Opposition leader Tony Abbott plans to move a motion of no confidence in the government – but he faces constitutional and conventional hurdles in his attempts to hold an early election.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has confirmed he plans to move a motion of no confidence against Julia Gillard’s government in the next two parliamentary sitting weeks.
But in the event a no confidence…
Defence minister Stephen Smith, prime minister Julia Gillard and Commander of Defence Forces David Hurley at the launch of the Defence White Paper.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Australia’s new Defence White Paper reflects a revolution in the way in which Australia thinks about its strategic geography.
The “Indo-Pacific” has now decisively displaced the “Asia-Pacific” as defence…
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…
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the real world current Prime Minister of Denmark, has said that TV drama Borgen has been good for Danish politics.
EPA/Rungroj Yongrit
Anyone in Australia who has struggled with the political repercussions of a federal minority government should spare a thought for the Danes: they operate in a parliamentary system where minority government…
Will free-marketeers like the IPA be disappointed by an Abbott government?
AAP/Lukas Coch
In August 2012 the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), which bills itself as “Australia’s leading free market think tank,” urged opposition leader Tony Abbott to “be like Gough” in the IPA Review, proposing…
Labor has traditionally had a strong support among female voters, but this could be set to change in 2013.
AAP/Lukas Coch
A “gender dimension” now envelopes national politics unlike anything we have observed in the past. Julia Gillard’s popular but arguably unfair accusation that opposition leader Tony Abbott is a misogynist…
Mark Dreyfus has put forward a new bill to protect whistlerblowers, but it falls short in several areas.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Australia has been fortunate enough to see mostly honest governments. We’ve experienced neither the corruption of 1950s Italy nor the tyranny of 1970s Brazil. We are not, however, without our issues: give…
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…
After Conroy’s media reforms failed to find any standing, where does media regulation go from here?
AAP/Alan Porritt
To get an idea of how big an opportunity the federal government missed with its shambolic attempt at media reform, consider this: the last federal minister to achieve any substantive reform of media self…
Are leadership battles in Australian politics a sign of party difference or unity? Or is it something altogether different?
AAP/Lukas Coch
In a scene in the famous 90s sitcom Seinfeld, George describes to Jerry an idea for a show about nothing. After the events of the last days and weeks in federal and state politics, we can ask whether Australian…
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…
The election is Tony Abbott’s to lose. But will weakness with many female voters cost him and will his record come to haunt him on issues like abortion?
AAP/Lukas Coch
Tony Abbott is trying to improve his image with many women. But as I found out when I met him recently, no makeover can erase his track record of public statements and actions, especially on issues of…
The ongoing leadership tensions inside the Labor government are only damaging the party’s long term health.
AAP/Julian Smith
There’s something a little thrilling about a bit of leadership biffo. However, when such talk shows little sign of abatement, as it has in respect to Gillard’s leadership of the ALP, then the thrill factor…
Has Ted Baillieu joined Kevin Rudd in the list of Australian political leaders defenestrated by their own side?
AAP/Alan Porritt
The current wars being waged in Australian electoral politics tend to be over what rights are left to Australian voters regarding their leaders.
The ambush of Kevin Rudd by supporters of the current Prime…
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…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Health Minister Tanya Plibersek during Question Time at Parliament House in 2012.
Penny Bradfield/AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Health Minister Tanya Plibersek have announced they will return health payments to Victoria that had previously been cut from its allocation under the National Health Reform…
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…
We need to reduce waste and inefficiency in the health system.
Image from shutterstock.com
The latest round of the health blame game is in full swing, with service cuts to Victorian hospitals, and neither the state nor federal government taking responsibility. Commonwealth and Victorian health…
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…
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…
The Commonwealth and Victorian governments blame each other for hospital budget cuts.
Image from shutterstock.com
As Victorian hospitals have announced bed closures, job losses and elective surgery delays over the past six weeks, cuts to health service budgets look set to significantly affect patient care in the state…
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange wants to establish a political party and run for the Senate, but his success will depend on preference deals.
AAP
Julian Assange has confirmed he intends to have a more “hands-on” influence in the political realm by forming a new WikiLeaks party.
The WikiLeaks founder flagged his desire to stand for the Senate earlier…
Federal member for Fremantle Melissa Parke has attracted a national profile with her left wing views in recent years.
Office of Melissa Parke MP
Labor’s Melissa Parke probably won’t be too popular with rightwing powerbrokers like Paul Howes with her view that the Greens are a fellow progressive party rather than an insidious enemy to be confronted…
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…
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…
Maxine McKew arrives to vote in the 2010 federal election.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
The Rudd government came to power in 2007 with the reforming zeal of Gough Whitlam’s team more than three decades before, but was ultimately betrayed by a self-serving and brutal ALP machine according…
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…
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…
Broadcaster Alan Jones has been embroiled in a controversy over remarks he made on Julia Gillard’s late father.
AAP/Warren Clarke
The interesting part about this weekend’s kerfuffle over Alan Jones’ comments about the late John Gillard is not what Jones said.
After all, we’ve known about his combative – some would say offensive…
Is Tony Abbott’s blokey personality at risk of costing him votes among women?
AAP
The Labor government appears to have a spring in its step. After months of poor polls and difficulty passing legislation, things now seem to be going Labor’s way. In recent weeks, the government has been…
Crossbenchers Tony Windsor and Rob Oakleshott arrive at a press conference on asylum seekers.
AAP/Alan Porrit
It is fair to say that, in the eyes of the Australian public at least, the view of our politicians is currently at a very low ebb.
The tone of the Australian Parliament is at its most toxic for a generation…
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…
Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella has been criticised for her failure to respond when GetUp director Simon Sheikh collapsed on Q+A.
ABC Television
By 9AM yesterday I’d been called a Sophie Mirabella apologist. Of all the very many slurs I’ve ever been subjected to, that one came as one hell of a surprise. And I just thought I was defending every…
Promises are easy to make, but will Abbott be able to deliver?
AAP
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has given Australians a “blood oath” promise that if the Coalition wins power at the next election, he will repeal the carbon tax within his first month in office.
But is…
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…
Does Labor have a future after Julia Gillard?
AAP/Alan Porrit
Every day seems to be the worst day for the Gillard government. With an opposition that has refined negativity into a stilleto, it seems that nearly everything the government attempts backfires, leaving…
Campbell Newman, Barry O'Farrell and Julia Gillard enjoy a laugh at last week’s COAG meeting.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The rituals before a Council of Australian Governments meeting tend to outweigh the substance and outcomes from the meeting.
By playing the parochial card before the meeting, state premiers sell themselves…
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…
