Political

SIMON BIRMINGHAM: If fighting inflation were an Olympic sport then Anthony Albanese’s performance in Paris would have ranked alongside our inglorious national efforts in breakdancing.

CAMERON MILNER: There’s always a problem with governments picking winners with taxpayer dollars, but it’s downright electorally toxic if they also pick winners connected to mates. 

Broken promises, some foolhardy legislation and dwindling popularity have put Anthony Albanese and his Government in a downward spiral.

CAMERON MILNER: The PM’s $4.3 million clifftop mansion saga is an Albo-hemian Rhapsody of sorts — he’s just a poor boy, from a poor family!

ANDREW CARSWELL: Anthony Albanese could broker world peace and Australians would still gripe that he hasn’t done enough to address the rising cost of living. 

PAUL MURRAY: The Federal Energy Minister seems to think hydrogen is a magic elixir that will cure all our ills - he couldn’t be more wrong.

SIMON BIRMINGHAM: Australians who have ignored repeated calls to leave Lebanon should be forced to pay when they finally change their minds and beg the Federal Government to get them out of there.

MARK RILEY: Ministers say Anthony Albaneses’s Tourette’s jab shows he’s human. But prime ministers have a duty to be better than most of us.

ANDREW CARSWELL: Forget the wondrous trappings of government office for a minute, the power, the glory. Right now, for incumbents, life isn’t grand. It is limited, and spiralling to a quick end.

THE FRONT DORE: Here’s the speech Anthony Albanese should have delivered today, 12 months on from the October 7 atrocities — instead of the cliches, glib lines and bureaucratic words he actually delivered.

CAMERON MILNER: Anthony Albanese is chronically weak as a politician, repeatedly under-performs and constantly disappoints. And his weakness on Israel has given succour to extremists living in Australia.

PAUL MURRAY: Anthony Albanese’s Government is waging war on Woolies and Coles, but what about petrol prices?

MARK RILEY: Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is dispensing with any subtlety or nuance on the Middle East. He is going for the political jugular. It is what he does. And it works for him.

MICHAEL USHER: Don’t think for a second our leaders aren’t watching Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s White House race to see what concerns voters most - but are Aussie voters in lock-step with the Yanks?

CAMERON MILNER: Ronald Reagan had a great saying: ‘When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat’. Well, Chalmers is bringing that heat and now breathing down Albo’s neck.