Malcolm Turnbull’s move to have the governor-general recall parliament, using an often-forgotten constitutional power, caught many political players off guard.
The conventional wisdom is that Bob Hawke’s 1984 election was too long and almost disastrous, and therefore not to be repeated. But the times are very different now.
Malcolm Turnbull’s ultimatum to the Senate – pass the government’s industrial relations bills or face a double dissolution – is a confrontationist but canny strategy.
In a dramatic move, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has had the governor-general recall parliament for a special session to consider industrial relations legislation.
Ricky Muir from the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party this week made an unsuccessful last roll of the dice to try to delay the government's Senate voting reform legislation.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has said Labor would not support an early recall of the Senate, further complicating the situation if the government wants to call a double dissolution.
Politics has its own purgatory, as Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott might have reflected when they sat on the same table at the Howard government’s 20th anniversary dinner on Wednesday.
As parliament returned this week, the government was rattled by a GST debate that had run wild, agitating backbenchers and causing the government to pause.
At the start of a frenetic year for independent Nick Xenophon, the South Australian senator says his new national political party, the Nick Xenophon Team, will fill a vacuum.
A Labor government would crack down on employers who exploit workers with harsher penalties and other measures, opposition leader Bill Shorten has promised.
Recent investigations into the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) by the ABC and Fairfax have revealed relationships between rogue union officials, underworld figures and outlaw motorcycle…
The Abbott Government is this year preparing to revive the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) after it was renamed and stripped of many of its powers by the Gillard Government in 2012…