Last week I joined 8,500 Australians on the charity challenge to live below the extreme poverty line, spending just $2 a day on food for five days. It was tough and my diet was far from complete.
In his budget reply, Bill Shorten avoided the government’s traps and wisely stressed his party’s traditional strengths: health, education and social policy.
Malcolm Turnbull’s bold plan to give states the power to levy income tax is a risky move, and the latest in a string of attempts to ‘fix’ federal-state relations that have not succeeded.
Five months into his prime ministership, it is difficult to know what Malcolm Turnbull really stands for, and his government risks paralysis as a result.
Many of us are happy for governments to increase spending on public services, but we don’t like the idea of higher taxes. There are some good reasons for this.
Fairfax-Ipsos’ first poll of 2016 has the government ahead 52-48% on the two-party vote and Malcolm Turnbull leading Bill Shorten 64-19% as preferred prime minister. While the numbers for the Coalition…
In some circles they call Fiona Nash the “Barnaby whisperer”. It’s said she’s able to calm him down. In electing Nash their new deputy the Nationals have acted wisely.
Jay Weatherill's willingness to countenance an increase to the GST angered federal Labor colleagues. But he tells Michelle Grattan he has no regrets about his "circuit-breaker" intervention.
As the government considers a tax reform agenda without changing the GST, Assistant Treasurer Kelly O'Dwyer discusses tax and superannuation with Michelle Grattan.