The departure of up to two crossbench senators and the uncertainty over who might replace them is giving the government fresh obstacles in their efforts to pass legislation.
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Malcolm Turnbull laughs off the suggestion that this week’s extraordinary developments mean the Senate is in chaos. Okay, let’s humour the Prime Minister.
Kim Beazley's time as Australia's ambassador to the United States came to an end earlier this year, but he is riveted by next week's presidential election.
Peter Dutton’s Wednesday news conference was the predictable rant against Labor, but something else came through. The Immigration Minister is genuinely anxious to get the refugees off Nauru and Manus Island…
Further uncertainty has been thrown over the Senate crossbench, with the government now moving to have the High Court determine whether One Nation’s Rod Culleton was ineligible for election.
Within hours of Bob Day submitting his Senate resignation on Tuesday, the government announced it would move for the High Court to rule on whether he had been ineligible to sit in the upper house.
Shortly after Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton aggressively targeted Labor on Sunday when announcing the government’s latest draconian border deterrent, Turnbull rang Bill Shorten…
A snapshot of the availability of jobs has shown limited employment opportunities for disadvantaged job seekers, indicating the need for a new approach to getting these people into work.
The only way the Turnbull government’s announcement of its latest move against boat people makes sense is if it is the belt-and-braces part of a wider plan to resettle refugees from Nauru and Manus Island…
Family First Senator Bob Day says a new investor has expressed interest in his home construction business.
The Prime Minister seems to be less resistant to changing the wording of 18C, after much campaigning on the topic from within his own party.
Treasurer Scott Morrison this week reignited the discussion about housing affordability in Australia. The question is: will the government be willing to bring forward meaningful reform?
Scott Morrison is a “once bitten, never shy” sort of guy. The Treasurer this week launched into the hot topic of housing affordability.
In the third volume of The Official History of ASIO series, historians Dr John Blaxland and Dr Rhys Crawley examine the organisation's role in the years leading to the end of the Cold War.
The dramatic break between the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General – which culminated spectacularly in Justin Gleeson’s resignation on Monday – was a saga of misjudgments and mismanagement. It has…
Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson has quit, declaring his relationship with Attorney-General George Brandis is “irretrievably broken” and taking a major swipe at his government critics.
The government will push states to remove unnecessary residential land use planning regulations that are impeding the supply of housing, Treasurer Scott Morrison will say in a major speech.
Malcolm Turnbull and Mike Baird triumphed over Tony Abbott at the NSW Liberals’ weekend meeting but it remains to be seen whether their initiative for broad reform will lead to meaningful democratisation…
The Turnbull-Abbott hostilities erupted in a very public manner this week over the terms of a ban on the importation of the Adler seven-shot lever-action shotgun.
Political pundits often talk about the ‘transactional costs’ of coups.
Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott are sharply at odds over Abbott’s denial of knowledge about a 2015 deal to insert a sunset clause on the import ban of a shotgun.
Malcolm Turnbull is like the man who threw down a match, started a fire, and is now struggling to breathe because of the smoke. He has inadvertently become the centre of a debate on guns which is at least…
The government has a new buzzword. In the partyroom on Tuesday Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce urged the troops to make the Coalition’s policies “tactile”. In less-fancy terminology, what they mean…
Nick Xenophon's two new Senate colleagues, Stirling Griff and Skye Kakoschke-Moore, are no strangers to the political process.
Speculation has fallen on whether Labor will maintain its planned policy of enforcing a binding vote on marriage equality.
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