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 of…
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 course…
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…