IN the new year, Julia Gillard and the poor standing of federal Labor will not be responsible for the defeat of Anna Bligh’s Labor government in Queensland.
The blunt reality is that Bligh’s government is one of the worst in Queensland history. Neither the Premier nor her government is up to the job. Its defeat will be primarily because of its incompetence. It is little wonder that eight key members of the Bligh team, including six former ministers, are retiring at the state election. They have simply given up on Bligh …

FEW events in politics work out precisely as expected. Some issues burn intensely, like a flare that lights up the sky but then fades quickly from view, with little to no ongoing impact on the political process.
The Coalition’s attempts to link then opposition leader Kevin Rudd to disgraced former Western Australia premier Brian Burke is an example of what could have been an all-consuming scandal that went nowhere.
The more dangerous issues usually start off slowly, often taking months or years to reach the perilous proportions of a political scandal.
Labor backbencher …

IN a time of doom and gloom in the publishing world it’s uplifting to read about an era when publishing was exciting and the future was pregnant with possibilities.
Yet even then, books needed smart people willing to take a punt on talent.
In ‘Wild & Woolley: A Publishing Memoir’, the Sydney-based Michael Wilding recalls how he and Pat Woolley set up a small press in the 1970s to do just that. Wilding and Woolley knew that there was a lot of good writing around that wasn’t getting out. So get it …