A survey of candidates for the ALP national presidency has found broad support for granting members of affiliated unions automatic party membership and voting rights.
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
With the budget squarely targeted at getting more mothers into work or working extra hours, a group of Coalition backbenchers is forming to fight for the interests of stay-at-home parents.
Last week’s giveaway budget has received the thumbs up from voters and boosted Tony Abbott’s personal rating.
University of Canberra Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Frances Shannon and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics
This week’s budget has helped entrench Tony Abbott’s leadership. That’s a blow for the Liberal aspirants but not necessarily for Labor, because it would prefer him to be the opponent at the election.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten has called for a bipartisan push to reduce the company tax rate for small business from the budget’s promised 28.5% to 25%.
Climate change should have been tackled and investment and jobs in the renewable energy sector protected in the budget, new Greens leader Richard Di Natale said in his budget reply.
A soft budget - if you overlook the nasty bits still there from last year – with more giveaways than takeaways inevitably fanned talk of a possible double dissolution this year.
Treasurer Joe Hockey has unveiled a A$5.5 billion jobs and small business package to kick start confidence, in a second Coalition budget that strategically retreats from the harshest measures of its predecessor.
This is a budget for when the economy has gone soft and the political situation is precarious.
The government will provide telecommunications companies with $131 million in the budget to help with the costs of retaining metadata, as part of further measures to strengthen intelligence capabilities and counter extremist messaging.
Budget day is high risk for all the political players.
The budget will toughen anti-avoidance measures to crack down on the profit-shifting being undertaken by 30 multinational companies that have been identified by the Taxation Office.
With his reputation and confidence already badly dented, Treasurer Joe Hockey has been further damaged just two days before delivering his second budget.
The government estimates its proposed $3.5 billion child care package will encourage more than 240,000 families to increase their involvement in paid employment, including almost 38,000 jobless families.
As the Abbott government prepares Australia’s post-2020 emissions targets for this year’s Paris conference, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s business advisory council has make an extraordinary intervention in the climate debate.
Frances Shannon and Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics, including the Green’s leadership change, predictions for next week’s federal budget, and the importance of next week’s budget for Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey.
Here we are with the budget almost upon us and Tony Abbott has had to assure the public, and Joe Hockey, that the Treasurer won’t be sacked if it’s a flop.
A crackdown on the pension assets test will save the budget A$2.4 billion over the forward estimates, the government says.
The Greens mostly like to keep their party ‘internals’ internal. The leadership transition from Christine Milne to Victorian senator Richard Di Natale was marked by secrecy and tightly stitched up.
Victorian Senator Richard Di Natale has been elected Greens’ leader unopposed, after Christine Milne announced she would not contest the next federal election.
Registration of small businesses will be streamlined as part of the government’s package for the sector, which will be a centrepiece of Tuesday’s budget.
Joe Hockey sounded almost pleading, in his appeal after the Reserve Bank announced an interest rate cut of 0.25 of a percentage point, taking the cash rate to 2%, a new record low.
The government goes into next week’s budget trailing Labor on a two-party basis but satisfaction with Tony Abbott has risen to a seven month high in the latest Newspoll.
Against the grim outlook of a continuing massive deficit, Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten are both seeking to frame the debate ahead of Treasurer Joe Hockey bringing down his second budget next week.
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