Recently ASIO has taken on a quite public face in the discussion about fighting terrorism. Its immediate past chief, David Irvine, and its new head, Duncan Lewis, have appeared at ministerial news conferences…
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Damning levels of mental illness and self harm are documented in the Human Rights Commission’s draft report on children in detention, which went to the government on Friday. The inquiry has concluded…
Announcing cabinet’s approval for our forces to enter combat against the Islamic State Tony Abbott said that “Australians are reluctant to reach out to conflicts many thousands of miles away”. That’s not…
Cabinet has given the go-ahead for Australia’s Super Hornet fighter jets to strike ISIL targets in Iraq, as well as for its special forces to start working with the Iraqi military as soon as legal documents…
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including the debate on banning face coverings in parliament house, controversy…
For a prime minister who says he wants to promote Team Australia, Tony Abbott made a right mess of it this week. Somehow he managed to let the burqa, which as he correctly says no one actually wears to…
Update: Tony Abbott is effectively overruling Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate president Stephen Parry’s decree that would see Muslim women with facial coverings confined to glass boxes when they observed…
The government tomorrow will introduce legislation to salvage a fraction of its social security budget savings but is shelving a raft of measures, including its attempt to make young people wait six months…
A friend of mine bought a burqa when we were travelling in Afghanistan in 2002. She’s worn it perhaps once at drinks in Parliament House – before the garment became an issue - though not, as far as I am…
Australia’s early warning and refuelling aircraft will operate over Iraq from today in support of American and other Coalition planes fighting terrorist group ISIL, but the government has yet to give the…
The Abbott government will appoint an outside expert to report on the lessons to be learned from Labor’s home insulation scheme, as it also prepares options for compensating families and businesses. Delivering…
The Senate has set up an extraordinarily broad inquiry into the Queensland government, in another demonstration of Clive Palmer’s power and his determination to pursue state premier Campbell Newman. It…
It’s difficult to see how Tony Abbott can avoid a summer reshuffle and easy to believe he’s not relishing the prospect. Few around the Coalition believe that Arthur Sinodinos will return to his assistant…
University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor Stephen Parker and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics, including Clive Palmer’s deal with the Liberals to return temporary protection…
Bill Shorten will have been a year in his job next month. After its trouncing at the election, Labor is in a much better position than many would have expected, leading on a two party basis in the polls…
Once again Clive Palmer has shown he’ll deal on Coalition legislation, at a price. And once more Immigration minister Scott Morrison has demonstrated he’ll do what it takes to “land” government’s policy…
Former Speaker Peter Slipper has been given a two-year good behaviour bond, after being found guilty in July over the misuse of his parliamentary entitlements. Slipper, 64, is required to perform 300 hours…
An 18-year old man has been shot dead and two counter-terrorism police officers hospitalised with stab wounds after an incident last night in Melbourne’s south east. The dead man, from Narre Warren, was…
Tony Abbott’s refusal to attend this week’s United Nations climate summit is embarrassing for Australia. There was never any way he’d be at this meeting but his absence would not have appeared so conspicuous…
In a blood curdling rallying cry, the Islamic State has urged its followers to murder people from countries including Australia that are part of the international coalition ranged against it. The explicit…
The government has accommodated Muslim leaders’ requests that sunset clauses be retained for key parts of its anti-terrorism legislation and will include a specific ban on the use of torture. Instead of…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott will make a statement to Parliament on Monday on national security developments at home and abroad, as the government prepares to introduce counter-terrorism legislation centred…
Liberal senator Bill Heffernan has had the last laugh on the serious question of security at Australia’s Parliament. Earlier this year, security was slackened in a bid to save A$400,000. MPs’ staff and…
University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Nicholas Klomp discuss the week in politics including the rise of Australia’s terrorist threat level, the…
Thursday’s revelation that an Australian who is senior in Islamic State allegedly told supporters in this country to commit atrocities randomly against people on the street has dramatically highlighted…
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