The government has made another retreat on its backpacker tax, dropping its proposed rate from 19% to 15% in a deal that will get through the Senate crossbench.
Malcolm Turnbull goes into this final parliamentary week of the year in need of compromises on both the ABCC legislation and the tax rate for backpackers.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Nick Xenophon has told constituents he is still considering how to vote on the government’s bill for a lifetime ban on visiting Australia for anyone sent to Nauru or Manus Island after mid-2013.
Christopher Pyne, Malcolm Turnbull and Steven Marshall have all spoken out on renewables in South Australia.
Ben Macmahon/AAP
Malcolm Turnbull has seized on the massive South Australian power failure to condemn Labor states for aggressive attitudes to renewables and call for a nationwide target.
Sports betting in Australia has been growing rapidly in recent years – all that advertising seems to be paying off.
AAP/Julian Smith
Nick Xenophon wants to crack down on first-person shooter games, which he claims are a form of gambling. But his stance oversimplifies the way these games are played.
Protectionism is popular again.
Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters
Five crossbench members of the House of Representatives will take their seats in the 45th parliament, including Bob Katter, Andrew Wilkie, and the Nick Xenophon Team’s Rebekha Sharkie.
Lucas Coch/AAP
After counting into the early hours of Sunday morning, the Australian Electoral Commission currently has Labor leading in 72 of the 150 seats, with the Coalition ahead in 66.
The poker machine industry is a business with a lot at stake – about $11 billion a year, in fact.
AAP/Paul Jeffers
Polls suggest that Nick Xenophon’s team will win a bag of Senate seats. Along with a re-elected Andrew Wilkie, and the Greens, will there be enthusiasm for gambling reform in the next parliament?
South Australia is proving to be a key point of interest for the electoral contest – not least because of the rise of Nick Xenophon’s new party.
AAP/Julian Smith
Most voters suspect that whoever wins government, they will soon declare that “the economy is not as strong as we had hoped or been led to believe” – and that promises will need to be broken.
Malcolm Turnbull said he had made a call against preferencing the Greens in the national interest.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Labor is heaving a sigh of relief after Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement that the Liberals will put the Greens below Labor everywhere. In particular, the embattled Labor MP for Batman, David Feeney, under…
This week, The Conversation followed Nick Xenophon to his home state of South Australia, where the party formed in his name looks set to be the big winnner at this election.