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Karen Middleton

Karen Middleton

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Is Donald Trump TV’s greatest showman?

15.11.2024 10

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Trump shouldn’t decide Rudd’s future – but the US president-elect is no ordinary leader

Eight years ago, almost to the day, Japan’s then-prime minister Shinzo Abe flew to New York to become the first foreign leader to meet with US...

15.11.2024 8

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

How the abortion bandwagon has proved a useful vehicle for political advantage

When politicians start talking about abortion law, it’s often more about the politics than the law. When this occurs in the heat of an election...

25.10.2024 6

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

With many Australians facing a fractured future, Albanese faces a problem much bigger than his $4.3m house

Man buys house. Big deal. That’s the end-of-week take among some in the upper quarters of the Labor party on the prime minister’s decision to buy...

18.10.2024 9

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

The Marles-Tarnawsky dispute shows parliamentary workplace is still far from perfect

There’s a lot of complicated details surrounding the allegations that the deputy prime minister’s chief of staff has levelled against her boss....

12.10.2024 20

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Peter Dutton needs reminding that rights we hold dear don’t come with a caveat

When he was elected Liberal leader after the 2022 election, Peter Dutton vowed he’d keep his party true to its values. Values were important to him....

04.10.2024 10

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

What goes up must come down: lesson for Labor as negative gearing balloon goes adrift

Sometimes political leaders send up a test balloon on a policy idea to gauge public reaction. The news that Treasury officials have been working on...

27.09.2024 8

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Dutton’s truth-sounding nuclear power arguments are for generating impressions, not information

It was nothing if not audacious. In a speech that avoided answering one of the biggest questions hanging over his policy to build nuclear reactors at...

23.09.2024 20

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Labor urged to boldly go where policy hasn’t gone before – just as long as it’s not too far

It stung a few in the Albanese government this week that Hawke-Keating era union leader and Labor hero Bill Kelty had declared them “mired in...

20.09.2024 9

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

McPhillamys stoush is perfect seam for Dutton to mine for disaffected Labor votes

There’s a clue to the double-edged nature of resources politics buried in the share-price red and green of the Australian Stock Exchange. Since...

13.09.2024 5

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Labor’s spectacular census own goal hands Dutton a double victory

There’s an empirical test for divisiveness. If something appeases one section of the community and enrages another, it would seem to fit the bill....

30.08.2024 10

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Albanese playing with fire as he crab-walks away from makarrata promise

Australians understand fire. We know it as dangerous and destructive when it’s uncontrolled. We fear it, prepare for it and try to prevent it. Those...

09.08.2024 5

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Anthony Albanese, stick and carrot at the ready, prepares for delicate cabinet reshuffle

There are reshuffles and there are reshuffles. The first kind of ministerial redesign occurs after an election. In that situation, the frontbench...

26.07.2024 4

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Leaders had many chances to scrutinise the CFMEU before now – and may have to explain why they didn’t

It’s hard to find anyone in the federal government who’s unhappy about the downfall of the construction division of the CFMEU. The airing of...

19.07.2024 5

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Tenacious D and the Dixie Chicks know the cost of speaking up – but there’s nothing funny about political violence

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Tenacious D has cancelled the rest of their Australian tour after one half of the American comedy rock duo made a...

17.07.2024 10

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

The path for Labor to lose western Sydney over Gaza is narrow – but it’s there

The new political movement emanating from western Sydney is not a Muslim party. It’s not a registered party at all – not at the moment anyway –...

12.07.2024 40

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

These are testing times for political faith in both broad churches

The idea that political parties are a broad church is under review. John Howard famously claimed the label for the Liberals. It was the plaster and...

05.07.2024 9

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Fatima Payman has leveraged Gaza anger to deliver stinging rebuke to Labor

Fatima Payman has resolved speculation about her status and split from the Labor Party. But it feels like the start of something, not the end....

04.07.2024 6

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Complexities of Julian Assange deal shows relationship with US will endure

Regardless of what Judge Ramona V Manglona decided about his plea deal in her Saipan courtroom on Wednesday, Julian Assange was going home. That’s...

28.06.2024 4

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

‘Paris’ is burning consensus on Australia’s climate policies – and that’s how Peter Dutton wants it

When politicians talk about staying in Paris, some people think of climate change and the international pact to save the planet from a diabolical...

14.06.2024 9

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Guardian Opinion cartoon Martin Rowson on the great pre-election ‘wash-up’ – cartoon

24.05.2024 30

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

‘Beautiful one day. Nuclear the next?’ Labor can’t wait for a fight on Dutton’s energy plan

During the 2007 federal election campaign, Labor ran a TV scare ad in Queensland about the then prime minister’s plan to introduce nuclear power....

24.05.2024 10

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Labor’s budget lays out the battlelines but Dutton pushes hot-button alternatives

When the inevitable questions came about the political calculations in his budget, Jim Chalmers was ready. “One of the things that I have found...

17.05.2024 50

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Budget 2024: Labor is trying to ease Australians’ cost-of-living pain in the hope voters repay the favour

When the treasurer leaks most of his budget beforehand, you know there’s something he’s holding back that’s designed to shape the narrative on...

14.05.2024 50

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

Rhetoric with no policy, vision with no detail: Dutton and Albanese have big gaps to fill

One week, two leaders’ speeches and suddenly the nature of the next election contest is becoming clear. One speech leaned on blistering rhetoric....

12.04.2024 7

The Guardian

Karen Middleton

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