The government has declared that it won’t extend the carbon tax beyond June 30, even if the Senate does not pass the repeal legislation by then. The draft legislative package was released late today, and…
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Bill Shorten, the Labor party’s right faction’s poster boy, won the party leadership by having a number of left-wing caucus members vote for him. Now he has the task of persuading back to vote for the…
Labor has returned the right to choose frontbenchers to the caucus but today’s results show that whether it rests with the leader or parliamentary party, the party’s factions remain at the heart of the…
Bill Shorten’s becoming opposition leader gives Tony Abbott greater reason for concern than an Anthony Albanese victory would have done. The ALP has opted for the man seen as more likely to take Labor…
Bill Shorten has become opposition leader, with a strong win among Labor MPs comfortably overcoming his defeat in the party’s rank and file vote. After a month long process in which nearly three-quarters…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has refused to confirm the Coalition will insist on a new $15 million threshold for scrutiny of foreign investment bids for land in its negotiations with the Chinese for a free trade…
Labor is about to end its post-election hiatus, when the party has been high on a drug called democracy. The job of the new leader announced on Sunday - Bill Shorten or Anthony Albanese - will be to preserve…
The political rise and rise of Clive Palmer has a long way to play out. Tony Abbott is no doubt rejoicing that from July the Senate will lean more to the right - he should be okay to get the carbon and…
Changes to the GST should be part of the mix in improving Australia’s budgetary position, the Grattan Institute’s CEO John Daley has said. But spending reform needed to come first, and the “acid test…
Before the election, I asked Tony Abbott how he saw the prime role of higher education – as a contributor to boosting Australia’s productivity, or as education for its own sake? I had rather expected him…
First it was his political colleagues, to whom he once apologised with the observation that “sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission”. Now the Malaysians are getting a dose…
It was a freezing winter day in Wangaratta. Some guests stayed in their overcoats throughout the church service. Sophie Panopoulos, who was becoming Mrs Mirabella, was resplendent in gold satin. Greg Mirabella…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has announced he will make a decision on the controversial $3.4 billion bid by the US giant Archer Daniels Midland for the Australian agribusiness GrainCorp by December 17. The acquisition…
Tony Abbott cleared the hurdle posed by his Indonesian visit like the steeplechaser who navigates the brush fence safely despite some twigs flying. Whatever the importance of other matters, the trip’s…
As Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese had their final face off in the battle to lead Labor out of the Rudd-Gillard era, the former PM received a rapturous response tonight from a 2600-strong audience at…
The state of the budget has deteriorated since the fiscal outlook released in the election campaign, Treasurer Joe Hockey said today, promising the government would have more to say before Christmas about…
It was the ultimate “get stuffed”. Within hours of an email being sent around ministerial offices declaring that all requests for interviews should be referred to the Abbott office, the dictat was on the…
After Tony Abbott declaring on election night Australia is again “open for business”, it’s unfortunate that first up Treasurer Joe Hockey has soon to adjudicate on just how “open” the door is. The decision…
Tony Abbott says his foreign policy emphasis is “Jakarta not Geneva” and indeed he will be in Jakarta next week, which will be the first test of his diplomatic skills as he seeks to smooth the asylum seeker…
The government sounds as though it’s going to war rather than fighting the people smugglers. A lieutenant general in charge, talking about a campaign plan; as much secrecy as possible; asylum seekers dispatched…
The rather extraordinary exercise in internal party democracy – at least for a major Australian party – that we’re seeing in the ALP is just leading to an appetite for more. As Anthony Albanese and Bill…
Alexander Downer, a federal vice-president of the Liberal party, is quite happy to quit that post in compliance with Tony Abbott edict that people who hold party positions can’t be registered lobbyists…
In the week he formally took power, Tony Abbott managed to perform according to his old stereotype - that is, badly on a matter concerning women. On the other side, as the Labor party declared it was embarking…
Tony Abbott had hoped he wouldn’t be confronted with the gay marriage issue for quite a while. Now, just a day after the new government’s swearing in, it’s potentially posing a major challenge for him…
In its shake up of the public service heads, the Abbott government has not repeated John Howard’s day of the long knives. Rather it’s taken a short scalpel in a surgical operation. Three secretaries have…
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