Coalition

• Today, the Coalition for Fantasy Sports announced its support for Illinois House Bill 5648, the Fantasy Sports Consumer Protection Act, aimed at providing a robust regulatory framework for daily fantasy sports (DFS) within the state.
• This proposed framework would close an essential chapter in the effort to safeguard fantasy sports fans throughout Illinois.
• The proposed legislation aims to not only protect the hundreds of thousands of fantasy sports fans across Illinois but also the integrity of the games they enjoy.
• This legislation is a positive step toward ensuring that fantasy sports enthusiasts can continue participating in these contests with confidence.”
  The proposed legislation will be considered during the Illinois legislative session.

• For the Liberals, Morrison’s departure is a significant symbolic “moving on” moment.
• The Coalition Morrison is exiting is a mixed bunch, in terms of performance, illustrated by the first weeks of this year.
• The opposition could not have avoided being outfoxed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s bold reworking of the tax cuts.
• The Liberals used material from this week’s Senate estimates hearing to pound Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in the House of Representatives.
• Among the Nationals, their Senate leader, Bridget McKenzie, has proved very effective this term, notably on Qantas and Qatar Airways.
• Once hailed as a great “retail” politician, Joyce at the 2022 election was considered a retail negative in many Liberal seats.
• While he is in parliament, the Nationals will remain a tinderbox (even though they manage to hold their seats).

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• BRAMPTON, ON, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - MDA Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a trusted space mission partner to the rapidly expanding global space industry, is pleased to announce the appointment of Yung Wu to MDA's Board of Directors, effective February 14, 2024.
• Serving as an independent director, Mr. Wu's appointment increases the size of the Board to nine directors, in accordance with MDA's by-laws.
• "We are pleased to welcome Yung Wu to our Board of Directors," said Mr. John Risley, Chair of the MDA Board.
• He is also a member of MENSA, the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D) and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD).

• For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.
• The latest instalment, Nemesis, dealing with the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years, is the fourth of these series since the pioneering Labor in Power screened in 1993 chronicling the Hawke-Keating era.
• The Howard Years (2008) and The Killing Season (2015) followed examining respectively the Howard and Rudd-Gillard governments.
• By contrast, The Killing Season and Nemesis focus predominantly on the leadership wars that blighted Australian politics between 2007 and 2022.
• The most striking takeaway from Nemesis is that the Coalition’s decade in office from 2013 to 2022 was a time of abject irresponsibility.

The Abbott years

• It was a catalogue of swingeing cuts and broken promises (Abbott had pledged no cuts to health or education during the 2013 election campaign).
• The Abbott government never really recovered.
• Chastened by that result, Abbott then caused incredulity among colleagues by proclaiming that “good government begins today”.
• According to Turnbull, Abbott did not welcome the approach, telling him “to fuck off”.

The Turnbull years

• The public were relieved to see the back of Abbott and welcomed enthusiastically the ostensibly progressive Turnbull.
• Attorney-general in the government, George Brandis, refers to the Faustian bargain Turnbull had made to win the prime ministership.
• Dutton, the right-wing hard man who Turnbull scathingly describes as “a thug”, challenged for the leadership, losing relatively narrowly.
• A revelation about events during that febrile week is that Turnbull considered heading off his opponents by calling an election.
• The episode ends with Turnbull offering another pungent character assessment, this time of his successor: “duplicitous”.

The Morrison years

• It errs towards generosity to Morrison, not fully capturing why his leadership became a byword for inauthenticity, a prime minister whose obsession with the theatre of politics consistently trumped substance.
• The episode recalls many of the notorious statements made by Morrison, which by suggesting he was evading responsibility, was a bully or lacked empathy corroded his public image, especially among women voters.
• Asked about the comments, Morrison admits to poor choices of words.
• Nemesis shows that the COVID pandemic was both a blessing and curse for the Morrison government.
• Morrison then expended dwindling political capital by fruitlessly pursuing religious rights protections, causing ructions with Liberal moderates.
• We are left with the suspicion that once again Morrison is bending the truth.

A decade of banality and pettiness

• Participants in the documentary draw on classical allusions in making sense of the chaos.
• We are told, for instance, that the leadership feud between Abbott and Turnbull was Shakespearean.
• Yet what Nemesis exposes is the banality of these events and the pettiness of the actors.
• The post-Menzies Liberal triumvirate of Harold Holt, John Gorton and William McMahon were respectively overwhelmed by the office, reckless and pygmy like.

Paul Strangio received funding from the Australian Research Council in the past.