Blanche d'Alpuget had a long and successful career as a writer, but it was her stunning biography of Bob Hawke that brought her fame – and influence.
- Professor, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra
Something went very right in Australian politics this week – and it’s worth pausing and reflecting on how and why that is.
The Albanese government was criticised on its first term for not doing enough. Now that it is prescribing reform, it’s copping flak for that, too.
The affair is a cautionary tale of what happens when negative campaigning, misinformation and clumsy politicking collide to kill policy – and political careers.
The Albanese government is returned for a second term with an increased majority. It’s time to make it count.
Anthony Albanese must use his talented front bench to convince voters that inside his government there’s a better one waiting to break out.
A Senate inquiry has been set up to examine why senior public servants are are being paid much bigger salaries than the ministers they serve.
Labor’s solidarity pledge is effective and necessary - and has been so for more than 100 years. But it only works properly if MPs can freely voice their concerns and disagreements in caucus.
Next month’s budget is an opportunity for the government to move beyond its ‘I feel your pain’ rhetoric to a HomeKeeper-style policy for this particular group of temporarily squeezed Australians.
Applying the logic of JobKeeper to create a HomeKeeper program could save a lot of working-class mortgagors from losing their homes.
Senior public servants no longer have secure positions, and that has deeply undermined their ability to give ‘fearless’ advice.
Menzies created the Liberals from the rubble of its once successful but ultimately dysfunctional forebear, the UAP. It wasn’t the first time the centre-right reinvented itself. It could happen again.
Bob Hawke spent 24 years married to his second wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, whose canny 1981 biography helped make him ALP leader – and one of our most beloved PMs. Chris Wallace tells their story.
Labor will still be scarred from its loss in 2019, but this time it is much better placed, if it maintains discipline and plays to its strengths.
His cricketing greatness is often spoken about alongside that of the legendary Sir Donald Bradman, but the two men had very different approaches to life in the limelight.
The rhetoric and policy focus of the Howard government in the wake of the Tampa crisis and the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 changed dramatically – and the effects are still being felt today.
The theatre of politics is neither a substitute for, nor the antithesis of, good policy: it is what makes winning government, and getting to implement good policy, possible.
Elections are often close in Australia. Landslides are rare. Labor and the Greens would be very unwise to assume they already know the outcome of the next one.
The Morrison government is counting on the news cycle moving on and protesters giving up.
Queensland was a smoking ruin for federal Labor in 2019. As we head towards a possible election later this year, the sunshine state presents a big challenge — and opportunity — for Anthony Albanese.
In the Howard government, there was near-consensus in Cabinet that an ETS was eventually likely. A spike in asylum-seeker arrivals stimulated the hard “deterrent’ strategy” that would morph into the “Pacific Solution” in 2001.
Women’s leadership reached new heights this year, just as the Coalition’s gendered policy response to the pandemic set women back across the board.
Right now, Labor’s marginal seat holders are talking about JobSeeker. Privately, many are wondering if next year they’ll be on it.
Susan Ryan brought brains and spirit to the big fights and relished them. What’s more, she won them.
Only one in four members of the Morrison government are women, so it’s little wonder their ideas for COVID recovery has all been “men first”.
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