Most Australian journalists describe themselves as left-wing, yet amongst those who wield the real power in the country’s newsrooms, the Coalition holds a winning lead.
But while the media’s political…
Nicola Roxon announces she is leaving parliament. The race to fill the vacancy in her seat of Gellibrand illustrates many of the challenges faced by Labor.
AAP/Alan Porrit
Can someone provide effective representation for a community if they live outside the boundaries of the district they hope to represent?
Or more bluntly, should a member of parliament not only live in…
The remaining A$3.5 billion needed to fully fund the NDIS will still need to be found from other sources.
Image from shutterstock.com
The announcement that opposition leader Tony Abbott will support a 0.5% increase to the Medicare Levy to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) takes the politics out of about half the additional…
Certainty of funding is important and that’s why an income tax levy or premium is the way to go.
Image from shutterstock.com
While an income tax increase may be hard to sell to some people in the community in the lead-up to a federal election, it’s the right choice for a sustainable National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS…
Soon after revealing his plans to build a replica Titanic, Clive Palmer has set his sights on becoming Australian Prime Minister.
EPA/Jason Szenes
Queensland has a habit of raising the eyebrows of our southern cousins when it comes to politics “our way”. Visits to friends and family down south always have required explanations about Joh Bjelke-Petersen…
British PM Margaret Thatcher meets with her Australian counterpart Malcolm Fraser in 1979 – what was her lasting effect on politics here?
AAP/National Archives
Margaret Thatcher’s years as British prime minister from 1979 to 1990 coincided with an era of political upheaval in Australia. The exhaustion of Malcolm Fraser’s “Menziesian” liberalism was followed by…
Julian Assange needs to consider his Australian senate run as more than just a ticket out of the Ecuadorian embassy.
EPA/Kerim Okten
Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks Party is gathering momentum ahead of this year’s federal election. Prominent barrister and political figure Greg Barns has been announced as the party’s national campaign director…
The sensible thing for Tony Abbott to do would be make himself as small a target as possible as the election draws near – but sooner or later he will need to put forward some detailed policies.
AAP/Lukas Coch
When Tony Abbott became leader of the Liberal Party by just one vote in December 2009 he saved the Liberal Party and non-Labor cause nationally from annihilation.
Kevin Rudd as prime minister was riding…
No blood was spilt today in parliament, but we still had a leadership spill.
Spill image from www.shutterstock.com
After a harrowing day in parliament, the Labor party saw a leadership spill and Prime Minister Gillard was returned as leader.
The only thing was… no one contested the top spot and Julia Gillard’s name…
Julia Gillard emerges triumphant after challenging Kevin Rudd for the leadership in 2010. She has survived two subsequent threats to her leadership since. Is this the new normal for Australian politics?
AAP/Alan Porritt
Julia Gillard lives to fight another day, having being reelected unopposed at this afternoon’s caucus meeting.
While Rudd declared he would not nominate for the leadership this time, the destablisation…
Simon Crean has called for a spill of all leadership positions.
AAP
Julia Gillard has called a ballot for the leadership at 4:30pm. Gillard announced the ballot at the start of question time. “In the meantime, give it your best shot,” she told the house.
Veteran Labor…
Julia Gillard’s tour of the western suburbs of Sydney is a shining example of politics and media merging into “stunt”.
AAP/Paul Miller
By Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology
We live in an era of expanded media and accelerated news cycles, in which citizens have access to more information, and more opportunities to participate in the public sphere, than ever before in human…
Terry Mills has been ousted as Chief Minister of the Northern Territory by Adam Giles.
AAP
It’s a fact up north that our governments habitually overthrow their Chief Ministers. By my estimation, five of the nine (now 10) Chief Ministers have been ousted by their party colleagues rather than…
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s media reforms have been called an attack on freedom of speech, but is the criticism deserved?
AAP/Lukas Coch
The ongoing criticism in the major news media of Communication Minister Stephen Conroy’s very soft and watery proposed media reforms is predictable but still breathtaking.
Conroy’s proposals go nowhere…
Former Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu’s resignation could trigger a constitutional crisis for the state government.
Julian Smith/AAP
By Dustin Halse, Swinburne University of Technology and Ben Rankin, Swinburne University of Technology
The dramatic resignation of Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu may have surprised many but cannot be considered altogether unexpected.
A year that began poorly for the now ex-Premier yesterday completely…
Adam Bandt celebrating his 2010 election success as the federal member for Melbourne.
Julian Smith/AAP
Adam Bandt is the first Australian Greens MP to win a seat in the House of Representatives at a federal election.
And while the seat of Melbourne, which takes in the inner suburbs and CBD of the nation…
Adam Bandt is the first Australian Greens MP to win a seat in the House of Representatives at a federal election.
Alan Porritt/AAP
Doug Hilton: I’m the director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and I have with me today Adam Bandt, the Greens' member for Melbourne. Why don’t you start by outlining your background…
Julia Gillard should make her diary of appointments and visits public according to the Information Commissioner.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been encouraged to be more open and accountable to the Australian public by releasing her official meeting diary.
Although Gillard is not legally required to, Freedom…
Australian Greens leader Senator Christine Milne called for an end to the ALP and Greens alliance during a National Press Club speech.
Alan Porritt/AAP
The termination of the ALP/Green alliance has been characterised by some sections of the media and the commentariat as a “divorce”. The language is interesting because it implies that there was genuine…
Happier times: prime minister Julia Gillard and former Greens leader Bob Brown’s agreement has largely been upheld.
Alan Porritt/AAP
Greens leader Christine Milne’s announcement yesterday that the alliance between the Greens and Labor was over had more symbolic than practical implications for Australian politics.
Senator Milne vowed…
Julia Gillard’s early announcement of the election date has sparked a debate on fixed terms.
AAP/Julian Smith
When prime minister Julia Gillard announced last month the nation would go to the polls on September 14, she made political history and caught the nation off guard. She also sparked renewed debate about…
Julia Gillard has called a September election, will we be able to tell the difference between governing and campaigning?
AAP/Alan Porrit
Last week, prime minister Julia Gillard told the Australian public they’d be able to tell the difference between campaigning and governing during this election year.
Over the following days, which saw…
Western Australians are heading to the polls twice this year.
Jay-Oh
If the thought of one election campaign is your worst nightmare, then pity the West Australians. When Julia Gillard announced a September federal election it meant two campaigns being run simultaneously…
Nicola Roxon, Julia Gillard and Chris Evans leave the stage after the press conference announcing the departure of the two former senior ministers.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Much of the commentary surrounding the resignations of Nicola Roxon and Chris Evans has interpreted the departures as yet another episode in the neverending disaster that is the Rudd-Gillard government…
Australia is one of the only countries in the democratic world that doesn’t require political parties to report electoral expenditure.
Flickr/Mindful One
The release of political donation data from 2011—2012 has predictably generated headlines about who paid what to which Australian political parties over the past year.
In line with the Commonwealth Electoral…
Former Higher Education Minister Chris Evans announces his resignation in Canberra.
AAP/Alan Porrit
The Gillard government has lost two important figures that contributed much to the Labor administration. Chris Evans, leader of the party in the Senate, and Attorney General, Nicola Roxon, both announced…
Tony Abbott is trying to send a positive message. Will it work?
AAP/Alan Porritt
One of the largest political graveyards is that occupied by former opposition leaders such as Mark Latham who promise in their first interviews to come out fighting. They excite their party base but alienate…
Julia Gillard has taken a punt on a long campaign.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Julia Gillard is an Australian political pioneer in many ways. She was the first female prime minister, she led the first minority government in the post-war period and recently moved to appoint the first…
Too much has been made of the IMF’s report that shows John Howard’s government was fiscally profligate.
AAP/Sergio Dionisio
A recent publication by the International Monetary Fund provides examines government fiscal policy in 55 major economies. The report employs the rather loaded terminology of “prudence” or “profligacy…
The region has changed a lot in 100 years, but old anxieties remain.
The New Student's Reference Work
It seems 2012 was all about Asia: from the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, to the possible repercussions of the Obama administration’s “Pacific turn”, and the continued rise of China. These…
Has it been a particularly bad year for Australian politics?
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The political year has been characterised by many commentators as a grisly one, full of aggressive personal abuse and character assassination. A prime example was the vituperative final week of parliamentary…
Does Julia Gillard really love cricket? The law of sport and politics says she must.
AAP/Andrew Taylor
It was the last sitting day of the federal parliament for the year. Opposition leader Tony Abbott was suggesting that prime minister Julia Gillard was a criminal, who in turn was rehearsing her lines that…
Has the time come for Paul Keating to put the geo-political cue in the rack?
AAP Image/Guy Wilmot
In charting how Australia has influence in its foreign policy, the figure of Paul John Keating rightly looms large. Yet his recent speech is less effective as a call for greater independence from the USA…
Debates can change a campaign, as the US experience has shown.
EPA/Rick Wilking
Only a month ago the outcome of the US presidential election was seen my most commentators as being a question of the margin of President Barack Obama’s victory. But then the television debates intervened…
Julia Gillard meets the govenor general after winning the 2010 election. Can she repeat the trick next year?
AAP/David Foote
From the time the carbon tax policy was unveiled in February 2011 until its implementation on July 1, the unchallenged consensus of the Canberra press gallery was that a Tony Abbott prime ministership…
Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd in parliament shortly after the 2010 federal election.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Dennis Altman I’m going to start by quoting you when you say, talking about your career as a journalist, particularly a radio and television journalist, that “there was plenty of robust exchanges but my…
The ACT election result has produced another hung parliament. ALP leader Kate Gallagher is waiting to find out if she’ll lead it.
AAP/Alan Porritt
As numbers from polling booths across the ACT started to go up on the big screen in the tally room on Saturday night the first and most obvious trend was a huge swing to the Liberals and a correlative…
If someone got access to your personal information, wouldn’t you want to know?
subcircle/Flickr
In an age of Facebook, eBay and online banking, data privacy is becoming more important than ever before. The majority of Australians have personal information stored online with a range of organisations…
Macquarie is changing its definition of misogyny… but it still applies to the leader of the opposition.
AAP/Pan Macmillan
As an academic, I often become obsessed with the meaning of words. They lure me in with their conceptual promise, and then I get hooked and tangled on distinctions and disciplinary nuance.
Perhaps unsurprisingly…
Are cuts the best way to achieve efficient Government?
Joe Castro / AAP
I was sitting in a session at the Institute of Public Administration Congress recently where Greg Hywood, the CEO of Fairfax, boldly announced that the public sector simply did not understand cuts. Not…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard in parliament – has the Slipper resignation cost her political momentum?
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Gillard government could have been forgiven for believing an electoral renaissance was underway.
But just as it appeared the prime minister was going to cruise to the end of the year, the government…
Julia Gillard attacked Tony Abbott’s past comments about women in a passionate speech during Question Time.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Peter Slipper has resigned. The sexist text messages mentioning female genitalia published as part of a civil court case were suddenly the bridge too far for Her Majesty’s Opposition.
But the Opposition…
Tony Abbott greets Liberal MP Kelly O'Dwyer before an event in Melbourne. Does the Opposition Leader have an issue with women?
AAP/David Crosling
In a discussion with ABC journalist Emma Alberici on Lateline last week, Liberal MP Kelly O’Dwyer defended Tony Abbott from attacks by Labor ministers who criticised his attitudes towards women. In the…
Former Prime Minister John Howard is misinformed about the Australian history curriculum.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
There is a great deal of derogatory, evidence-free and ill-informed opinion about how history is taught in Australian schools. But these tired arguments are so often repeated that we can actually put them…
Lindsay Tanner has railed against his own party in a new book.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Lindsay Tanner was one of a generation of Labor activists who came to political maturity in the 1980s. These were challenging years for the Australian left.
Labor’s 1983 victory set Australia apart from…
The families of the interned men of the Caminiti clan in Queensland, circa 1940.
Supplied
When Fascist Italy declared war on Britain in mid-1940, almost 5,000 Italians living in Australia were imprisoned in internment camps. Few Italian families escaped the human cost of detention as “enemy…
Cory Bernardi making his now infamous comments on gay marriage in the Australian Senate last night.
ABC News
South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi’s comments about gay marriage have caused an uproar. Today he was forced to step down from his position as parliamentary secretary to Tony Abbott.
But are they representative…
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s conduct as a student politician is under scrutiny after the release of the new Quarterly Essay.
AAP/Lukas Coch
There is a limit to what any writer can do in 20,000 words, so not too much should be expected of the essays in the Quarterly Essay series.
Nevertheless, a number of them have been influential, including…
Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan, pictured at the ALP state conference in Queensland on Sunday, finally have something to smile about.
This week’s Newspoll and Age/Nielsen poll make interesting reading in the wake of last week’s debate over the relationship between the Labor and the Greens.
According to Newspoll, support for Labor has…
A river at Cubbie Station, southwest Queensland, in 2004.
AAP/Supplied
Until the recent bid from a Chinese-Japanese consortium Shandong RuYi for megafarm Cubbie Station, it appeared the property would limp along under locally-based administration.
But then the opportunity…
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman congratulates Treaurer Tim Nicholls after handing down the first LNP budget in 14 years.
AAP/Dave Hunt
As budgets go we’ve seen tougher, but not often.
The first appropriation bill of the Queensland’s new Liberal-National government – the first non-Labor budget in 14 years – was always going to be austere…
Malcolm Turnbull calls time on Question Time.
(AAP Image/Alan Porritt
By Mary Crawford, Queensland University of Technology
Malcolm Turnbull’s call to change Question Time is admirable. He has proposed looking to the British system, where the Prime Minister is only required to answer questions one day a week, giving other ministers…
We’ve had the big announcement on schools funding, but now comes the political reality.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The battle over the future of Australia’s school funding arrangements has started in
earnest. Outlining the government’s response to the landmark Gonski Review, Prime Minister Gillard spoke of a national…
The Gillard response to the Gonski review was a disappointment and could have been much more.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Yesterday the Prime Minister announced the government will introduce some of the recommendations of the Gonski Review, including a new model for funding schools.
Many commentators criticised the announcement…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaking at the National Press Club yesterday signalled serious changes to the states' role in education.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
After the government’s response to the Gonski report on schools funding, it’s worth looking at not only what was in the announcement but what wasn’t.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard offered no indication…
Both political parties are lining up their elections strategies now, even though an election could still be a year away.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The former British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson famously said a week is a long time in politics. If this is the case, then you have to wonder how long it will feel if the current Parliament runs it full…
There was cause for new NT chief minister Terry Mills to cheer this weekend, but political debate continues to suffer in Australia.
AAP
Labor has just lost another election in Australia to the opposition in an electoral race that was dominated by negative messages, where both parties attempted unsuccessfully to differentiate themselves…
The final pieces of the historical puzzle around the 1975 Whitlam dismissal are not as sensational as they first seem.
Image courtesy of National Archives of Australia. NAA: A6180, 13/11/75/33
Much hyperbole has been generated by the recent revelations concerning Sir Anthony Mason’s involvement in the 1975 dismissal, but for the most part it shows ignorance of the past.
Earlier this week, The…
Country Liberal Party (CLP) leader Terry Mills (left) shakes hands with Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson ahead of an election debate in Darwin.
AAP/Xaiver La Canna
This week the Northern Territory News announced that by the end of the week we can expect the notorious “build up” that heralds the end of the dry season, to begin.
Today the first clouds we have seen…
Julia Gillard yesterday blasted those on the internet for recycling rumours about her, part of what she calls a sexist campaign.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Prime minister Julia Gillard took aim yesterday at the “misogynists” and “nut jobs” on the internet posting about her conduct 17 years ago while working as an industrial lawyer.
The Prime Minister said…
In asylum seeker policy, the most punitive measures are the most politically acceptable.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Remarkably, in all the 162 pages of the Houston panel’s report on asylum seekers, the word “deter” does not appear a single time. But this does not necessarily indicate a welcome move away from the deterrence…
The Houston panel – Paris Aristotle, Angus Houston and Michael L'Estrange – briefed the media on their findings yesterday afternoon.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Report of the Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers contains some threads of a genuine shift from the prevailing framework towards a more regulatory model for responding to asylum seekers.
The panel has…
Joyous photos such as this one of Phyllis Siegel, 76, right, and Connie Kopelov, 84, marrying in New York could soon flood out of Tasmania.
EPA/Michael Appleton
I personally experienced the full necessity for marriage equality only recently. In the sunny town of Lamego, Portugal, my dear friend Nina was married to her beloved Marcos. She was the first of my friends…
Politicians should invoke the Boss at their peril.
EPA/Daniel Dal Zennaro
Wayne Swan’s deeply felt and widely pilloried use of the music of Bruce Springsteen as some kind of political motivation begs some interesting questions.
On the one hand it has those of us who remember…
Fiona Patten is President of the Australian Sex Party and CEO of sex industry lobby group the EROS Foundation.
AAP/Julian Smith
“Vote for more sex!” Walking through the party pamphleteers to vote in Melbourne last week felt more like passing through a light-hearted student union ballot than a tightly contested state by-election…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard speaking at the release of the Gonski report in Canberra earlier this year.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
After nearly six months on the policy bench, the Gillard Labor government is planning to release its response to the Gonski review into school funding.
The government is still debating the reforms in…
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne’s recent comments show his misunderstanding of curriculum.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
On the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Shadow Minister for Education Christopher Pyne was asked what the Liberal Party would do about the national (history) curriculum if they came to power. Pyne…
ALP candidate Jennifer Kanis (pictured) has won a narrow victory over favoured Greens candidate Cathy Oke.
AAP/David Crosling
The outcome of the Melbourne by-election, in which Labor has claimed a narrow victory, reflected a disappointing performance from the Greens. At the 2010 state election Labor’s victory was dependent on…
Greens candidate Cathy Oke and deputy leader Adam Bandt will be hoping for a win this Saturday.
AAP Image/Juolian Smith
Thanks to the hubris of Bronwyn Pike, the Victorian Labor party is forced to contest a byelection this weekend it did not want or need.
After years of opportunities provided by the Labor party to the…
Former politician and economist John Hewson speaks to ANU’s Crawford School’s Bruce Chapman and Daniel Connell.
Welcome to the latest in our In Conversation series, between former politician and economist Dr John Hewson, Australian National University (ANU) Crawford School Director of Policy Impact Professor Bruce…
Is next week’s Melbourne state byelection a test for federal Labor?
AAP Image/Joe Castro
The looming byelection in the state seat of Melbourne is set to have a national impact.
With Greens candidate Cathy Oke strongly tipped to beat Labor’s Jennifer Kanis on 21 July – the first time the ALP…
Craig Emerson may be well regarded as Trade Minister, but he can’t sing.
AAP/Lukas Coch
It is a clear and incontrovertible case for the Deparment of Community Services and the public must immediately demand intervention. We cannot allow the suffering of the children to continue.
I am of…
Politics is more than just the daily tussle of the news cycle and soundbites.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The term political junkie gets bandied about a great deal, but this addict has no problem in admitting his habit.
It’s been a pure joy to be able to read, think and write about politics and government…
While politicians debated a bill in Canberra, 150 asylum seekers' lives were at risk.
AAP/Australian Maritime Safety Authority
When asylum seekers die at sea there are too many things we don’t want to talk about.
Following the news of another asylum boat capsizing yesterday, at 2pm the federal Parliament began with a sombre and…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott is looking to the politics of the United Kingdom for policy inspiration.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Earlier this month, opposition leader Tony Abbott presented the second instalment of the Liberal and National parties’ “Plan for Stronger Communities”, having already outlined elements of the plan at the…
Rinehart’s right-wing views may have a new outlet if her tilt at Fairfax is successful.
AAP/PPR
What a dream come true for Australia’s right-wingers.
First of all they can point to Gina Rinehart’s wealth (“the richest woman in the world”) as a sign of Australia’s arrival as a capitalist power and…
The Menzies government was voted in with the help of the John Henry Austral ads.
National Library of Australia
After languishing in an archive box at Melbourne University for more than 20 years, an astonishing piece of Australian political history has recently been dusted off and digitised.
The university has…
Old foes Gough Whitlam (left) and Malcolm Fraser (right) unite over modern issues.
AAP/Bruce Postle
Politics, Independence and the National Interest: the legacy of power and how to achieve a peaceful Western Pacific
I am honoured to be asked to make this speech. During the turbulent years of the 1970s…
Peter Slipper paid homage to tradition, but did not fulfil his moral responsibility to his electorate.
In 19th century Australia, democrats such as Henry Parkes could not emphasise too much how important it was to elect a Parliamentary representative who was honourable, decent and able to work on behalf…
We’ve had a glimpse into the world of Craig Thomson, but he’s trying to justify a view that no one outside the political game can understand.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The ALP and the union movement have never liked scabs. But yesterday we witnessed a labour scab of a different sort as The Wound Formally Known As Craig Thomson continued to be bleed rather than heal…
Penny Wong’s rare moment of sincerity on Q&A betrayed the paucity of Australia’s political commentary.
ABC
If there is a turning point in the Australian debate on same-sex marriage it may well be Penny Wong’s remarkable grace and honesty when answering Joe Hockey on last night’s Q&A.
Wong was asked by…
Labor is out of touch with the attitudes of 21st century Australians.
AAP/Dan Peled
“Class warfare” is an emotive term that would seem to belong to a bygone age when there also existed, as in the minds of many people, something called the “class struggle”.
It would seem strange that…
Swan may be appealing to a voting bloc that doesn’t exist.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The 2012 budget came at a particularly challenging time for Labor. The government has sought to achieve two distinct (if related) political goals: bolster Labor’s “economic management” credentials and…
Wayne Swan’s responsibility to the citizens of Lilley may conflict with his role of treasurer. So why don’t we separate them?
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australia is on the eve of receiving one of its most anticipated budget announcements.
Wayne Swan and the team within the Treasury have put together a pillar from which the Labor Party will draw strength…
Another free and fair Australian election – this time the recent Queensland state election – gets underway.
AAP/Dan Peled
Is there a role for deliberation about electoral rules?
For many, the answer would be “no”. For them, the notion of principled discussion informed by careful reflection is deeply incongruous with the…
The line between traditional and new media has now blurred into indistinguishability.
flickr/francescominciotti
It should be easy for the Gillard Government to accept the recommendations of the Convergence Review.
On the surface it seems all very sensible: a converged Press Council and Australian Communications…
Clive Palmer should probably stick to what he’s good at.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Mining magnate Clive Palmer has put his name forward to run for the Liberal National Party (LNP) against Treasurer Wayne Swan in the Queensland seat of Lilley at the next election.
Palmer has been a vocal…
Australian Labor needs to refocus not on the “working class”, but on its core beliefs.
Dean Lewins
Like Geoff Gallop I would like to believe the woes of the Gillard government are not also the death throes of the Labor Party, even after the debacle this weekend that saw Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper…
Julia Gillard faces the media after Craig Thomson’s suspension from the government benches.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Since forming government in 2010, the Gillard government has faced an uphill battle to assert its authority on the policy agenda.
Initially, this was partly due to the fact that it relied on the Greens…
Rudd’s commitment to Australia’s bid for a UN security council seat must continue under Bob Carr.
EPA/Jason Szenes
Now we have a new foreign minister, some have suggested it’s time for Australia to give up its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
During his time as prime minister and foreign minister…
Accusations against Peter Slipper have prompted him to step aside as speaker.
AAP Image/Penny Bradfield
Speaker of the House of Representatives Peter Slipper has stepped aside following allegations of sexual harassment and the misuse of cab-charge vouchers.
Slipper’s former adviser James Ashby accused the…
Australian troops work with Afghan National Army forces in Uruzgan province in August 2011.
Prime minister Julia Gillard today announced the revised timetable for the withdrawal of Australian troops from Afghanistan.
Within 12 to 18 months the majority of Australian military forces will leave…
Former prime ministers Gordon Brown and Kevin Rudd before the 2009 G20 summit.
What are political parties for? Do they exist only to win elections or are they for the benefit of members with process as important as outcome?
These are the fundamental questions that former British…
All eyes are now on Christine Milne to see if she is up to filling the void left by former leader Bob Brown.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Bob Brown’s decision to resign as leader of the Greens last Friday marks a new and interesting phase in the evolution and development of the Australian Greens.
Brown’s exit from the Senate in June inevitably…
New Greens leader Christine Milne should learn from Bob Brown’s charismatic leadership.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australia has a long record of charismatic political leaders and Bob Brown is perhaps the most notable recent example, but unlike other leaders of this style he has demonstrated remarkable political skill…
Bob Brown says The Greens could form a future government, but they may have peaked already.
The exit of Bob Brown raises an interesting issue for the Australian Greens. Now the party’s charismatic founder has gone, what will happen to the party? Does it have a long-term future, and if so, what…
Bob Brown represented a new direction for Australian politics.
AAP/Alan Porritt
In a political career that began in 1983, Bob Brown has been the ubiquitous face of green politics in Australia. He took his first seat in the Tasmanian parliament on countback after the resignation of…
Bob Brown’s resignation seemed to even surprise members of his own party.
ABC News24
In a surprise move, Senator Bob Brown has resigned as leader of the Australian Greens and has been replaced by his former deputy Christine Milne.
Brown will step down from his Senate seat in June. He…
Gillard may encounter some tough talk from Coalition MPs at today’s COAG meeting.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
The Coalition state premiers going to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting today smell blood.
The Gillard government is in a weak position with constant leadership speculation, the Craig…
The union scandal surrounding Labor MP Craig Thompson shows just why the Labor party should re-consider its relationship with the unions.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The Health Services Union’s scandal continues with calls for its national president to resign and moves to remove Kathy Jackson, the whistleblower who first revealed claims of credit card misuse, from…
Former Health Services Union head Craig Thomson represents a vital vote for the Gillard government.
AAP Image/Penny Bradfield
The ACTU yesterday voted to suspend the Health Servives Union from affiliation until they can prove that issues of governance have been dealt with appropriately.
Although it does seem to have been a slow…
Gillard shines when she is closer to voters, such as at this week’s community cabinet in Paramatta.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
By all accounts, in person Prime Minister Julia Gillard is relaxed, funny, engaging and a good listener. Her ministers say she is tough, masters briefs well, leads, and takes decisions. On top of that…
Scientists and politicians rely on each other – so how best to develop that relationship?
mayhem
“Our lack of ability to position our argument in the public means science has not influenced public debate as it should.” So said Australian National University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young at…
Perhaps finance minister Bill Shorten and the Labor party should shout a bit louder about superannuation.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Labor’s devastating Queensland election result has prompted much soul searching within the party and questions about its fundamental approach.
Do voters even know what the Labor party stands for? Or is…
The Bligh led Labor party’s devastating defeat in Queensland could present difficulties for federal labor seats.
AAP/ Dan Peled
The Queensland election can tell us a lot about Labor’s electoral future. There is no doubt that if the Queensland state election landslide against Labor were extrapolated to federal boundaries, the federal…
Former ALP Minister Barry Jones says the party needs significant reform.
AAP
Queensland has developed a tradition of political swings that are far greater than the national average. Labor held only one Queensland House of Representatives seat in 1975 and in 1996 only two.
The…
Campbell Newman and close confidants Jeff Seeney (right) and Tim Nicholls at the first meeting on the LNP government.
AAP/Dan Peled
A lot of the coverage of the Queensland election has so far focused on the headline numbers. Admittedly, these are startling.
The LNP will control 78 of 89 seats in the unicameral Parliament. Labor’s…
The LNP will win power, but Campbell Newman may not win his seat.
It’s long been said that Queensland is beautiful one day and perfect the next. But it has been a long time since Queensland politics reached these superlative heights. The state has been mired in controversies…
The Australian Sex Party was launched at Sexpo in 2008 by leader Fiona Patten.
AAP/Julian Smith
“Where’s the party?"
“Can I join?”
“Is this legitimate?”
These were just a few of the questions I was asked during my eight-hour shift as a volunteer for The Australian Sex Party (ASP) at their booth…
Campbell Newman addresses workers during a campaign stop.
AAP/Dan Peled
By Clive Bean, Queensland University of Technology
The Liberal National Party chose an unconventional strategy when it decided make former Lord Mayor of Brisbane Campbell Newman its leader. Newman needs to win a seat in the Queensland parliament if he…
Chief of the Defence Force General David Hurley and Minister for Defence Stephen Smith respond to reviews into Defence’s culture and the Skype scandal.
Defence media
Defence minister Stephen Smith has released the findings of a series of reviews into last year’s ADFA sex scandal and the culture of the defence force.
The scandal revolved around an incident in March…
No need to laugh, Wayne, your base has disappeared.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
In recent days, Treasurer Wayne Swan has been prosecuting a puzzling assault on a few billionaire mining magnates. Commentators have struggled to come up with a plausible explanation for his political…
Swan’s “fair go” message isn’t original, but it is clever.
AAP/Alan Porritt
When they each ran significant chunks of the Australian mining industry in the 1970s, the late titans Sir George Fisher and Sir Maurice Mawby were often dismayed at the attacks politicians, and others…
Wayne Swan outlined his economic vision for Australia at the National Press Club today.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australians are in a unique place today – we are witnessing our democracy being called to account.
The nature of Australian democracy is being debated by on the one hand, its Treasurer and on the other…
Bob Carr is Australia’s new foreign minister after a cabinet reshuffle by Julia Gillard.
ABC News24
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today delivered a political surprise by announcing former NSW premier Bob Carr as Foreign Minister in her reshuffled cabinet.
Carr takes over from Kevin Rudd, who returns…
The level of political discourse is descending to new lows … but why?
Garrettc
Given the importance of science and technology to modern life, particularly in developed nations, why don’t we see more scientists in leading governmental positions?
This dearth is particularly stark…
Gillard had a strong performance after yesterday’s leadership ballot, but there’s still a long way to go.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
One of Julia Gillard’s better days in Australian politics was nonetheless brought to an unusual end yesterday with the resignation of Mark Arbib.
The former right faction leader, who most recently served…
The process Labor uses to remove and replace parliamentary leaders contains some surprises.
AAP/John Pryke
At 10am today, the Labor caucus will meet to settle the leadership battle between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. But how does the leadership selection process actually work?
While the contest between Gillard…
Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein spend their Sunday morning at church rather than in front of a TV.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Sunday mornings are special.
Sure, 99% of the non-political world is sound asleep (or still attempting to make their way home after a night on the town), but for many political enthusiasts Sunday mornings…
Kevin Rudd is widely known on the international stage from his time as prime minister then foreign minister.
AAP/David Foote
Kevin Rudd’s dramatic resignation as Foreign Minister yesterday has left Australia without a permanent cabinet level representative on the world stage.
Trade Minister Craig Emerson will take over Rudd…
Rudd’s been incendiary since he was replaced as leader.
AAP/Tony Phillips
From the time Julia Gillard succeeded Kevin Rudd as prime minister there was a ticking time bomb that no one thought to defuse.
His promised inclusion in a cabinet whose membership was instrumental in…
Kevin Rudd has announced he will stand down as Foreign Minister.
AAP
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has announced he will step down from his post, sparking immediate speculation about his next move and whether he will challenge Julia Gillard as Prime Minister.
In a press…
Founder of Storm Financial, Emmanuel Cassimatis, speaks before a parliamentary inquiry.
AAP
When financial planning firm Storm Financial collapsed with $3 billion in investment losses, many of its investors were left destitute.
A parliamentary joint committee inquiry into the company’s demise…
Kevin Rudd will only give a smug smile when asked about his designs on Julia Gillard’s job.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Watching Kevin Rudd in his almost daily struggle to avoid giving a straight answer to questions about whether he’ll challenge Julia Gillard is as painful as listening to a smoker justify why they won’t…
Unimpressive: should our polticians be educated before they represent us?
AAP
If the current leadership tussle in the labor party has demonstrated anything, it’s that politics in Australia is not the most impressive affair.
And if we needed any further confirmation, we need only…
What’s gender got to do with it? We asked Cheryl Kernot.
AAP/Julian Smith/Lukas Coch
As one of the few women to have run a political party in this country Cheryl Kernot is well aware of the role gender plays in the Australian political landscape.
In the wake of Bob Brown’s claim this…
Tony Abbott says the end is near for the government, but can he bring it down?
AAP/Alan Porritt
After declaring the Gillard government was entering its “endgame”, opposition leader Tony Abbott is believed to be preparing to table a motion of no confidence.
Since Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie…
Mining magnate, Gina Rinehart is trying to buy more influence by becoming Fairfax media group’s largest shareholder.
AAP Image/Tony McDonough
Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has moved to increase her stake in Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and a number of radio stations.
Rinehart has already shown her desire…
The ugly side of Australia Day was starkly revealed yesterday.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Australia Day: cricket, beaches, prawns on the barbie, beer and a good dose of sunburn; a bit of jingoistic flag-waving, citizenship ceremonies and the conferring of awards to our most outstanding citizens…
Small business owners: a forgotten constituency for the Coalition and the ALP.
oknovokght
In December 2011, Prime Minister Julia Gillard reshuffled her ministry. Naturally, senior Cabinet posts and significant demotions attracted attention. Unnoticed was that small business received a new minister…
Queenslanders will get a chance to vote for either Premier Anna Bligh or leader of the LNP, Campbell Newman on March 24.
AAP image/John Pryke
By Clive Bean, Queensland University of Technology
After much speculation, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has today announced the date of the up-coming state elections. The poll, now to be held on March 24, comes after a difficult year for the Bligh government…
The resources boom is political gold for Liberal premier Colin Barnett (second from left).
AAP/Rebecca Le May
Last week’s change in the Western Australian ALP leadership ended the three-year tenure of the ousted Eric Ripper – quite a good innings for a modern opposition leader, even if he wasn’t granted the opportunity…
Andrew Wilkie has withdrawn his support for the Gillard government.
AAP/David Beniuk
The Gillard government finds itself in the same position it held at the start of 2011.
The withdrawal of support from independent Andrew Wilkie means that, like this time last year, the government holds…
Andrew Wilkie must decide whether to walk away from the Gillard government.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
As speculation about Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s commitment to gambling reform grows, Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie is weighing up the pros and cons of a compromise deal with the government…
Most Australians want to see a transparent, fair political system, but they’re not getting one.
Flickr/Michael Dawes
Whether you’re a cynic or an idealist, most of us believe there should be rules restraining big money in politics. But after a decade of stop-start debate on the issue, a Commonwealth parliamentary report…
The popularity of the Queen and the Royal Family mean the republic movement is going nowhere fast.
AAP Image/Colin Murty
Nicola Roxon, sworn in last week as the first law officer of the Australian Crown, reportedly plans to reignite the debate on Australia becoming a republic.
Former prime minister, Paul Keating has also…
Senator Arthur Sinodinos makes his maiden speech earlier this year.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Welcome to this In Conversation between Liberal Senator Arthur Sinodinos and Macquarie University politics expert Craig Mark.
Sinodinos is a political paradox: he’s the newest member of the Australian…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reshuffled her cabinet to try and refresh her image, but it won’t work.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
It might seem that the days before Christmas would be an odd time to announce a cabinet reshuffle, but for the Prime Minister it was the latest in a series of manoeuvres designed to help the government…
It’s time to recognise the first Australians in our constitution.
Flickr/Rusty Stewart
Last week, the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples concluded its deliberations on reform proposals.
While we wait on the release of their final…
Senator for South Australia Cory Bernardi has attracted controversy with some of his right wing views.
www.corybernardi.com
Welcome to our In Conversation between Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi and Dr Timothy Lynch, lecturer in American politics at Melbourne University.
Since being appointed to the Senate in 2006, the Senator…
Despite President Barack Obama’s charms, Australia must focus on China.
AAP Image/ Scott Barbour
Australia’s recent fleeting love affair with President Barack Obama notwithstanding, Australia’s future lies with China and the North, not the Pacific and the East.
This is not simply a matter of economics…
Italian-Australians deserve an apology for their mistreatment in internment camps in World War II.
Australian War Memorial Collection
Last month, the South Australian parliament unanimously accepted a bi-partisan motion moved by Labor member, Tony Piccolo, to acknowledge the wrongful internment of Italian civilians living in Australia…
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith congratulates Julia Gillard after the vote changing ALP policy on the export of uranium to China was won.
AAP/Dean Lewins
On Sunday, the Australian Labor Party voted 206 to 185 in favour of changing one part of the party’s longstanding and non-negotiable platform on uranium exports: that recipient states must be members of…
First among equals – Julia Gillard votes on a policy issue at the ALP national conference this weekend.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Potential reform of the Labor Party’s internal structure has been substantially limited, as the Right faction asserted its overall dominance of the weekend’s national conference.
Prime Minister Julia…
Prime minister Julia Gillard faces challenges from all sides at this weekend’s ALP conference.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
After surviving a brutal political winter that many thought would be her last, Prime Minister Julia Gillard can be forgiven to looking forward to the summer holidays.
But she shouldn’t let her guard down…
2500 US Marines will be deployed near Darwin in coming years, but we could also see an expanded American military presence elsewhere in northern Australia.
AAP/Malone
Negotiations are underway that could see some the US military’s most advanced drone aircraft based on the Australian Indian Ocean territory of the Cocos Islands.
Combined with discussions around having…
The Tsar Bomba nuclear test is the largest ever nuclear explosion recorded, measuring 50 megatons and generating a 64km high mushroom cloud.
flickr/andy_z
As the Australian Labor Party contemplates opening sales of uranium to India, it would be wise for our policy-makers to think more broadly about the long-term possibilities for Australia as a provider…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has had a good political year but is the political wind shifting against him?
AAP/Lukas Koch
At the start of the year Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised that 2011 would be a year of “decision and delivery”. Despite such a grand vision, the majority of the year was a shocker for the government…
Spy agencies in Australia have a big job, but does the job match the budget?
Flickr/ocularinvasion
In an era of evolving threats, judgment calls will continue to rely on the provision of accurate, timely intelligence. But this intelligence does not come cheap.
In order to be well-prepared and well…
Peter Slipper made an impact in his first day as Speaker.
The dramatic surprise resignation of Harry Jenkins as Speaker, on what was meant to be the final sitting day of the year for the House of Representatives (coincidentally also the fourth anniversary of…
Mussolini made the trains run on time. But having a strong leader is risky.
Flickr/Galaxy FM
“If I Ruled The World” was a tune made famous decades ago by English comedian and singer Harry Secombe who sang of making every day the first day of spring as well as other miraculous improvements. It…
Asylum seekers held in detention centres like Villawood have been protesting that the current system doesn’t work.
AAP/Dean Lewins
With the collapse of offshore processing, and the likely increase in boat arrivals into a politically charged environment, a cross-road may have been reached regarding asylum policy in Australia.
Now…
Julia Gillard made a “special case” for exporting uranium to India.
EPA/Guillaume Horcajuelo
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s decision to overturn the Australian ban on exporting uranium is aimed at re-balancing our relationship with the world’s largest democracy and a rising economic power in the…
A warm welcome for the President from Julia Gillard and the Governor General, but Australia should take care not to give too much away to the Americans. AAP/Stuart McEvoy.
It’s third time lucky for President Obama. He’s cancelled his trip to Australia twice before, but now he has finally made it to Canberra. Julia Gillard has struck up a friendship with the US President…
Julia Gillard has enjoyed mixing with Barack Obama on the foreign policy stage.
AAP/AusPic Howard Moffat
When President Obama begins his long-awaited visit to Australia today, he’ll have a keen tour guide in Julia Gillard. They’ve developed an apparently firm friendship in recent months. But should the Prime…
There are fears that Australian uranium could be put to military uses by India.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced that the Australian Labor Party will debate its opposition to exporting uranium to India.
India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation…
Would you be out for a duck in the citizenship test?
Flickr/R@VITH
The Australian citizenship test has just turned four. Its birthday passed without fanfare but this is not surprising.
Soon after its introduction, a Labor government review addressed early concerns that…
Don’t dismiss Bob Katter’s Australia Party. It’s going places.
AAP/Tracy Nearmy
It would be foolish for anyone to underestimate Bob Katter’s Australia Party. Its brand of socially conservative views blended with economic and trade protectionism are not “far right” but rather proven…
Australia would do better to shed light on Indian affairs. Media coverage of the country is dominated by corruption scandals, terrorism or cultural festivals like Diwali.
EPA/Sanjeev Gupta
CHOGM As Julia Gillard chairs the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Perth, she would do well to pay special attention to her Indian colleague at the table, Vice-President Hamid Ansari. Brian Stoddart…
Shooty Vikadan died in Villawood Detention Centre before the Commonwealth Ombudsman could review his case.
AAP/Torsten Blackwood
The asylum seeker who committed suicide in Villawood detention centre this week should have been interviewed by the Commonwealth Ombudsman to establish whether he should have been released into the community…
Unhappy with politics in this country? You’re not the only one.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australians are more dissatisfied with the way democracy works now than they were after the Rudd government was elected, a poll has found.
According to the ANU poll of 2001 people, there has been a 13…
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has signalled a shift towards Japan in our foreign and trade policy – but is this the right direction?.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s comments in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian newspapers point to a shift in Coalition trade policy that would give Japan higher priority over China.
So why…
Mike Rann waves goodbye on his last day in office at Parliament House in Adelaide.
AAP/James Baker
Mike Rann has handed the South Australian Premiership to Jay Weatherill, after nine years in the State’s top job.
Labor Party power brokers tapped the man who had led their party for 17 years on the shoulder…
Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd celebrated the government’s carbon tax success, but she doesn’t have much reason to celebrate.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Last week demonstrated how fast fortunes may change in politics. Just as the government thought it could get onto the front foot, it experienced a significant setback by not being able to make changes…
Julia Gillard and her Immigration Minister Chris Bowen haven’t had the best of weeks.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Malaysia Solution isn’t quite dead, but its vital signs are certainly not good. With a steely look in her eye, and barely concealed anger, Julia Gillard blamed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for “trashing…
Without reform of the Migration Act, the governments plan for processing refugees offshore would be in tatters.
AFP/Saeed Khan
Later today the Australian Government plans to put the Migration Legislation Amendment (Offshore Processing and Other Measures) Bill 2011 to a vote in the House of Representatives. Without it, the government…
Julia Gillard has to strike a balance between forging meaningful links with Asian countries, and managing relationships with older allies.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
AUSTRALIA IN ASIA: In the third part of our series, former diplomat Alison Broinowski of the Australian National University examines our rocky relationship with our Asian neighbours.
“Australia hasn’t…
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is ‘uneasy’ about Liberal leader Tony Abbott because he is unpredictable.
AAP
Welcome to our “In Conversation” between former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and Melbourne University political scientist Professor Robyn Eckersley.
First elected to Federal parliament in 1955, Fraser…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott are not doing Australian politics any favours.
AAP
Imagine a country in which politics is not a struggle among ambitious individuals for power, but the community’s way of resolving conflicts and advancing its common interests.
Voters are well-educated…
Barack Obama’s web campaign helped him win the presidency. Parties should learn from it.
Flickr/Scorpions and Centaurs
The increasing spread of information and communication technology has changed just about every aspect of Australian society – except democracy.
The opportunities to engage citizens in the democratic process…
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond made a roaring success of minority government.
AAP
In Anglo-American democracies at least, having a “minority government” is often regarded as an undesirable state of affairs.
Canada may have had considerable experience of the phenomenon, New Zealand…
Andrew Bolt has a presence across a variety of media platforms.
AAP
Already the Libertarian Right have begun to marshal their traditional arguments to cover Andrew Bolt’s disgrace by the Federal Court.
Bolt himself has screeched freedom of speech in the wake of his ascerbic…
Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard are not seeing eye to eye on pairing.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The decision last month by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to severely restrict the practice of “pairing” votes in Parliament is another demonstration of the fractious and polarised state of federal politics…
Gillard is trying to re-cast her party building on the tradition of great ALP leaders John Curtin and Ben Chifley.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s rally to the Labor faithful on Friday called for party reform.
It’s become a familiar pattern of introspection within the ALP, starting with the Hawke Wran Review in 2002…
The Murdoch crisis in the UK raises many questions about media ownership in Australia.
AAP/William West
The Gillard Government’s media inquiry is to disregard the crucial issues of bias and concentration of media ownership, despite Bob Brown’s demands for wider terms of reference. This is, at best, misled…
At Home With Julia follows the tradition of poking fun at politicians' personal lives.
ABC Television publicity
I was waiting for her to say “he touched me in nooks and in unexplored crannies I never knew I had” but it was not to be.
For the rest of the episode, however, the lead in At Home With Julia sounded like…
Julia Gillard could face another awkward moment if Kevin Rudd moves against her next year.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Kevin Rudd’s presence as Foreign Minister has been a constant reminder that Julia Gillard’s ascension to Prime Minister was never fully accepted in the electorate, a perception confirmed by the 2010 election…
Senator Nick Xenophon has used parliamentary privilege to name an alleged sex offender.
AAP
Senator Nick Xenophon has caused controversy after claiming a South Australian priest is a sex offender.
Speaking in the Senate – and thus under the legal shield of parliamentary privilege – Xenophon…
Julia Gillard is portrayed sympathetically in the new ABC satire.
ABC Television publicity
Does the ABC’s new hit series At Home With Julia demonstrate an unreconstructed sexism in Australian political satire? Should we be cringing at our cultural immaturity again?
If the 2010 Election (or…
Former Prime Minister John Howard with his then chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos.
AAP
Arthur Sinodinos has long been mooted as a potential successor to retiring former Howard minister, Senator Helen Coonan.
Now that Sinodinos – long serving chief of staff to former Primer Minister John…
Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey wants the Opposition’s policies privately costed.
AAP
Federal parliament has begun debating the merits of a new independent unit which would cost election promises and policies for all parliamentarians.
But one of the more controversial aspects of the Gillard…
The State premiers and Prime Minister, Julia Gillard meet at the Council of Australian Governments (AAP/Alan Porritt)
There is an old joke in Canada, one that every university student is told early in the Introduction to Politics class. It goes like this: three students – one British, one French, and a Canadian – are…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants Tony Abbott to put up or shut up on offshore processing.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard today announced the Government would seek to legislate in order to revive the “Malaysian Solution” ruled illegal by the High Court earlier this month.
The plan would see Australia…
Would an increase in the number of asylum seekers being processed on the Australian mainland lead to London and Paris style rioting on the streets?
According to press reports this week, that is what the…
Party activists may be passionate, but they’re dwindling in number.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Around the western world, political parties have lost their appeal. Membership of major parties has declined dramatically, while our willingness to vote for one party throughout our adult lives has collapsed…
There needs to be reform of the Australian party system.
Flickr/David Drexler
Political parties dominate Australian politics. Their centrality is often accompanied by cynicism about their role and purposes.
The perception often is that the principal role of political parties is…
US sailors load cluster bombs onto an aircraft before an attack on targets in Afghanistan.
AAP
Cluster bombs are currently the subject of considerable humanitarian concern internationally because of their indiscriminate effect.
Every year, thousands of civilians, many of them children, are killed…
The government is ignoring protests against income management, and evidence it doesn’t work.
AAP/Larine Statham
The government is ignoring evidence that income management in Aboriginal communities isn’t working. Despite a raft of studies showing it isn’t changing behaviour or significantly improving people’s life…
Tony Blair pulled back the curtain on the relationship between journalists and politicians..
AAP/Julian Smith
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: On the final day of The Conversation’s series on how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy, John Keane examines how the relationships between politicians…
There should be more regulation of third parties to help preserve Australian democracy. AAP/Alan Porritt.
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: In the latest instalment of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy, Marian Sawer examines the need to regulate…
Too much regulation of third parties like GetUp! will hurt democracy.
Paul Miller AAP
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: In the latest instalment of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy, Andrew Norton says there’s no need to regulate…
Julia Gillard inherited a failing government, and made it worse.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The American comedian WC Fields once joked that the best advice in business was “never give a sucker an even break”. Now the High Court has rejected the government’s deal with Malaysia to swap asylum seekers…
Karl Rove was never far from President George W Bush’s side.
AFP/Stephen Jaffe
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Anne Tiernan looks at how voters have become consumers of political marketing, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives…
Cate Blanchett is among the celebrities pressed into service to persuade us on political issues.
AAP/WWF
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: This afternoon, Andrew Hughes examines which recent political adverts have been a success, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our…
Kevin Rudd used to manage his brand well, but was toppled after an advertising campaign against him.
AAP/YouTube
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Andrew Hughes looks at how voters have become consumers of political marketing, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives…
Celebrities may inspire and help advertise products, but they have no place in politics.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, The Conversation launches a week-long series, looking at how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy. Robin Canniford explains why advertising spin…
Australia dispersed refugees who were rescued by the Tampa, and its policies haven’t improved.
AAP/Wallenius Wilhelmsen
The dramatic rescue of more than 400 asylum seekers by the Norwegian vessel, the Tampa, ten years ago set in train a series of events that has since caused immense suffering to so many. It is surely now…
Defence policy in Australia will have undergone radical change by 2050.
AAP
AUSTRALIA 2050 – So let’s imagine it’s the midpoint of the 21st century and Australia is enjoying its third decade as a recognised innovator in democracy.
Australia routinely initiates global conversations…
Embattled Labor MP Craig Thomson may lose his seat, but this doesn’t necessarily mean Labor will lose government.
AAP
The Gillard Government relies on a wafer thin majority in the House of Representatives in order to pass legislation.
The Coalition opposition has already said it will not provide “pairs” for government…
Prime Minister GIllard launches the Australian Multicultural Council in Canberra.
AAP
Multiculturalism may not be flavour of the month, but the launch by Prime Minister Gillard on Monday of the Australian Multicultural Council (AMC) marks a step forward in a policy project restarted by…
On Thursday August 18, two bills were introduced in the Australian House of Representatives.
One was the “Live Animal Export Restriction and Prohibition Bill 2011”, introduced by Independent Member for…
Not a deterrent? This boat arrived on Christmas Island after the “Malaysia solution” deal was finalised.
AAP/Josh Jerga
The government’s controversial “Malaysia solution”, in which Australia “swaps” refugees with Malaysia is being challenged in the High Court this week.
Asylum seekers are being backed by the Australian…
Rob Oakeshott MP tells Professor John Warhurst why he decided to free himself from party constraints.
AAP
For the latest in our In Conversation series, Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the Australian National University, John Warhurst spoke with the Independent member for the NSW seat of Lyne, Rob…
Spoilt for choice: neither Tony Abbott nor Julia Gillard are inspiring climate leaders.
AAP
Both Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott have staked their political futures on their climate policies. So perhaps they should also be asking what the hallmarks are of a climate leader?
The German political…
Can political debates be won with a chequebook instead of politicians' backing?
AAP
The mining industry, led by the Minerals Council of Australia, has written to members asking for funds to under take a new advertising campaign to attack the carbon tax.
In his letter to members, Minerals…
Are organisations like GetUp the future of Australian policy development?
AAP
Over the previous two decades, a plethora of advocacy organisations have emerged seeking to engage and inform the public on political issues. Some of these entities, such as Get-Up, are self-funded bodies…
Can social media temper growing public antipathy towards political parties?
Mandel Ngan/AFP
On Tuesday, the ACT government held Australia’s first virtual community cabinet using Twitter. Four ministers faced a barrage of tweets in an hour long question and answer session held with the electorate…
Norwegian soldiers stand in front the government building bombed by Anders Breivik.
AAP
The discovery of an Australian link to the horrifying murders of dozens of people by Anders Breivik in Norway has demonstrated the reach of connection in today’s globalised world.
As a result of the ability…
Malaysia’s history with human rights spells disaster for its refugee deal with Australia AAP Image/Karlis Salna.
On Monday, Australia and Malaysia signed a deal that will mean 800 refugees that have arrived in Australia will be swapped with 4,000 verified refugees from Malaysia.
This deal from both Australian and…
Academics should talk more openly about their research and help influence public policy AAP.
Raymond Da Silva Rosa’s article, also published on The Conversation, kindly refers to my recent piece in the Australian Literary Review, which examined why generally academics exert so little impact on…
Are these the sorts of speakers you go to a university to hear? AAP.
The most important issue raised by Lord Monckton’s controversial appearance on two Western Australian campuses is not the limit of free speech or Monckton’s scientific competence. Rather it is whether…
Julia Gillard was confronted by a shopper about the government’s carbon tax.
AAP/Patrick Hamilton
Before the details of the carbon tax were released this week, the government was fighting with one hand tied behind its back. Sometimes it looked like it had both hands and feet manacled as Prime Minister…
India will need to look after its own slum areas, now Australia is starting to withdraw aid.
Flickr/lecercle
The Australian aid program is a multi-million dollar enterprise. It has doubled in size over the past five years to $4,836 million in the current budget, and it’s still growing.
A comprehensive look at…
Australians don’t know enough about Indonesia to judge its farming practices.
AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka
We need to learn more about the countries we are exporting livestock to, or swapping refugees with. Two recent publicly-funded television documentaries have revealed just how little most Australians know…
Julia Gillard and Jenny Macklin announce the consultation paper, which is only in English.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The federal government’s consultation process on the next phase of the “Intervention” in the Northern Territory is excluding those to whom it matters most: Indigenous communities.
The “Intervention” was…
No magic bullet for Defence’s procurement problem AFP/Paul Crock.
There is a certain security in the way Australia handles its national security – you can always expect future failures. It’s never too long before there’s a problem, drawing public attention and justifying…
Action-man Abbott bonding with the working man AAP.
Peter Reith’s recent column in The Age arguing that the Liberals need to revisit and radically change their industrial relations policy explains precisely why Tony Abbott did not support him for Liberal…
Workers will see a percentage increase in their pay packet from today.
AAP/Greg Wood
Fair Work Australia’s annual wage determination takes effect today. Importantly, we’re set to see award wages rise not by a single dollar sum, as in the past, but by 3.4%.
This goes someway to addressing…
Brown talking up the Green’s role in the new Senate AAP/Alan Porritt.
One hundred and ten years after Federation, the Senate today helps to ensure that the Australian Parliament more closely reflects the will of the people. But despite assurances by Bob Brown in his speech…
Pupils at this charter school appreciate President Obama’s support, but it’s not the only option.
Flickr/The White House
Education policy in the United States is paved with some glaring failures. Despite this, many Australian reformers are looking west for inspiration, as the Gonski review of education funding is carried…
Tony Abbott changed allegiance to Alan Stockdale just before the vote.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Former Howard Government minister Peter Reith took a gamble when running a reform agenda for the Liberal federal president not long from an election. He lost the punt but only just. The race raised larger…
Politicians would do well to ask the people for their views on climate change.
AAP/Greg Wood
The conduct of the Australian climate change debate was probably not what John Maynard Keynes had in mind when he proclaimed “words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assaults of thoughts on the…
Are talkback radio hosts or Julia Gillard leading debate in areas like immigration and the mining tax?
AAP
The release of figures today showing a dramatic fall in immigration numbers prompts the question of whether certain sections of the media are influencing government policy.
Are Australian politicians…
Julia Gillard became Prime Minister on June 24th 2010.
AAP/Alan Porritt
In the dying days of his own government, Gough Whitlam observed that Labor’s role in opposition was to win public support for the need for change, thereby raising expectations that would inevitably fail…
20% of people who saw the footage of animal abuse thought it was too graphic.
AFP/Ho/ABC/Four Corners
The decision by Animals Australia/RSPCA to allow their footage of slaughter of cattle and sheep overseas raises interesting questions about how animal welfare should be managed in this country.
Was it…
Participants in “Go back to where you came from” had their attitudes towards refugees challenged.
SBS: Go back to where you came from
Tonight, during World Refugee Week, SBS One premieres Go Back to Where You Came From. Over three nights the series plunges six Australian participants into the intense fear and desperation of the refugee…
The hospitality of the Pacific people is well-known, but they need help to lift themselves out of poverty.
AAP/Torsten Blackwood
It’s easy for the tourists thrilled by the beauty of the Pacific Islands to miss the flourishing squatter settlements just away from their resorts and buzzing nightlife. Many of the friendly islanders…
ALP stalwart Senator John Faulkner’s recommendations do not go far enough.
AAP
Let’s get serious, Senator Faulkner, the problem is the process of candidate selection.
John Faulkner’s excellent speech last night describes a process of ALP decline that has been underway for most of…
The Gonski review presents the Government a once in a generation chance to review school funding.
AAP
The current debate about government funding to private schools is misdirected. The issue is (or should be) not at what level should private schools be funded, but whether they are entitled to any funding…
It’s time to give people a hand up through welfare.
Flickr/sidkid
As a senior public servant I became increasingly frustrated that too many government initiatives, always well meant and often well implemented, simply ended up compounding the problem of passivity and…
Brown: “I’m not here to fear being bitten”
AAP and John Keane
Welcome to “In Conversation”, the first in a series of discussions between leading academics and major public figures in Australian life.
Today Politics Professor John Keane is in conversation with Senator…
During a leadership vacuum on environmental policy, Cate Blanchett was heavily criticised for supporting a carbon tax.
AFP/Say Yes Australia
As the International Energy Agency says the world faces a bleak future as emissions fail to fall at a fast enough rate to combat climate change, the challenge is on for governments to act globally, but…
It’s time to look seriously at changing our constitution. An apology is not enough.
AAP/Dave Hunt
There is unfinished business in Australia, and it’s time to start a serious conversation about resolving it. We need to talk about the planned referendum on Indigenous recognition in the Australian Constitution…
Cate Blanchett lends her star power to the ‘Say Yes’ campaign: but is it a good fit?
AAP
Cate Blanchett possibly got more than she bargained for this week when she was caught up in a backlash over her appearance in a campaign calling for Australians to support a carbon price.
Blanchett, a…
The government says it’s on track to release all children asylum seekers in detention soon, but other policies need to be changed urgently.
Flickr/Takver
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says Australia is racist. And she’s right. Racial discrimination in Australia is not idiosyncratic; it is enshrined in laws, policies and practices…
Australia has one of the lowest poverty rates for families in work in the OECD.
Flickr/adwriter
One of the most hotly debated features of Budget 2011 was the freezing of thresholds for some family payments. This has been described positively as a “war on middle class welfare” and negatively as punishing…
Some of what Lindsay Tanner decries as a “sideshow” is of genuine public interest.
AAP
By Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology
Lindsay Tanner isn’t the first politician to attack the media after leaving office, and he won’t be the last.
One might say it comes with the territory; the politician’s belief that if only the media…
An Arakwal man performs the welcome to country ceremony in Byron Bay. It’s a sight which will be less common now in Victoria.
AAP/Torsten Blackwood
The recent decision by Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu to drop the protocol for government ministers to “acknowledge country” and thereby recognise Indigenous Australian custodianship does not sit well…
Karl Bitar should be open about his contacts with government in his new role.
AAP/Danny Rose
The former National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party, Karl Bitar, has been appointed Head of Government Affairs for Crown Ltd, operators of Melbourne’s Crown Casino and Perth’s Burswood.
It’s a…
The poorly paid aged care sector is a barometer of collective bargaining efforts.
Elliott Brown/Flickr
Labor’s post-WorkChoices industrial relations regime has come under renewed scrutiny in the past week, following Fair Work Australia’s recognition that community sector workers were being underpaid due…
Turnbull made his position clear on the ABC’s Lateline.
Malcolm Turnbull created a stir on Lateline last night by criticising opposition climate policy. The opposition spokesman for communications and former leader of the party implied that Tony Abbott’s “direct…
Julia Gillard’s gender matters, but it also depends on which gender is listening.
AAP
How does gender affect the way people perceive Julia Gillard’s communication style?
Australians’ responses to Julia Gillard seem complex and ambiguous, embodying the contradictions involved in how women…
Is the Prime Minister’s delivery interfering with her message?
Yonhap/AAPIMAGE
Julia Gillard’s time as Prime Minister has been dogged by much personal scrutiny – of her dress, her partner, her hair and her speech.
Julia’s ability as a negotiator is well known in the halls of power…
Julia Gillard has to communicate her government’s reason for being.
AAP
Former US presidential speechwriter, the late William Safire, outlined the components of a perfect political speech as follows: “tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em – then tell ‘em – then tell ‘em what…
The Labor party needs to remember it’s the brand leader.
AAP/Eddie Safarik
Andrew Wilkie is correct when he says that the government needs to sell things better. Developing good policy is not enough in today’s consumer driven world. The government also needs to clearly communicate…
Julia Gillard’s brand was tarnished when she rolled Kevin Rudd.
AAP/Mark Graham
Politics is a tricky business. Being in government is even trickier.
But it should be pretty simple. It’s like any other business, isn’t it? It’s all just marketing. You find out what they want, you tell…
Julia Gillard needs a ‘circuit breaker’ to turn the polls around.
AAP/Andrew Taylor
The Gillard Government just can’t sell its message. That was the view of independent MP Andrew Wilkie speaking on ABC Radio National this week. Recent opinion polls confirm the government has communication…
“Only an election could make an honest politician of this Prime Minister. Only an election can give Australia a government with authority to make the tough decisions needed to build a stronger Australia…
Personal credibility is what convinces voters.
AAP/Alan Porritt
As a boxer Tony Abbott had a limited but effective method described by some as “the whirling dervish”. He was full of energy and on the attack with arms swinging. It was a tactic that could work for the…
Tony Abbott presented an alternate vision instead of an alternative budget.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Tony Abbott has arguably outlined the most important public policy agenda for the next decade (no matter which side of politics forms government over that period).
The major questions will now be: who…
About one in seven households earn more than $150,000.
AAP
Wayne Swan’s budget tightening measures have launched a fierce debate on what constitutes “middle class welfare”. And what income and wealth levels define the middle class.
The Gillard government has…
Balanced response: Tony Abbott’s budget speech should be thoughtful, not just critical.
There is a sublime moment in the first series of The Thick of It, the brilliant British comedy TV series that satirised the inner workings of modern government, where the Minister for Social Affairs and…
Treasurer Wayne Swan supervises journalists examining his budget. His tax plans are a “fiscal illusion”.
AAP/Andrew Taylor
Thinking about tax policy gives individuals the opportunity to devise their own “great society”. As economics laureate James Buchanan explains “Many economists, along with other social scientists and social…
Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard’s budget focused on having Australia live “within its means.”
AAP/Alan Porritt
When looking at the budget it’s useful to remember, in the cold light of day, that politics, at its most fundamental level, is about relationships of power. It is about conflict, both overt and covert…
The government’s targeting of welfare marks a significant policy shift.
AAP
Apart from the reassuring signals to financial markets about the deficit reduction, the longer term significance of this year’s budget is about restructuring the relationship between welfare and work…
The Federal Budget hoopla is largely a symbolic gesture.
AAP
Federal Budget night has become widely held as the most crucial event in Australia’s political calendar.
After all, any statement of how more than $300 billion is going to be raised and a similar amount…
What problems? Wayne Swan meets British Chancellor George Osborne and Belgium’s Finance Minister Didier Reynders at April’s IMF meeting.
AAP
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is set to deliver a tough budget. Julia Gillard remains committed to bringing government back to surplus by 2013.
Budget day is an appropriate moment to ask how the…
Invest early for the best employment outcomes.
AAP
Tonight’s budget will bring major policy announcements directed at improving labour market outcomes for unemployed persons and welfare recipients.
In her speech at the Sydney Institute on April 13, Julia…
If Julia Gillard’s “Malaysian solution” tells us anything, it’s that Tony Abbott’s stop-the-boats mantra has redefined the debate on refugees.
The Prime Minister has previously committed to not doing…
First Minister Alex Salmond has promised to hold a referendum on Scottish independence.
AAP
Australian republicans should watch the Scots. In the Scottish Parliamentary election held on 5 May, the Scottish National Party (SNP) secured an overall majority. Formerly in minority government in Scotland…
PM Julia Gillard says there’s only way the surplus should go.
AAP
“The right thing to do with an economy that is moving towards full capacity and full strength is to deliver a budget surplus.“ – Prime Minister Julia Gillard
In collaboration with
The Drum, The Conversation…
This is a big week for Julia Gillard as she and Treasurer Wayne Swan put the final touches to Tuesday’s Budget. And it’s an equally big week for Helen Westerman, our Business and Economics Editor, as she…
Women are most likely to depend Centrelink payments.
AAP
FEDERAL BUDGET 2011: In recent decades, the budget surplus has become a goal in itself and an obsession for governments.
In the process, we have lost some perspective on what kind of social and economic…
“And then children, we returned the budget to surplus…”
AAP
If pre-budget statements by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan are an accurate guide, this year’s Federal Budget is shaping up as marking a change in the direction of Commonwealth taxing and spending priorities…
Our relationship with China has been marked by misunderstandings and spats.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard returned from her visit to China last month having locked down a series of cooperation agreements between countries – including a $600 million iron ore deal – which many hope…
Lindsay Tanner, a former minister for finance in the Labor Government, today (Monday 2 May) publishes “Sideshow” in which he attacks the media for dumbing down political discussion of democracy. I spoke…
Julias Gillard has raised the issue of human rights with the Chinese.
AAP
Can Prime Minister Julia Gillard lecture China on its human rights record given the many failings observers see in Australia’s own treatment of vulnerable groups?
Australia generally has a good human…
Recent polls have shown a rise in public support for former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd returning to The Lodge. After an appearance on the ABC’s Q&A television show widely seen as possibly preparing…
Mentally ill Australians need help to return to the workforce.
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott today announced $430 million in to boost support mentally ill Australians in the workforce with employment services, research and professional development.
It’s an…
Many jobs can be bad for your health. It’s important for the quality of work to improve before it can be seen as a universal good.
Rafael Cavalcante/Flickr
In a recent speech presented at the Sydney Institute, Julia Gillard reaffirmed her commitment to welfare reform aimed at full employment. This was justified not by the need for the government to cut its…
Public disclosure on benefits of major infrastructure needs to be improved.
AAP
Proposals by Opposition leader Tony Abbott and NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell for greater rigour in evaluating major projects are a step in the right direction when it comes to policy-making on infrastructure…
In her paean to the virtues and benefits of paid work, Prime Minister Julia Gillard fails to acknowledge the complex intersections of paid and unpaid work in social and individual well being.
Good jobs…
Pokies players can lose in excess of $1500 an hour.
AAP
Once ‘un-Australian’ appears in any debate don’t expect rational argument or evidence. Look no further for proof than the advertising blitz by Clubs Australia and the Australian Hotels Association against…
Coalition welfare policy wrongly relies on the flawed Work of the Dole program.
AAP
Tony Abbott’s recently unveiled welfare reform package advocating a range of tough policies to push people into work has been described by Prime Minister Julia Gillard as ‘reheated'.
You might expect…
Australians will need to speak and understand Chinese.
AFP / Philippe Lopez
No amount of AFL passes in the Oval Office during Prime Minister Gillard’s visit to Washington last month could disguise the real issue facing Australia, the US and the rest of the world: the rise of China…
The PM claims the Greens don’t support “mainstream"values.
AAP
Julia Gillard controversially claimed in her recent Whitlam oration that “the Greens will never embrace Labor’s delight at sharing the values of everyday Australians, in our cities, suburbs, towns and…
According to Kevin Rudd cabinet was divided on the ETS.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Last night on the popular interactive current affairs program, Q&A, Kevin Rudd admitted that he isn’t perfect.
Rudd told viewers and studio audience members that he was “wrong” to shelve the Emissions…
Science has long had an uncomfortable relationship with Australian politicians. Indeed, throughout the decade of the Howard government, Australia’s scientists, researchers and higher education folks became…
Don Bradman was the “greatest living Australian”, according to John Howard, and is so central to the country’s history, he features in the citizenship test.
AAP Photo/ Mortlock Library of South Australia
Australia is in danger of forgetting its past. The government is starving history projects of their funding. And we have until Friday to try to stop the total abolition of the crucial Making History…
An election victory is just the start of the Coalition’s “Contract with New South Wales”.
AAP/Dean Lewins
All the signs point to a landslide victory for Barry O’Farrell and the Liberal National coalition tomorrow.
Premier Kristina Keneally’s popularity has plummeted with only 30 per cent of voters satisfied…
Sydney’s Mardi Gras festival featured many campaigners for gay marriage.
AAP/Greg Wood
Australia used to be one of the most tolerant places in the world. In the 1980s when the spectre of HIV and AIDS reached around the globe, the government funded campaigns to raise awareness of the virus…
Many of the nation’s most pressing problems cannot be met by any one government acting alone. Reforms to health, the environment, education, Indigenous disadvantage, taxation, business regulation and water…
Even as debate rages on how the Federal Government will legislate the Minerals Resource Rent Tax, it seems that as so often happens in politics, what is old is new again.
Almost 23 years ago, off-shore…
