With animal welfare issues routinely handled by Senate committees with strong links to agriculture, how can we ensure that those outside the industry are being properly listened to?
Control of preferences for electing the Senate has switched almost entirely to the party organisations.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The polling sends a strong message: Malcolm Turnbull starts his prime ministership with people wanting to think the best of him. Essential has found people believe Turnbull is intelligent (81%), hardworking…
‘Not the best person to liaise with us’: senator David Leyonhjelm on new government Senate leader George Brandis.
Lukas Coch/AAP
An important element in the success of Malcolm Turnbull’s government will be how effectively it handles the Senate. Some crossbench senators have greeted the arrival of Turnbull enthusiastically, contrasting…
Labor says it will move a motion in the Senate this week for a message to be sent to the Governor-General, requesting he dismiss Dyson Heydon as royal commissioner.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Given the Governor-General usually acts on the advice of the government and its ministers, an address from the Senate on Dyson Heydon is unlikely to have any effect.
The NSA has eyes and ears around the globe.
Mike Herbst
US intelligence agencies can no longer collect and store the telecommunications data of US citizens but other countries are strengthening their efforts.
Senator Matt Canavan is leading a backbench push to stand up for stay-at-home parents.
AAP/Alan Porritt
With the budget squarely targeted at getting more mothers into work or working extra hours, a group of Coalition backbenchers is forming to fight for the interests of stay-at-home parents.
Nevada Democratic Senator Harry Reid has announced his retirement.
REUTERS/Jason Reed
In his long career, retiring Senator Harry Reid earned the grudging respect if not admiration of his worst political enemies.
Because their votes may be open to negotiation, crossbench senators often have the final say on the form, and passage, of legislation.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Instead of treating crossbenchers in parliament as a source of chaos and an aberration, we should recognise that they play a crucial role in shaping legislation as the constitution provides.
Stephen Parker and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including the recent chatter of a double dissolution, what would happen to crossbenchers if it did happen and three Nationals crossing the floor in the Senate.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said that he still expected to return the budget to balance in about five years.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Tony Abbott is making a particular hash of his messaging this week. The prime minister – and some other senior ministers too (think Treasurer Joe Hockey) – often throws out lines seemingly without much…
The letter’s author - freshman Senator Tom Cotton - fitting right in
Larry Downing/Reuters
This week’s open declaration of hostility by 47 Republican senators to any US agreement with Iran has generated much handwringing about the state of American domestic politics. The tone and manner of their…
Republicans in Congress sent an open letter to Iranian leaders warning them that any agreement with President Obama could be jettisoned by the next president.
RREUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Embarrassingly, the Senators’ letter betrays a surprising amount of ignorance about the US constitutional system.
The cross-bench senators may call to mind Paul Keating’s charge of ‘unrepresentative swill’, but they also reflect and respond to the 21st-century world in ways that the major parties can’t.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Senate is not a root cause, but part of a long list of symptoms that indicate Australia’s political system is increasingly unfit for purpose in the 21st century.
How well this lot can get along may depend most on the growing group of politicians hoping to sit in the president’s chair in two years.
Reuters
Given the contentiousness of recent fiscal negotiations, the prelude to the budget passed by the Senate last month was surprisingly placid. Will a uniquely unproductive Congress be followed by a more conciliatory…
“We cannot again allow history to be forgotten”
Handout/Reuters
At the end of a long and challenging week, the famous aphorism, “we have met the enemy and he is us” readily comes to mind. The issuance of the long awaited Senate “torture report” has set off a debate…
Parties who gained a very small first preference vote look set to be elected to Victoria’s upper house.
AAP/Luis Enrique Ascui
The final count for Victoria’s Legislative Council is still some days away, but it appears members elected from micro-parties will hold the balance of power in the upper house. This will be a challenge…
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback was re-elected despite a tight fight over his tax cuts and resulting deficit, which were revealed to be worse than expected just days after the election.
Reuters
Republican gains in this month’s election, which handed the GOP united control of Congress for the first time since 2006, have lifted hopes that the government can pass corporate tax reform next year…
Harry Reid, the man behind the “nuclear option.”
reuters/Kevin Lamarque
Nearly a year ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulled the trigger on a parliamentary maneuver many have labeled the “nuclear option.” Democrats were able to change the way Senate Rule XXII, which…