In The Australian today:

"It's official: Wayne Swan was good for the birds. That's according to this year's Christmas Price Index, which measures the cost of buying the items listed in The Twelve Days of Christmas in Australia on a basis strictly comparable to a similar calculation by the PNC Financial Services Group for the US."

In The Australian today:
"Exactly a year ago, Wayne Swan conceded that the Labor government would not achieve its much touted budget surplus. Since then, the $5.4 billion surplus Swan promised in 2010-11 for 2012-13 has melted into a $47bn deficit. As for the benign outlook Swan's 2012-13 budget projected, its cumulative surplus of $16.3bn to 2015-16 has become a $123.8bn sea of red ink."

In The Australian today:
"As usual, the Speedy Gonzales prize following last week's Holden announcement went to the premiers of the affected states, who sprinted to Canberra clutching their begging bowls. "

In The Australian today:
"It has been the longest goodbye. After all, it was 65 years ago that Ben Chifley launched the FJ Holden; only a few months before, his government had nationalised Qantas. That those twin symbols of the Chifley Labor government's post-war order are now crumbling is hardly surprising. But no matter how obsolete that order seems, its legacy remains at the heart of the political divide."

In The Australian today:
"Coming after the school funding row, last week's Program for International Student Assessment results provided the education lobby with a golden opportunity to vent its claims. Not that those claims needed repeating, for they have become articles of religion. But that doesn't stop them being demonstrably false."

In The Australian today:
"Whatever one might think of the GrainCorp decision, it was never going to be an easy one for the Coalition -- which is why Chris Bowen handballed it to Joe Hockey. After all, the Coalition is precisely that; and with the costs of disunity now seared into politicians' minds, a highly publicised rift between Liberals and Nationals would hardly have gotten the Abbott government off to an auspicious start."