Michael Courts, La Conversation et Amanda Dunn, La Conversation
2017 has felt like a chaotic year in Australian politics, and one in which policy progress has been swamped by other distractions. We can only hope that 2018 is calmer and more productive.
The Bennelong byelection result will boost Malcolm Turnbull’s standing in the Coalition.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The appointment of Western Australia’s first minister for Asian engagement shows the new state government understands how deeply embedded the state’s interests are in the Asian neighbourhood.
For the national narrative, perhaps the most notable story out of the Western Australian election revolves around Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Turnbull. Despite the backlash from WA Liberal voters over the…
Former navy lawyer Mark McGowan is set to become the new premier of Western Australia.
AAP/Dan Peled
The University of Canberra’s Frances Shannon and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics
The paradox of Pauline Hanson’s campaign is that she is greeted as a celebrity on the streets, while members of her party have been turning on her bitterly.
Dan Peled/AAP
The end of the mining boom has hit many people in Western Australia hard, and this has flowed strongly into the election. Debt and deficit are besetting the state budget.
Protesters gather against the Roe 8 highway extension in Perth.
AAP Image/Bohdan Warchomij
In the first of three Conversation podcasts on the WA election, we talk to Natalie Mast at the University of Western Australia, Premier Colin Barnett and ABC election analyst Antony Green.
The odds are against Colin Barnett still being WA premier after March 11.
AAP/Rebecca Le May
Alert readers in the eastern states may have heard that their neglected cousins in the West are about to go to the polls. So what, I hear you say. It won’t make much difference at the national level, and…
Whatever the status of the speculation, it would be a very bad idea for Malcolm Turnbull to despatch George Brandis to London.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Malcolm Turnbull will overfly Western Australia twice next week, when he makes a brief dash to Indonesia to attend a conference of Indian Ocean Rim leaders.
A polarising election issue in Western Australia, the Roe 8 project illustrates the need for better and more democratic decision-making.
Gregory Roberts/AAP
One reason Perth’s Roe 8 project is the subject of passionate protests is that it’s a case of a government asserting power over people rather than exercising power with local communities.
Fencing goes up along the route of the Roe 8 highway construction project in Perth.
Richard Wainwright/AAP
While the Liberals’ decision to preference One Nation on how-to-vote cards might be expedient in the short term, it could seriously cost them if they are returned to power.
Federally, the Liberals are running the line that Pauline Hanson and her party are different these days.
Sarah Motherwell/AAP