As the Liberals went into this election, there was some nervousness about which Tony Abbott would be on show during the campaign.
Protesters were back on the streets demanding penalty rates be left alone when the Coalition government asked the Productivity Commission to look at workplace relations last year.
AAP/Angus Livingston
Cutting penalty rates can be a vote-changer and the looming Fair Work Commission decision is tricky for both sides of politics. So what cards do the parties hold and how might they play them?
Labor’s strategy is to portray Bill Shorten as a caring politician, in contrast to an out-of-touch Malcolm Turnbull.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
History suggests Labor should be more concerned than it currently appears to be about the effects of its populist rhetoric in mobilising opposition from business.
In the Sunday debate, Malcolm Turnbull assumed a loftier pitch while Bill Shorten aimed more directly at ordinary people.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
Sunday night’s leaders debate was a disappointment. Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten were over-rehearsed; the content was old ground; the spontaneity was minimal. When a question was too hard they simply…
Who took the points in the first leaders’ debate of the 2016 campaign?
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
Mark Textor, the Liberal pollster, has raged against the modern addiction to polls, in an article this week that shows he can indeed walk both sides of the street, as insider and observer.
Finally, Clive Palmer has formally put a full stop to his personal political career, announcing on Monday he won’t be running for the Senate. Palmer United Party (PUP) will still field Senate candidates…
There is little evidence that support for multiculturalism is directly tied to support for particular levels of immigration.
AAP/Dean Lewins
Labor has retained its 51-49% lead over the government in the latest Newspoll, which shows Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten now level in their net satisfaction ratings.
Malcolm Turnbull tours Josef Chromy wines in the seat of Bass in Launceston on Friday.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The start of the election campaign has not shifted the two-party vote, with the Coalition continuing to lead Labor 51-49% in the Fairfax Ipsos poll published on Saturday.
AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin said the government was only informed when raids relating to leaks about the NBN had started.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin has defended police raids at the Melbourne office of Labor’s deputy Senate leader Stephen Conroy and the home of an ALP staffer.
Bill Shorten takes the ubiquitous selfie with the media on the campaign bus.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
If the way voters interact with the leaders’ Facebook pages is any indication, social media is not having the impact on the campaign that it is assumed to have.
Malcolm Turnbull’s Howard-not-so-lite approach will upset many in the migrant community, and in the so-called ‘doctors’ wives’ areas.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Anticipation is core business for political strategists. Last year Bill Shorten and those around him correctly judged Labor was electorally exposed on border protection.
A review of studies examining the economic impact of refugees in Australia found no evidence they impose a net cost in the long term.
EPA/Dedi Sinuhaji
If Malcolm Turnbull is returned he should tip Peter Dutton out of the immigration portfolio when he chooses his new ministry. Dutton’s Tuesday comments, when targeting the Greens proposal for a big increase…
Voters don’t really know Shorten and want the ‘old’ Turnbull back.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
While the Coalition accusingly targets Labor for “class war” politics, Tuesday’s Essential poll reinforces the fact that Australians think there are classes and tag themselves and political parties to…
Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten showed they differ on a number of policy positions, but both kept the tone of the debate civil and free from “gotcha"s and gaffes.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Sky TV’s people’s forum on the evening of last Friday gave us something refreshingly different from recent federal election campaigns: a civil discourse between the two main political leaders. Perhaps…