It is difficult to capture just how important a royal commission with this focus is. For too long, family violence has taken, threatened and pervaded the lives of so many in the Victorian community.
The disclosure of the full business case for the East West road link in Melbourne confirmed what many had suspected – the project is a dud. The release also unequivocally shows that the Victorian Freedom…
Matthew Guy has been chosen to lead the Liberal Party in Victoria as it returns to opposition after just one term in government. Guy, who was planning minister in the Napthine government, defeated former…
After Daniel Andrews and Labor’s decisive victory in the Victorian state election at the weekend, there has been – not unexpectedly – a welter of post-election opinion trying to account for the rather…
The Accountability Round Table (ART), a non-partisan organisation, wrote to the three major political parties two months ago seeking their position on three important arms of Victoria’s integrity system…
The Victorian election is just days away and the campaigning is reaching a final crescendo. Both the Labor and Liberal parties are saturating the local airwaves with advertisements. All of the polls point…
Less than a week out from Victoria’s state election, both major parties have been largely silent on environmental policy. Neither the Coalition nor Labor has released comprehensive documents. It also seems…
Anyone in search of a prime example of the dictum that a functioning democracy is nothing short of a minor miracle need look no further than the state of Victoria. In the past 15 years, what has been the…
It appears that there’s never been a better time to be a minor party in Australia. From a time when parliaments were the domain of only the major parties, small parties have gradually made inroads into…
Victorian premier Denis Napthine has tabled a motion that would expel independent MP Geoff Shaw from parliament merely for the apparent insincerity of his apology rather than his reprehensible misuse of…
Victorians will head to the polls in exactly three months to elect their new state government. Like New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, Victoria has fixed parliamentary terms. Since…
The Victorian government’s introduction of the Sentencing Amendment (Coward’s Punch Manslaughter and Other Matters) Bill 2014 this week has again sparked debate about the deterrence value and general utility…
It is a sad day when senior political figures steal a journalist’s recording device and destroy its contents, as we have been told happened at this year’s Victorian Labor Party conference. But it is an…
In today’s politics, few governments are ever safe. Even freshly minted administrations now age at an incredible speed. The most casual observer will know how much trouble the Abbott government finds itself…
Victorian attorney-general Robert Clark today introduced a bill into parliament that repeals the offence of defensive homicide. The bill signifies a significant step forward in ensuring just responses…
After months of uncertainty, it appears that the Victorian parliament may have resolved the political crisis that had threatened to consume the government. The passing last night of a motion to suspend…
Independent MP Geoff Shaw should be grateful the opposition is only proposing to expel him from Victorian state parliament. It could be worse. Victoria’s Legislative Assembly still has the power to lock…
After a night of political uncertainty, the Victorian Labor opposition has indicated it will move to have ex-Liberal MP Geoff Shaw expelled from parliament instead of accepting his offer of support for…
The political crisis confronting the Victorian parliament is both curious and concerning. Since Denis Napthine took over as Victorian premier 15 months ago, the issue has steadily developed into an entirely…
Speaker Ken Smith has lost control of the Victorian parliament and the legislative agenda of premier Denis Napthine has ground to a halt. In an extraordinary move, Smith decided to shut down the Legislative…