The Liberal Party is increasingly preselecting parliamentarians of firm, values-based ideas, leading to a more ideological and riven party.
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The normal rules of political engagement – coherence, consistency, fact, logic, proportion – do not apply to members of the paranoid right like Pauline Hanson.
US presidents over the past 25 years have had varying views of the alliance with Australia. While none have questioned its value, commitment has not been even across the board.
There can be no doubt that Australia became modern between 1949 and 1966, the year Robert Menzies retired as prime minister.
The history of foreign investment in land and real estate shows the global movement of people and capital is closely linked to the prevailing geopolitics.
In office, to what extent has New South Wales Premier Mike Baird acted according to liberal principles?
As the government hints the marriage equality plebiscite may be delayed until 2017, calls intensify for the parliament to legislate on the issue instead. So what is parliament's role here?
Since his ascendancy, the currently trim and muscular-looking Malcolm Turnbull has – for an Australian prime minister – had unusually little to say about sport.
Temporary migrants are excluded from the benefits and rights of Australian citizenship. Is such immigration policy compatible with Australia's democratic principles and values?
In the last 12 months, under the leadership of an eastern suburbs small-l liberal, the Liberal Party has decided it wants to look more like the party of Hewson than the party of Howard.
Elected officials and the media are in cahoots. Both have succumbed to a two-party system that treats voters not as independent thinkers, but as blind partisans.
Australia needs a clear bipartisan vision of its role in the world and a strategic agenda for the long-term national interest.
Minority governments can successfully prosecute their policy agendas even while being destabilised.
The idea of hitting voters with a powerful message on election day is just the culmination of three trends in Australian campaign communication that have been brewing for decades.
There is nothing in the Constitution to deal with the situation in which neither side can form a majority government.
After the tumult of the Rudd-Gillard years, Bill Shorten has steered his party back to traditional Labor policy ground and made it an unlikely serious contender in this election.
The 'party discipline' that has its roots in the Labor Party's precursor of the 1890s has stifled real political debate, making even the smartest politicians sound like hacks and act like sheep.
James Scullin’s prime ministership was ultimately cut short because, in the face of a great economic crisis, he did not appear to have a coherent plan.
The Institute of Public Affairs was founded by rich men with rich men’s interests at its core, albeit with obligatory nods to the national interest.
The story of the Builders Labourers Federation campaigns that saved historic locations and green spaces in the 1970s still speaks to contemporary Australians' concerns about urban development.
Top contributors
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Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong
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Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University
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Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University
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Emerita Professor, Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Adelaide
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Honorary lecturer, School of Social Sciences, UNSW
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Associate Professor of Politics, Monash University
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Senior Lecturer, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University
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Dennis Altman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professorial Fellow in Human Security, La Trobe University
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Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
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Associate professor, Australian National University
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Associate Professor of Political Science, Erie Campus, Penn State
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Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of Technology Sydney
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Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney
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Research Manager and Doctoral Candidate, Centre for the Study of Australian Politics, Australian National University
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Senior Lecturer in Law, Charles Sturt University
