The Conversation

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

Politics, not economics may be at the heart of Abbott’s Japan focus

Jane Golley, Australian National University

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 would…

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser is ‘uneasy’ about Liberal leader Tony Abbott because he is unpredictable. AAP

Malcolm Fraser: ‘we have lost our way’

Robyn Eckersley, The University of Melbourne

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…

Party activists may be passionate, but they’re dwindling in number. AAP/Dean Lewins

Losing the faith: Can political parties recapture the public imagination?

Trevor Cook, University of Sydney

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…

Action-man Abbott bonding with the working man AAP.

Reith’s wrong: exhuming WorkChoices would be a grave mistake

Carol Johnson, University of Adelaide

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…

Peter Reith votes in the Liberal Federal presidency election. AAP

Back to the future with Peter Reith

Rae Cooper, University of Sydney

I have some very fond memories of the mid 1980s. The fluoro shirts, the feathered haircuts, dancing to Wham! at the local blue light disco. But this week I’m having a disturbing ‘80s industrial relations…

Tony Abbott changed allegiance to Alan Stockdale just before the vote. AAP/Alan Porritt

Don’t go changing: Stockdale still president as Liberals go for status quo

Zareh Ghazarian, Monash University

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…