It’s hard to find the words to capture the precise form of unhinging that is playing out in the 45th parliament in its final days, but let me try. Over the past couple of days, a war between current and former members of One Nation resulted in alleg...
Oliver Yates, the son of a Liberal politician and long-time party member, wants to take on Josh Frydenberg in a seat once held by Robert Menzies to start a people power campaign not only in Australia, but around the world. The former Macquarie banke...
Gareth Evans has warned signing up to the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons will “tear up” the United States alliance ahead of a critical contested vote in an otherwise tranquil Labor conference. The former foreign affairs minister m...
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Labor has agreed to support the independent MP Kerryn Phelps’ bill for emergency medical transfers from offshore detention, but has demanded changes that would keep a ministerial power to refuse transfers. Phelps has reiterated that “clinicians rath...
Representatives from 13 Middle Eastern and North African embassies in Australia have condemned Scott Morrison’s signal that the Australian embassy could be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, declaring it a “fatal mistake” that could lead to a breakdo...
Ann Sudmalis has used parliamentary privilege to blast a state Liberal MP, Gareth Ward, accusing him of “bullying, betrayal and backstabbing” and flexing “his vengeance on strong Liberal women”. The member for Gilmore, flanked by fellow Liberal Jane...
The outgoing public service commissioner John Lloyd is being investigated for an alleged breach of the public service code of conduct, in what Labor has called an “unprecedented” move. Labor has targeted Lloyd in Senate estimates sessions over alleg...
An hour and a half before Andrew Hastie stood up in the federation chamber of the Australian parliament to share confidential information he’d picked up from the Americans, word reached the spy chief, Duncan Lewis, that something might be afoot. Has...
People who litter or jaywalk could be caught using facial recognition technology if the broad powers proposed by Peter Dutton’s home affairs department are not limited, the Law Council has warned. At a parliamentary inquiry hearing on Thursday the L...
A Liberal senator has apologised after posting on Facebook that “up to” 10,000 African students would receive federal scholarships, which prompted a furious reaction from Pauline Hanson. Lucy Gichuhi – a Liberal senator of Kenyan descent – was force...
The Turnbull government will use the looming May budget to dump plans to increase the Medicare levy to fund the national disability insurance scheme, in a shift intended to reframe the tax debate before the next election. Scott Morrison will use a s...
Australia’s former prime minister John Howard has issued a public warning to his colleagues to get their collective act together, saying a change of leader is not the answer to the Turnbull government’s woes. With the government bracing for the like...
Educational inequality has cost the Australian economy more than $20bn, as well as contributing to the widening gap between rich and poor, new research has found. The report from the Public Education Foundation found that students at the bottom of A...
A majority of Australians would support phasing out coal power by 2030, including half the people in a sample identifying as Coalition voters, according to a survey by a progressive thinktank. The research funded by the Australia Institute says 60%...