Malcolm Turnbull has delivered a hefty blow to the struggling Morrison government by refocusing attention on the one question it has desperately tried to smother. That is: why was he sacked? When he appeared…
Transparency isn’t a silver bullet, but increasing it would go some way to changing the secrecy around who has access – and how much – to the government of the day.
AAP/Lukas Coch
A new report from Grattan Institute argues the secrecy and inequality surrounding who has “say” and “sway” in Canberra can be remedied – if politicians can just find the will to do it.
It’s hard to read the recent felling of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as anything other than an act of revenge by Tony Abbott and his closest supporters.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Australia is “the highest-growing country in the world”, with population growth “double than a lot of other countries”. Is that right?
The insults have becoming increasingly personal, but they don’t always work.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Bigali needed documents to claim back money she was due. But the same government demanding that proof was denying her access to it.
Australia’s approach to the debate over Chinese influence should be to carefully disaggregate the various problems under discussion in this debate and risk-manage them individually.
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China scholars disagree on the extent of Chinese influence on Australian politics – but it may be there are more points of agreement than most scholars realise.
Stan’s remake of the 1992 film Romper Stomper swaps skinhead culture for the complexities of contemporary Australian extremist politics. In doing so, it highlights disillusion with mainstream politicians and media.
The Conversation’s academic expert FactCheck authors delved into the evidence for and against claims made by Australian leaders in 2017.
AAP and Q&A
Some predict Turnbull’s leadership will be in the frame unless the numbers improve; on the other hand, another change would be extremely hard.
Was World Vision Australia chief advocate Tim Costello right to say that Australia’s foreign aid spending was at its highest under Menzies, at 0.5% of gross national income?
AAP Image/Royal Australian Air Force, CPL Jessica de Rouw
We check the facts on how Australia’s foreign aid spend has changed over time.
Choosing Cairns or Townsville as a northern Queensland capital would set off a political storm, as would new regional governments around Australia.
Dan Peled/AAP
Federal politicians and the public like the idea of abolishing the states. But consider the likely result: a more powerful Canberra, with regional governments amounting to glorified shire councils.
Writer and actor Nakkiah Lui, speaking on Q&A.
Q&A
The pressure on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to bend to the conservative right factions of the Liberal and National parties has been compounded by the election of Donald Trump.
Trump’s demagoguery had the effect not only of humiliating reason in the face of extreme emotion and prejudice, but also of taking people into cloud cuckoo land.
EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA