The government this week introduced a bill that aims to put a stop to secret agreements between employers and unions without the knowledge of union members.
Malcolm Turnbull and Michaelia Cash challenged Bill Shorten to support the government’s legislation.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The government has announced legislation to ban secret payments between employers and unions.
The choice of Kimberley Kitching to replace former Victorian senator Stephen Conroy was controversial within Labor, dividing the right faction.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The Senate has voted 35-21 to note that its newest member, Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, was found to have provided untruthful evidence to the Fair Work Commission.
The government argues its industrial relations bills are necessary to deal with widespread corruption uncovered by the trade union royal commission.
AAP/Joel Carrett
Malcolm Turnbull argues it is so vital to revive a tough watchdog in the construction industry that there will be a double dissolution if the Senate refuses to agree. Critics such as Queensland independent…
In the first Politics Podcast for 2016, Michelle Grattan and Tony Burke discuss the challenging gap between government revenue and spending.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with US Pacific Commander Admiral Harry Harris during a visit to Pearl Harbour, Hawaii on his way home.
Sahlan Hayes/PMO
Bill Shorten can heave a sigh of relief at the statement from the royal commission into union corruption that he didn’t do anything illegal in the activities it examined in his Australian Workers’ Union…
Sam Dastyari unleashes with Michelle Grattan in Canberra’s Muse wine bar and bookstore.
In The Conversation's first live podcast, Sam Dastyari gives a candid insight into Labor's strategy to win back government, the threat of the Greens and much more.
Labor says it will move a motion in the Senate this week for a message to be sent to the Governor-General, requesting he dismiss Dyson Heydon as royal commissioner.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Given the Governor-General usually acts on the advice of the government and its ministers, an address from the Senate on Dyson Heydon is unlikely to have any effect.
Trade union royal commissioner Dyson Heydon refused to find that he was affected by apprehended bias.
AAP/Joel Carrett
There are inherent shortcomings in a procedure that asks judges to make objective and rational assessments about how their own conduct, relationships or interests might appear to others
Applications from trade unions failed to convince Dyson Heydon to disqualify himself as royal commissioner.
AAP/Joel Carrett
Dyson Heydon didn’t accept that merely agreeing to give the Sir Garfield Barwick lecture could create an appearance of bias. Judges and royal commissioners are allowed to have political views, he said.
Commissioner Dyson Heydon during a hearing of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption in August.
AAP Image/Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption
Dyson Heydon has dismissed the unions’ application that he quit the royal commission into trade union corruption on the ground of “apprehended bias”.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks with a child after laying a wreath on Eddie Mabo’s grave on Mer Island in the Torres Strait on Monday.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
I think it is a bit out of control and I think it’s important … not just to talk about tighter management … but actually do it. Tony Abbott would have been absolutely right – if he had been speaking about…
The application for royal commissioner Dyson Heydon to quit follows his acceptance of a invitation to deliver the Garfield Barwick address.
Joel Carrett/AAP
Dyson Heydon is set to announce on Tuesday his decision about his future as the royal commissioner investigating trade union corruption.
Dyson Heydon prided himself throughout his judicial career on the robust independence and intellectual integrity he brought to the role.
AAP/Renee Nowytarger
How has a former judge with an avowed commitment to judicial independence and probity found himself at the centre of a very public controversy over his own impartiality?