe Liberal seat of Flinders. Julia on whether there was an ulterior motive behind the decision to run against Greg Hunt:- I made the decision way back in August that I wasn’t going to […]

May 15, 2019 – Table of contents Kerri-Anne Kennerley explodes Turning the #AusVotes grassroots turquoise Bill Shorten campaigns in Perth against wages theft Scott Morrison campaigns in Corangamite on housing Dark clouds and silver linings, the ICAN climate action vision ‘Class warfare’ slogan deployed The guerrilla campaign to get Jim Molan over the line . […]

Imi is 18 and a first-time federal election voter. She is currently completing Year 12 and is studying Australian Politics for VCE. She will be voting in the inner metropolitan seat of Higgins, in Melbourne. Imi has kindly agreed to answer some questions about the upcoming federal election. With no assumptions as to her knowledge […]

May 14, 2019 – Table of contents ‘Business as usual’ killing communities: Border Doctors’ letter to Indi and Farrer Peter Dutton “mean spirited”, says Paul Keating A Labor government would make a new submission to FWC on increasing wages Scott Morrison campaigns in the marginal seat of Boothby CSIRO was only given hours to approve […]

Distinctive campaign battle lines were defined long before Scott Morrison’s belated April 11 announcement that we would be going to the polls on May 18. For months the Coalition had insisted the election was going to be about the economy, security and putting locals first, “to keep our economy strong, to keep Australians safe and […]

May 13, 2019 – Table of contents Liberal candidate Steve Martin won’t come clean on dirty coal, collusion Qld UAP senate candidate Yodie Batzke may not be whom she says she is Attempted arson attack on Labor’s Belinda Hassan in Dawson Ray Kingston closes in on the nation’s safest seat Scott Morrison campaigns on housing […]

The electorate of Mallee, until now, has been the safest seat in the nation. Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) spoke with Independent candidate Ray Kingston (@MalleeRay) in the final days of his campaign. The National Party has been doing a heap of polling here, and they are acting like they are pretty concerned, so I will take […]

May 12, 2019 – Table of contents Mystery over Peter Dutton leaving the Queensland police service Bill Shorten rallies in Melbourne Coalition launches Scott Morrison . Mystery over Peter Dutton leaving the Queensland police service At the 2001 federal election, Cheryl Kernot was the member for Dickson. A fresh Liberal Party candidate by the name […]

May 11, 2019 – Table of contents Coalition pitch for a global netball hub Labor’s plan to restore funding to the ABC . Coalition pitch for a global netball hub Michael Koziol reported, “The Coalition will make a pitch to young female athletes with a $30 million plan to raise the profile of Australian netball […]

Margo Kingston (@margokingston1) checks in with Anthony Pesec (@anthonypesec) — Independent candidate for the second ACT senate seat — as federal election day looms. They discuss the importance and value of strategically voting in order to defeat hard-right Liberal, Zed Seselja, who hasn’t attended a single meet-the-candidates forum. Zed Seselja is widely known for going […]

May 10, 2019 – Table of contents Liberal candidate for Indi Steve Martin working with Cory Bernardi Scott Morrison pitches coal school Costings day . Liberal candidate for Indi Steve Martin working with Cory Bernardi Wayne Jansson reported, “Liberal Indi candidate Steve Martin’s campaign is working with Cory Bernardi’s far right Australian Conservatives. In Wangaratta, […]

The little Victorian town of Euroa is a centre for dryland agriculture at the south-eastern end of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). Climate change is impacting the town and its surrounds.  Although it is in the MDB, Euroa is not one of the towns in the news as it’s not an irrigators’ centre. It is nevertheless […]

May 9, 2019 – Table of contents Rod Bower’s journey from church signs to Senate candidate Labor’s war against News Corp escalates The case of the missing environment minister Peter Dutton launches boat stopping policy (again) . Rod Bower’s journey from church signs to Senate candidate Charlie Caruso reports, “NSW Senate candidate for Independents for […]

Cutting his parliamentary teeth in the Tony Abbott opposition of the 43rd Parliament, Josh Frydenberg could be excused for thinking that with a blue-ribbon seat and a bit of judicious backing in the leadership spills he was set for life. Certainly, since winning the seat of Kooyong in 2010, his rise through the Liberal Party […]

In the NSW seat of New England, an electorate larger than Tasmania, Independent candidate Adam Blakester (@adamblakester) has been named as the primary threat facing National Party incumbent, Barnaby Joyce. A poll conducted by the Tamworth Business Chamber indicated Joyce was leading, with 46.4 per cent of the vote compared to 43.1pc who declared their […]

Gary Oliver’s ancestors have been looking after the rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef around Mosman in far north Queensland for over 50,000 years. He has served in the Australian army and has extensive public service experience. Oliver is the Greens candidate for Leichhardt, a huge electorate which runs from Cairns up through Cape York […]

May 8, 2019 – Table of contents All care, no responsibility for the media’s message Fijian PM Frank Bainimarama returns serve on John Alexander over ‘move to higher ground’ comment The egg that rolled climate change off the front pages Playing ‘gotcha shit’- News Corp’s attack on Bill Shorten’s Mum . All care, no responsibility […]

NSW Senate candidate for Independents for Climate Action Now (ICAN), Rod Bower (@FrBower) is a husband, father, grandfather, author of Outspoken and — until recently — an Anglican priest in Gosford, at a church where he made his signs so famous. Charlie Caruso spoke with Rod about his decision to run for the NSW Senate […]

May 7, 2019 – Table of contents Climate policy doubts over the Liberal Party candidate for Indi UN extinction report but where is the environment minister? Warringah through the lens of Kate Zarifeh Concerns over malicious content being circulated on WeChat Independents day approaching tipping point Clive Palmer’s High Court challenge to preference publishing fails […]

May 6, 2019 – Table of contents The debate about the debate rages Clive could spoil the election party Australian made . The debate about the debate rages Both leaders appear to have agreed to a third debate on Wednesday night at the National Press Club. Labor’s Anthony Albanese thinks Scott Morrison should also go […]

May 5, 2019 – Table of contents Former Prime Minister Paul Keating enters the campaign Scott Morrison rallies on the Central Coast Labor officially launches its campaign . Former Prime Minister Paul Keating enters the campaign Paul Keating surprised ABC journalists Jane Norman and Andrew Probyn at the Labor launch in Brisbane. . Scott Morrison […]

May 4, 2019 – Table of contents Is the black-throated finch threatened by Adani or is Adani threatened by the black-throated finch? Jason Modica making the government remember Mallee Stoking the fires of hatred Divers keeping climate action afloat Space invaders May the fourth be with you . Is the black-throated finch threatened by Adani […]

May 3, 2019 – Table of contents Extremist links to the Queensland LNP Labor’s plan to fix the NDIS UAP candidate mocked women and Muslims Adani’s plan for the black-throated finch rejected John Alexander tells Fijians to move to higher ground over climate change Herbert profile They’ll take our vegemite Return of the Barnaby Will […]

May 2, 2019 – Table of contents UAP candidates demonstrate the definition of insanity A guide to strategic voting for blue, red and green progressives in safe Coalition seats Jessica Whelan flees the media Wrangling over climate change policy costings continues Know thyself: Angus Taylor lampooned for liking himself on social media Qld LNP is […]

Tanya Murphy has worked on the Great Barrier Reef as a diving instructor for SunLover Reef Cruises for seven years. Her love for coral brought her to Cairns. In this interview she talks about witnessing the 2016-2017 coral bleaching events and how this led her to starting Divers For Reef Conservation. My first dive on […]

Tom is 19 and a first-time federal election voter. After completing school in 2017 he worked for a year doing whatever came his way. He is now at university, studying media and communications in the politics stream, and working nights on weekends at a pub. He will vote in the inner metropolitan seat of Macnamara, […]

Now that pre-polling stations have opened nationwide, voting in the 2019 federal election has begun, so here’s my strategic voting guide in our #IndependentsDay seats. As many No Fibs readers know by now, I waged a relentless strategic voting education campaign at the Wentworth by-election after Kerryn Phelps upset progressive voters by preferencing the Liberal […]

May 1, 2019 – Table of contents Ian Goodenough says he and Andrew Hastie briefly met with Neil Erikson Leaders with vision needed for climate action Not much change in Coalition immigration policy from 2018 numbers No deal with The Greens, says Labor Indi would make history if Independent succeeds Independent UAP candidate Stewart Hine […]

April 30, 2019 – Table of contents Long walk to Canberra for climate action One Nation senate candidate Steve Dickson resigns The Nationals and One Nation closely aligned, says Michael McCormack Clermont horseman breaks down in court . Long walk to Canberra for climate action Wayne Jansson reports on Shannon Loughnane, a young man walking […]

Dr Andy Lewis has lived in North Queensland for the past 32 years while working as a marine scientist, small business owner, and CEO of the not-for-profit Coral Sea Foundation. He has raised four children on Magnetic Island and is a passionate advocate for sustainable management of our natural environment and building long-term economic and […]

April 29, 2019 – Table of contents Independent campaign in Farrer heats up after pastoralist backing Coalition believes childcare changes will lead to communism Happy pre-polling day . Independent campaign in Farrer heats up after pastoralist backing Wayne Jansson has been following the activity in the seat of Farrer where a rural pastoralist, Rob McBride, […]

April 28, 2019 – Table of contents A bit of policy Not happy Julia Injury at Clermont . A bit of policy Both the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and opposition leader Bill Shorten took to the stage among the faithful to announce new policy. Mr Morrison has decided to freeze Australia’s refugee intake in the […]

April 27, 2019 – Table of contents The anathema Anti-Adani and pro-Adani groups meet at Clermont . The anathema Clive Palmer has been labelled an “anathema” and a “tosser” by Labor’s Anthony Albanese in a fiery, five-minute appeal to voters not to choose the Coalition for their first preference after a deal was made to […]

April 26, 2019 – Table of contents Bad candidates Margo Kingston wants to clean up democracy . Margo Kingston wants to clean up democracy Charlie Caruso spoke to Margo Kingston about how No Fibs started, the power and role Twitter plays in the modern Australian political landscape and the contribution of citizen journalists in the […]

Charlie Caruso turns the tables on Margo Kingston and explores how No Fibs started, the power and role Twitter plays in the modern Australian political landscape and the role citizen journalists have played in the elevation of profiles and the conversations around climate change.

April 25, 2019 – Table of contents The deal between Clive Palmer and the Liberal Party is done Unhappy Gilmore . The deal between Clive Palmer and the Liberal Party is done One would have thought that the Liberal Party would want nothing to do with a guy that once worked alongside Queensland Premier Joh […]

April 24, 2019 – Table of contents Mackellar check-in Watergate deadline passes Scott Morrison launches territorial attack The conspiracy theory over BoM data rides into another day . Mackellar check-in Margo Kingston has spoken with Mackellar Independent candidate Alice Thompson. It’s that electorate next to Tony Abbott and was held by Bronwyn Bishop from 1994 […]

April 23, 2019 – Table of contents Not my job Hello again, Helloworld Climate denialism and conspiracy . Not my job “Not my job,” Barnaby Joyce thundered down the line to Patricia Karvelas in yesterday’s radio interview. Mr Joyce had been pressed to say if he knew Eastern Australia Agriculture had links to a tax […]

Around 150 businesses and tourism operators in Far North Queensland are joining Australia’s peak marine conservation group to call on all parties in the federal election to protect the Great Barrier Reef from the impacts of climate change. The group, which includes 20 reef tourism operators and businesses from hospitality and retail to law and […]

Pale, male and stale The political class ‘is on the nose’ and trust in our politicians is going into a deep dive. Parliament is seen as being dominated by “personalities, parties and pecuniary interests”. People are tired of the scandals, the factional power struggles and the revolving door of leadership and prime ministers. With each […]