Australian politics

Kelly O’Dwyer is the fourth minister to hold the industrial relations portfolio in the Australian federal government since the Coalition came to power in 2013. That’s even one more IR minister than we’ve had prime ministers – and…

All primary school children would have access to swimming and water safety lessons under a future federal Labor government. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has committed $46m over the next four years to ensure all Australian…

I started writing this essay as I was drinking red wine from a stainless steel goblet at a picnic table in a rest area not far south of Alice Springs, on my way to the 33rd instalment of the legendary annual Barunga festival. It was…

Malcolm Turnbull has paid tribute to the retiring minister for jobs and women, Kelly O’Dwyer, describing her as a “true liberal” who “demonstrated women can do anything”. O’Dwyer’s shock resignation on Saturday has sparked further…

One of the oft forgotten aspects of the ALP’s 2007 election campaign was that for the first time since losing the 1996 election it stopped being afraid of the Hawke-Keating legacy. After years of being worried of the tainted brush of…

The Nationals have preselected Dr Anne Webster for the seat of Mallee, vacated by Andrew Broad following allegations of inappropriate conduct during an official government trip overseas. Webster, who has a PhD in sociology on adoption,…

A retiring Liberal senator with more than three years left on his term has been announced as Australia’s next consul-general in Chicago. News of the appointment came just an hour after David Bushby, the chief government whip in the…

The commissioner heading the South Australian royal commission into the Murray-Darling basin plan has offered to extend his inquiry to encompass the fish kill at Menindee, after the New South Wales government appeared to blame SA for…

There has been “a rising torrent of concern that the system is faltering” and may not be fit for purpose, the first hearing of the aged care royal commission has been told. Commissioners Richard Tracey and Lynelle Briggs outlined how…

Liquidators say they have spent eight months unsuccessfully chasing Fraser Anning for documents about a failing business, which the senator has also not disclosed to parliament. Anning’s business, Gazelle Rentals Pty Ltd, has been in…

Australia must not put the interests of the coal industry above the lives of Pacific nations battling climate change, Fiji’s prime minister has told Scott Morrison. At an official dinner in Fiji to mark a newly announced partnership…

Scott Morrison will call all his ministers to Queensland, with cabinet set to sit in the sunshine state in the next couple of weeks, as the pseudo election campaign heats up. With Bill Shorten designating Queensland Labor HQ for the…

On the eve of the royal commission into the aged care sector’s first hearing, the Morrison government has flagged new regulations on the use of chemical and physical restraints in nursing homes. There are no rules in Australia governing…

The Beenleigh Recreation and Bowls club is the kind of place where you’ll find a $4.99 weekday roast, $15 “schnitties” and $4.50 schooners. It’s the kind of place you’d expect to hear fair dinkum uttered un-ironically. Bill Shorten and…

The support for pill testing continues to grow. Polling released this week shows pill testing is supported by a majority of Australians, including a majority of Liberal-National voters. Europeans have been successfully conducting pill…

Looking at contemporary politics, it’s easy to feel a sense of despair. All across the world, we see a resurgence of racist demagogues, now rendered respectable by the embrace of the “mainstream” political right and much of the…

Michael McCormack has brushed off suggestions the government could do more to solve the Murray-Darling fish-kill crisis, blaming drought that he says will soon be relieved by flooding rains because “that’s Australia”. The acting prime…

A doctor on Nauru who blew the whistle on the deliberate medical neglect of refugees and asylum seekers on the island has been awarded a global award for free speech. Dr Nick Martin, the former senior medical officer for International…

With election season upon us the political commentary on electricity prices is about to dial up to 11. Why? Firstly, because in the last 15 years Australia has gone from some of the lowest electricity prices in the world to some of the…

The Greens will introduce legislation to establish a royal commission into the mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin when parliament returns in February, in the wake of the massive fish kill at Menindee last week. The Greens…