Joe Hockey is doing an “inspirational” job as Treasurer and has long been standing up for low-income earners, Education Minister Christopher Pyne says.

Mr Hockey is reportedly facing internal criticism over his suggestions poor people do not have cars and some colleagues are questioning his ability to sell the budget.

So, the prime dimster Tony Abbott has pledged that Australia "should do what we can to protect people from potential genocide" ….

No doubt every Palestinian will be encouraged by this bold proclamation!!

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says that the government must do “whatever we reasonably can to ensure that the Australian community is safe from people who have been radicalised ….”

from antony loewenstein …..

The Federal Government was told its $7 Medicare co-payment would disproportionately hit the old and chronically ill, previously secret documents reveal.

The documents, obtained by The West Australian under Freedom of Information laws, show many of the nation's poorest will have to carry more of the cost of the $3.5 billion plan, even with a cap on payments.

Tony Abbott is a Rhodes Scholar and an Oxford graduate.

Malcolm Fraser, while not a Rhodes scholar, is also an Oxford graduate. Fraser is constantly labouring towards intellectual positions. Whether or not you agree with them, you would be hard-pressed to prove Fraser’s positions are not thoroughly considered. By contrast, Abbott’s utterances on the big issues seem best summed up by his statement, ‘‘No one is the suppository of all wisdom’’.

from politicoz …..

It’s been called "excruciating" and "the most embarrassing interview you'll ever be likely to see".

Australia's monopoly toll road operator Transurban paid $3 million tax last year despite racking up $1 billion in tolls from motorists.

As the debate rages over "lifters and leaners" in the wake of Treasurer Joe Hockey's federal budget, the Transurban financial statements for 2014 put in stark relief the paltry income tax contributions which some large corporations are making to the Commonwealth coffers.

The other night, I saw George Orwells's '1984' performed on the London stage. Although crying out for a contemporary interpretation, Orwell's warning about the future was presented as a period piece: remote, unthreatening, almost reassuring. It was as if Edward Snowden had revealed nothing, Big Brother was not now a digital eavesdropper and Orwell himself had never said, "To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country."

A big reason Joe Hockey isn’t getting much support from independent observers like me in his battle to get the budget through the Senate is that so few of his contentious measures are worth fighting for.