Malcolm Turnbull’s immediate blaming of Labor’s ‘Mediscare’ campaign for the Coalition’s poor performance at the polls goes in fact to his real problem: he’s not a very talented politician.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Liberal Party – Analysis and Comment
The federal election result is on a knife-edge, with the outcome between a majority Turnbull government and a hung parliament.
With this election likely to produce a high number of non-major-party primary votes, the Greens have emerged as a strong third option and a headache for both Labor and the Coalition.
Has the Coalition invested an average of $5 billion per year more than Labor into Medicare?
Liberal higher education policy is obscure; perhaps deliberately so. But the conclusion is clear. Unless students are required to pay significantly more, universities will face major cuts.
Was Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen right to say that the Coalition presided over the most sustained fall in our living standards since records began?
As the Liberals went into this election, there was some nervousness about which Tony Abbott would be on show during the campaign.
Who are the major donors to Australia’s big political parties? And what are the rules around disclosure at state and federal level?
The decline in Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity and the increasingly explicit critiques of his leadership have raised the question of whether the Liberal Party has a unifying ideology.
What does the latest donations scandal enveloping the NSW Liberal Party say about the trajectory of political finance regulation and enforcement?
The damaging polarisation around queer issues in Australian politics is out of step with community sentiment.
With internal party ructions and an unco-operative Senate to manage, Malcolm Turnbull needs a convincing election win to be able to govern as he wants to.
Liberal MP Dennis Jensen’s comments about the ‘noble savage’ lifestyle tap into a centuries-old stereotype about Indigenous people.
Ultra-conservatism has a rich and complex history within Australian parties, and Malcolm Turnbull has the difficult task of balancing the more extreme elements of his party with his own liberal views.
The next human rights commissioner needs to be appointed at arm’s length from government and with the ability to criticise government where required.
The risks posed by deregulating the vocational education and training sector have serious impacts for large sections of the labour market.
A vote on whether same-sex couples can get married is discriminatory because it applies a standard to them that does not apply to heterosexual couples.
Funding is one of the few areas Labor has left to distinguish itself from the Coalition when it comes to school policy at the national level.
Labor has announced it will commit to fully funding Gonski, with a reform package costing $37.3 billion over the next decade.
But is this actually what the Gonski review recommended?
Former Howard government minister Peter Reith talks about the current challenges facing the Turnbull government.
Arthur Sinodinos, a key backer of Malcolm Turnbull, talks about why the Liberals needed a change in leadership and what he hopes will change in the running of the Prime Minister's Office.
From Hawke-Keating to Rudd-Gillard, climate policy has an uncanny ability to cost Australian political leaders their jobs. And it was a key element in the rivalry between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
Malcolm Turnbull’s problem is that he often seems to be slightly ahead of the times – and that he can’t always take either his party room or the public with him.
The Conversation’s experts react to Malcolm Turnbull’s defeat of Tony Abbott in a ballot for the Liberal Party leadership.
Every generation in the last 150 years has seen in Australia a contest over marriage which reflects shifting positions on its defining features, and its associated rights and obligations.