The Senate has disallowed an Abbott government regulation relating to the visas required for foreigners employed on offshore oil and gas projects, leaving many workers in limbo. Assistant Immigration Minister…
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Treasurer Joe Hockey, just back from holidays, seems to be suffering from a nasty bout of tin ear. With the Senate in logjam, querulous and with many budget measures still to be debated or even introduced…
The government has grabbed an unlikely victory to preserve its changes to Labor’s Future of Financial Advice legislation, after a last-minute deal with Clive Palmer. Just over a week after Palmer insisted…
Controversial Liberal senator Cory Bernardi will challenge the power of executive government and its desire to dictate to its senators in a provocative speech this week. Bernardi, a South Australian who…
Even before the Senate has finally voted to repeal the carbon tax, the debate has moved to a new stage in which the government’s claims will be tested against what Julia Gillard would have called the “lived…
Liberal Democrats’ senator David Leyonhjelm has threatened to trade his vote on temporary protection visas or other legislation to force the Liberals to allow a conscience vote on gay marriage. In the…
The government has adjusted, in consultation with PUP, Clive Palmer’s amendment to the carbon tax repeal legislation as it tries again to expedite terminating the tax. The amendment, to ensure power companies…
Next week could be very character forming for Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, one of the government’s high flyers. The Senate is set to vote on his regulations to change Labor’s Future of Financial Advice…
University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor - Research Frances Shannon and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including the government’s difficulty repealling the carbon…
The first sitting week of the new Senate has been a humbling experience for a government often too cocky for its own good. After fighting desperately to have the carbon tax scrapped by Thursday, a last-minute…
The eccentricities of the Senate permitting, the government will finally get its legislation repealing the carbon tax through Parliament on Thursday. In an attempt at control, it tried to hassle the Senate…
It took a High Court case to get the government to admit what it had refused to acknowledge to the Australian public – that it is holding 153 asylum seekers on the high seas. The government has over-reached…
The new “special relationship” between Japan and Australia comes to life today, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told a joint sitting of federal Parliament. In an address also expressing “sincere…
The High Court has issued a temporary injunction to stop the Australian government transferring more than 150 asylum seekers, who are on a boat unheard of publicly for more than a week, to Sri Lankan authorities…
Ben Oquist is one of the most savvy political advisers in the business. He used to be Bob Brown’s right-hand man and stayed on with Christine Milne when she became Greens leader, until they fell out. Now…
The government’s proposed Medicare co-payment and its increase in the pharmaceutical benefits scheme threshold will send a bigger-than-anticipated price signal, according to a study by Sydney University…
Clive Palmer has widened the budget measures his party will oppose in the Senate to include the government’s attempt to abolish the schoolkids bonus. Appearing at the National Press Club, Palmer also flagged…
As senators prepare for tomorrow’s swearing in, Motoring Enthusiast Party senator Ricky Muir’s strong message to the government is that he’s prepared to help it if it helps him. Muir has a formal alliance…
University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor - Education Professor Nicholas Klomp and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including Scott Morrison’s secrecy, Newspoll results…
What is offensive about this government is not that it is pursuing tough policies, but that it is trashing accountability and is so lacking in empathy. The boats did need to be stopped; the budget does…
Precisely who proposed the new members for the panel that advises on appointments to the ABC and SBC boards? We know that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull had no part in the selection of conservative…
A conservative columnist and a former minister in the Fraser government have been appointed to the panel that advises on nominations to the ABC and SBS boards. Janet Albrechtsen, who writes a column for…
Joe Hockey’s mother-in-law was a victim of the Commonwealth Bank scandal, in which many people lost savings due to rogue financial advisers in part of the CBA group. But Hockey has been keeping his distance…
Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson has said that plans for tax reform must highlight medium-term economic payoffs, avoiding the “zero-sum” focus of recent debates, if they are to be successfully sold…
Has our political system become so adversarial that it is cannibalising our democracy? It’s a tempting conclusion when we think of the recent and current bitter tone in federal politics and look at how…
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