Asia | Australia’s budget

Bribery time

The government bids to stay in power

|canberra

AFTER five years in power, and with an election looming this year, Australia's conservative coalition government led by John Howard is looking decidedly shaky. Fissures opened up in its ranks a few weeks ago when an explosive document, written by a top official in the Liberal Party, which Mr Howard leads, was leaked to the media. It described the government as “mean, tricky and out of touch”, unintentionally giving the opposition Labor Party a raft of ready-made slogans for the coming campaign.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Bribery time”

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