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“Monitory democracy” refers to the extra-parliamentary, para-legal, post-bureaucratic institutions of scrutiny that emerged as recently as the 1970s in Australia. Their evolution has swept us along in…
Despite its temporary income tax levy and the reintroduction of petrol excise indexation, Treasurer Joe Hockey’s first budget will reduce taxes by $5.7 billion in 2014-15. As it braces itself for a political…
The government is banking on the hope that eventually voters will be pleased enough about its performance to forget their anger about the broken promises in its first budget. It figures that comes judgement…
Amid the fractious political debate that dominates Canberra, there is suddenly a note of bipartisanship. The major parties want to stop the proliferation and success of “micro” parties, and now they’ve…
Sweeping changes to the electoral law to crack down on micro parties “gaming” the system to win Senate seats appear certain after unanimous recommendations from a parliamentary committee. The radical reforms…
In this edition of The Week in Politics, University of Canberra Vice Chancellor Stephen Parker is in discussion with Michelle Grattan about the upcoming Federal budget, the excise on petrol, broken pledges…
Every few months, the same question about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is posed in the media - is it real? The latest example comes from leading American neuroscientist, Dr Bruce Perry…
The Abbott government is about to unveil a new A$10 billion infrastructure package in its first budget. Apparently it is to be funded by a “special immediate measure” in the form of a levy imposed on high-income…
Now we learn that Tony Abbott’s pledge not to raise taxes will be broken on a second front. Tuesday’s budget will bring back the indexation of petrol excise. The measure won’t yield much revenue in its…
Former Treasurer Wayne Swan has accused the Abbott government and Commission of Audit head Tony Shepherd of “trashing” Australia’s record internationally “for base political motives”. In a bitter attack…
About to break trust with the voters, the government has brazenly decided to appeal to the public to “trust” it. Is someone trying to channel John Howard from the 2004 election when, accused of being untrustworthy…
Australia’s Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, has called on company chief executives to speak out in the public debate about climate change. Chubb said corporate managers and investors knew that climate change…
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann today has effectively confirmed the budget will contain a tax levy on high-income earners and appealed to Australians to “trust” the government. Cormann said the government…
“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold 'em”, and Tony Abbott would be showing some political nous if he folded his tax levy now. Newspoll in Tuesday’s Australian shows how a hashed pre-budget…
Senior Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch says the Commission of Audit has “frightened the bejeezus” out of old people and warned that the government’s proposed deficit tax levy will hit the government’s…
The Education Minister has asked us all to contribute to a public consultation on how to get quality teachers in front of our children. But what does ‘quality teacher’ mean? We can crowdsource a national…
As the 2014-15 budget nears, Australians are hearing that the government must mount an urgent repair job to address the looming structural crisis that will see the budget in deficit for decades to come…
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has proposed a drastic change in the rules covering political donations. Pyne on Sunday said organisations – including trade unions and corporations - should be banned…
As the government hosed down both expectations and alarm over the Audit Commission’s more radical recommendations, Treasurer Joe Hockey announced that on the pension age, the budget will be bolder than…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cancelled plans to fly to Bali early next week to meet Indonesian premier Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The visit had been at the President’s invitation and would have been their…