Matt John

“Rudd proved to be too conservative for the nation he led, while Gillard's campaign for re-election was too cynical. But the problem goes deeper than any individual's failure. Labor in office suffered a return of the identity crisis that has plagued it in its wilderness years in Opposition... the party had given up its soul to the machine. p208”
― George Megalogenis, Balancing Act: Australia Between Recession and Renewal

“Laura tingle: "So it's not jut that we see Gillard as a backstabber who brought down an elected prime minister, it is that we see her as the very reason we have minority government. Gillard has become the embodiment of a crushing number of uncertainties and disappointed expectations, both about politics and Australia's future, which makes voters uncomfortable -and in some cases angry.”
― Laura Tingle, Quarterly Essay 46 Great Expectations: Government, Entitlement and an Angry Nation

“journalists fea their loss of authority in the digital age will undermine their ability to hold government to account. Yet the government has much more to worry about because the internet has empowered vested interests, and Oppositions, in a way that effectively cancel an election result within weeks of the final ballot being counted. p236”
― George Megalogenis, Balancing Act: Australia Between Recession and Renewal

“The argument that mining already paid its fair share [of tax] was also wrong.... On the figures the [Minerals] council supplied, mining enjoyed the fourteenth-lowest effective company-tax rate out of nineteen sectors. It paid a lower rate than manufacturing and construction, the very sectors it was crowding out. p196”
― George Megalogenis, Balancing Act: Australia Between Recession and Renewal