Voters don’t really know Shorten and want the ‘old’ Turnbull back.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
All three leaders are yet to reveal their skills, attitudes, values and personalities to the electorate.
A scene from Heathers the Musical based on the 1988 film.
Kurt Sneddon
Eighties culture is big, from nostalgic TV dramas to tours by ageing pop stars. But it’s time for a clear-eyed assessment of the decade, which prized excess and economic rationalism along with synth pop and big hair.
If a funding promise is later “unpromised”, does that constitute a cut?
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Among Labor’s most popular refrains is the claim that the government has cut $80 billion from schools and hospitals. Is it true?
ACOSS has called for a boost to Newstart payments.
AAP/Julian Smith
ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie said that the level of unemployment payment hasn’t been increased in Australia in over 20 years. Is that true?
Energy efficiency projects could receive more subsidies if Direct Action is continued.
David González Romero/Flickr
Direct Action is the centrepiece of Australia’s climate action – but it may not be working as well as the government hopes.
Dan Peled/AAP
Uluru’s traditional owners have asked for decades that tourists not climb their sacred site. Parks Australia has committed to closing the climb – but only when some ambitious goals have been met.
Is rejecting a proposed tax cut the same as a tax increase?
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Is Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull right to say that Labor plans to increase taxes by A$100 billion over ten years?
Duncan Storrar is the man of the moment.
Source: ABC website
Chris Bowen’s budget response set the framework for this campaign - now for the detail.
Reuters/David Gray
We count unemployment and economic indicators in the budget, so why not environmental ones?
Both the Coalition and the ALP have committed to raising tobacco excise by 12.5% a year for four years, starting on September 1, 2017.
AAP/Lukas Coch
FactCheck unpacks claims that Labor has a $19.5 billion black hole in its economic plan.
Clearing in Queensland.
Kerry Trapnell/The Wilderness Society
Back and forth over land-clearing laws has left landowners confused and native forests vulnerable.
Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull will be working hard to prevent the kind of errors and complacency that have tripped up leaders before them.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The recent history of elections in Australia is a varied one, with some spectacular crashes and own goals along the way.
Despite increases in some areas, Australia’s tree cover is at its lowest level in 40 years.
Tree image from David Lade www.shutterstock.com
After some unusually wet years, our landscape and ecosystems have once again returned to poorer conditions that were last experienced during the Millennium Drought.
Australia’s 2016 aid budget contains a further $224 million cut.
AAP
On every measure of generosity there is, Australia’s foreign aid ranking is falling behind that of other advanced countries.
Multiple, sometimes conflicting, objectives.
AAP/Sam Mooy
While the key Budget slogan is “jobs and growth”, there’s no detail on how and from where.
What’s in the Turnbull government’s first budget for cities, defence, social services, the ABC and more?
AAP/Lukas Coch
May 3, 2016
Natalie Mast , The University of Western Australia ; Andrew Dodd , Swinburne University of Technology ; Carolyn Whitzman , The University of Melbourne ; Daniel Baldino , University of Notre Dame Australia ; Jago Dodson , RMIT University ; Janine O'Flynn , The University of Melbourne ; Kate Fitz-Gibbon , Monash University ; Matthew Beck , University of Sydney ; Merlin Crossley , UNSW Sydney ; Peter Whiteford , Australian National University ; Susan Harris Rimmer , Griffith University , and Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas , The University of Melbourne
On reform, the 2016-17 budget is a holding one, with tinkering on the sides.
This year’s federal budget will be a tricky affair for government and opposition.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The impending election will mean a lot of spin and little substance from both sides of government in this year’s federal budget.
Dead river red gums line a dry creek west of Mildura.
Gillis Horner
We’ll have to get our priorities in order to protect Australia’s wildlife.
The investment risk from climate change is larger than the sub-prime collapse.
Reuters/Joshua Lott
This risk of climate-exposed investments dwarfs that of the sub-prime crisis.
The DCNS Shortfin Barracuda is a large submarine, but that might suit our needs.
AAP/DCNS Group
Submarines possess a number of unique capabilities that make them ideal to protect Australia’s interests.