Politics

5 July, 18:01 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact ONE OF THE POSSIBLE OUTCOMES of this year's election is that we might be heading back to the polls sooner than we think. Australians are facing the prospect of having to cast two federal votes this year after last weekend's result has done nothing except make the whole situation worse. However, news that this might...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact Former Senator Nick Xenophon has today been filmed smashing up several pokie machines in an Adelaide hotel, after reading recent poll data that shows him as the number one favourite to take out the South Australian election. Despite the fact that he had previously been in the Australian Senate for nine years and won a record vote...

3 July, 2016. 19:09 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact RETREATING TO HIS PARENTS HOME on Queensland's methamphetamine coast, former MP Wyatt Roy has locked himself in his bedroom to contemplate life while listening to Coldplay. Faced with having to re-enter society as a normal working human being, Roy says he's not quite ready. "How can Bob Katter have a 10% swing toward...

2 July, 2016. 17:45 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact AS THE SUN SETS ON another ordinary election day, one young Melbourne greens campaigner is facing the prospect of having to catch the tram home in Birkenstocks. Only problem is it's very cold. Kate Lewis said she had a bit of a brain snap when she pulled on her German riding boots this...

2 July, 2016. 13:34 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact IT'S THE SAME VICIOUS CYCLE every three years, except this time, he gets the opportunity to vote below the line. Because real change comes from voting below the line on the senate ballot paper. That's the opinion of one local inner eastern Betoota man, who got up early to beat the crowds at...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT Despite being 33-years-old with a both a high school and university education, local beverage sales manager, Rylie Beaton, still doesn't know what the senate is - or what it does. "I grew up in Queensland, mate" he says. "We don't really have a senate up there," Mr Beaton's interest was sparked when he realised that he had seen at least sixteen...

1 July, 2016. 13:34 ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact IF YOU THINK THERE'S ANY bad blood inside the Liberal Party, think again. After months of radio silence, Abbott Treasurer Joe Hockey has come in from the cold on the last day of campaigning and officially thrown his support behind Malcolm Turnbull. Tensions between Hockey and Turnbull have thawed recently as the North...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT In a new low for democracy, local daughter Amelia Standen (22) has essentially just doubled her 60-year-old father's voting power. After managing to avoid ingesting any form of political media during the last six weeks of intense campaigning by both major Australian political parties, Amelia has taken several moments to switch off" from social media and ask her conservative...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has criticised his successor’s election campaign, saying the focus has strayed in the final days because Malcolm Turnbull hasn’t focused on the “big issues” ahead of the 2017 budget. Abbott believes Turnbull is too caught up in political populism to address the issues currently faced by old people in Sydney's Upper North Shore...

CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT A 24-year-old LNP staffer has been stood down today after recklessly forgetting to pack hand sanitiser during the Prime Minister's visit to the middle-to-low-socio-economic suburbs of Eastern Brisbane. It is believed that, after touching the hands of hundreds of agreeable voters, Malcolm Turnbull was sent into a uncontrollable rage when the young staffer, Alf Luent (Bellevue Hill), informed...