Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"(The Australian Electoral Commission's) long-standing reluctance to seek judicial clarification of the law and its application was demonstrated in this Kirribilli House matter, when there was - at a minimum - conflicting legal opinion deserving of resolution by a court, and no judicial precedent to guide.    Until such court precedents are established – or at least a body of public legal opinion available – the funding and disclosure rules under the Act will remain open to more, rather than less, politicised debate." Graeme Orr  

I  voted for John Winston Howard in 1996. Like many Australians, I was angry with Paul Keating.  He may have lost me when he promised not to sell the Commonwealth Bank and then did.  It may have been his scare--mongering over John Hewson’s Fightback! package, to steal the 1993 election – as a voter I’d admired Hewson’s plucky vision, and the ‘World’s Greatest Treasurer’ had himself -championed a consumption tax.  

Endnotes from the first edition