Lidija Ivanovski says Victorian frustrations do not give Jess Wilson a free pass to take the reins, while Terry Barnes says the Coalition is lengths ahead of Labor.
The most important thing the premier-in-waiting can do is be upfront with voters, and not play down the challenges – even if it risks a Labor scare campaign.
Jess Wilson needs to rise above small-target electioneering and win a mandate to be tough and decisive in repairing the catastrophic state of the state.
In her tempestuous four-year term, the upper house MP has resembled English cricketer Geoff Boycott: playing for herself and not the team.
With desperate Labor and One Nation breathing down their neck, the Coalition simply cannot wait until the election campaign itself to spell out policy.
What Mark Butler announced has major implications for the demand for public hospital services. He shouldn’t have been surprised at the NSW premier’s anger.
Governments can influence the evolution of affordable services through policy and funding, but they inevitably are playing catch-up.
If she really wants to convert good first impressions into climbing an electoral Everest of at least 16 lower house seats, Wilson needs to do much more.
Ley leads a hopelessly divided Liberal party at war with itself. She’s had more positions on combating hate speech than the Kama Sutra, and none as satisfying.
The circus also known as the Victorian division of the Liberal Party has just got its first ringmistress. She will have to undo the mess created under her predecessors.
The dysfunctional opposition can’t “do a Dutton” and go to the polls with a bare policy cupboard: it needs to spell out what it will do and how it will be paid for.
At Monday’s Financial Review Healthcare Summit, Mark Butler and Anne Ruston should rule in urgent reform that better balances needs of hospital operators and insurers.
The Coalition has buckled to Labor pressure. But how both sides will finance their foolish bulk-billing magic pudding remains to be seen.
A Labor-Coalition electoral clash over bulk billing is not only foolish, but masks the fact that so much more needs to be done to keep our healthcare system fit for purpose.
The Moira Deeming disaster reflects the party’s domination by socially progressive moderates believing the path to winning is to out-Labor Labor.
A climb down by both sides in this libel case would better for the Victorian Liberals than a damning Federal Court judgment.
Instead of protecting private hospitals from predatory insurers, an obsolete contract framework protects operators from full accountability for inefficiencies and misjudgments.
The most powerful lobby group in the nation has convinced Labor to stop its competitor from giving customers a $1 discount on medicines.
GP bulk billing is nearly 90 per cent, yet the government claims the sky is falling to justify a costly, unnecessary, politically driven splurge on incentives in the budget.
Anthony Albanese should hear out calls by state premiers for more federal GP funding. Then make it clear why he is not going to comply.
