Tony Abbott faced a backbench revolt on his plan to slash the Medicare rebate for short doctors' visits with former cabinet minister Mal Brough prepared to go public and denounce the idea, prompting the Prime Minister's backdown.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, who is in the middle of an election campaign, also wanted the issue killed, fearing a repeat of the Victorian election where federal issues dragged down the vote and the state Coalition government was dumped after one term. 

“Australians need to engage in a national conversation about how inequality is impacting on our lives, our culture, our economy and our society. We need to make clear to our political representatives what kind of society we want for our children and grandchildren. Politicians will not act while the community accepts growing inequality passively.”

The Extremely Dark and Unexamined Underside of the Charlie Hebdo Affair

Few people ask me (actually no-one does) if cartooning is a vocation or a job... Good question I answer myself... Yes and no.. Who cares, except those who get shot. There are many types of cartoons  — from the gentle Sunday strips for kiddies to those published for adults only — such as Martin Van Maële's porn-toons in the early 1900s. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_van_Maële)

Charlie Hebdo has made a defiant return with a new issue that sold out across France in record time, as Al-Qaeda posted a video claiming last week's deadly attack on its cartoonists.

The satirical weekly once again featured what the artists said was the Prophet Muhammad on its cover, but with a tear in his eye, holding a "Je Suis Charlie" sign under the headline "All is forgiven".

Don Argus is the former Chairman of BHP Billiton and before that was CEO of the National Australia Bank.

from Crikey

Were you to plot a perfect satirical novel of the contemporary world, you might end it with a mass public march, led by a series of oligarchical leaders holding a banner saying "Freedom and Democracy" -- at the end of which everyone who participated would be arrested because they may well be enemies of such freedom and you can't be too careful.

Community leaders have flatly rejected calls to revisit changes to the Racial Discrimination Act following the terrorist attacks in France.

“It’s a silly, knee-jerk reaction,” the former president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia Tien Nguyen said. “The terror attacks have no connection to antiracial laws.”

Romney’s associates said that he has become restless since conceding to President Obama on a cold night in Boston two years ago. Romney’s motivation to run again stems from a lingering dissatisfaction with Obama’s policies, both economic and foreign, and a belief that he would have set the country on a better course.

As a crass cartoonist myself since 1951 when I drew my first political cartoons, I can find a rationale in making cartoons... They are not designed to prevent anyone using a gun... Er, Yes, they are... Well, not really. They mocked people with guns... I often try to stop people thinking that guns are the panacea to solving problems. And other conundrum.

Here is an article by Helen Razer published in Crikey and my comments after that.

The Abbott government has splashed more than $8 million of taxpayer money on a media blitz promoting its stalled higher education reforms.

Fairfax Media can reveal the government has spent $5.4 million on media bookings for the campaign, which has infuriated key Senate crossbenchers. 

This comes on top of $2.3 million spent on the design of the advertisements and $560,000 on focus groups and market research.

...

TWO EYEWITNESSES to the arrest of Iain Fogerty ‒ the man wearing the ‘I’m with stupid T-shirt’ near LNP campaigners in Brisbane earlier this week ‒ have told IA how stunned they were by the over-top-police response to a “harmless prank”.

The arrest occured on Thursday morning.