Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks with a child after laying a wreath on Eddie Mabo’s grave on Mer Island in the Torres Strait on Monday.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
I think it is a bit out of control and I think it’s important … not just to talk about tighter management … but actually do it. Tony Abbott would have been absolutely right – if he had been speaking about…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott watches the signing of the free trade agreement with China, which he now accuses Labor of opposing for ‘racist’ reasons.
Reuters/Lukas Coch
Charges of racism against Labor for querying aspects of the free trade deal with China are a mark of how much Australian attitudes have changed and how adversarial politics fuels hyperbolic attacks.
US forces have been making targeted airstrikes over Syria since late 2014.
Reuters/Hamad I Mohammed
Australian air attacks against Islamic State targets in Syria would not be definitely legal but not definitely illegal.
An appropriate process for achieving consensus among Indigenous communities is critical to the success of constitutional recognition.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
It’s never helpful for a government to become the object of ridicule, so when the Coalition’s speaking notes were leaked for a second day running it was embarrassing.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is struggling to contain instability in an openly divided team.
Lukas Coch/AAP
When Kevin Rudd came under attack from some of his ministers for the way he ran his cabinet, it turned out to be the beginning of the end. Now we are seeing Tony Abbott struggling to contain instability…
Royal commissioner Dyson Heydon’s position is untenable, according to Labor Senate leader Penny Wong.
Joel Carrett/AAP
So once again Tony Abbott has told the Coalition partyroom that he’s ticked off his cabinet ministers. Read them the riot act, he said. They seem to be slow learners, those ministers. Or, more to the point…
B.A. Santamaria (left) is the subject of a new biography by political commentator Gerard Henderson.
Wikimedia Commons
Gerard Henderson has produced a rounded and at times fascinating portrait of B. A. Santamaria. His broad conclusion is that Santamaria was a compelling, skilled and persuasive man who was enormously devoted to his causes.
Dyson Heydon, commissioner for the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption leaves the Royal Commission offices in Sydney on Friday.
Joel Carrett/AAP
In the jargon of the moment, Dyson Heydon – the royal commissioner who has been putting trade union officials and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on the spot – finds himself struggling with the sniff test…
The late Don Randall, former member for Canning.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Malcolm Turnbull and Christopher Pyne were the only ministers on the frontbench in the House of Representatives when Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch introduced his private member’s bill to legalise same-sex…
Many commentators on climate change articles in this publication have abandoned hope that effective action on climate change will happen under an Abbott government. The only solution for those concerned…
Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro says a same-sex marriage conscience vote would be “democracy in its purest form”.
Alan Porritt/AAP
Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro has declared that on same-sex marriage “party political positions should be abandoned in favour of what each person’s conscience tells them”.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has rejected the idea of having a same-sex marriage plebiscite at the next election.
Glenn Hunt/AAP
New polling has shown almost seven in ten Australians favour legalising same-sex marriage, as Tony Abbott rules out a popular vote with the election and the government remains racked by division. Far from…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has suffered another poll blow.
Glenn Hunt/AAP
Ministerial divisions have broken spectacularly into the open over whether Tony Abbott’s proposed popular vote on same-sex marriage should be a plebiscite or a constitutional referendum.