Australia’s Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, has called on company chief executives to speak out in the public debate about climate change. Chubb said corporate managers and investors knew that climate change…
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann today has effectively confirmed the budget will contain a tax levy on high-income earners and appealed to Australians to “trust” the government. Cormann said the government…
“You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold 'em”, and Tony Abbott would be showing some political nous if he folded his tax levy now. Newspoll in Tuesday’s Australian shows how a hashed pre-budget…
Senior Liberal backbencher Warren Entsch says the Commission of Audit has “frightened the bejeezus” out of old people and warned that the government’s proposed deficit tax levy will hit the government’s…
Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has proposed a drastic change in the rules covering political donations. Pyne on Sunday said organisations – including trade unions and corporations - should be banned…
As the government hosed down both expectations and alarm over the Audit Commission’s more radical recommendations, Treasurer Joe Hockey announced that on the pension age, the budget will be bolder than…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has cancelled plans to fly to Bali early next week to meet Indonesian premier Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The visit had been at the President’s invitation and would have been their…
In this edition of The Week in Politics, University of Canberra Vice Chancellor Stephen Parker is in discussion with Michelle Grattan about the radical blueprint for Australia that has been put forward…
The Abbott government is like the farmer supposed to be burning a paddock of stubble who ends up with the whole property in flames. Maybe it will be able to pull things together in the May 13 budget but…
The Greens find themselves in an exquisite dilemma. Tony Abbott’s revised paid parental leave scheme is now broadly in line with their policy. But can they, in the circumstances of a harsh budget, dance…
Tony Abbott will interrupt his work on the budget to make a rushed trip to Bali early next week for his first face-to-face encounter with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono since the revelations…
Veteran Labor senator John Faulkner wants Senate candidates chosen by the party rank and file – but the NSW party has ensured his successor will be selected by the present, faction-dominated system. Faulkner…
Tony Abbott has reluctantly lowered the cap on his signature paid parental leave scheme from $150,000 income level to $100,000 - declaring he would have preferred to stick with the original policy. The…
A fortnight out from budget day Tony Abbott looks to need Houdini’s skills to get out of the prison of his own promises. Those prolific pledges he made so confidently before the election. Negative commitments…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott today struggled to reconcile a mooted “deficit reduction levy” with his promise not to raise taxes, while also fending off attacks from within the Coalition on his expensive…
Age pensioners will be hit in three years’ time with slower increases and a crackdown on eligibility, Tony Abbott flagged tonight. To keep his pre-election promise, there would be no change to the age…
The debate about the government’s expected lift of the pension age to 70 in the longer term has a big element of the glass half-full or half-empty about it. Much of the discussion so far has focused on…
Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has made a radical call for Australia to break its alliance with the United States and become a “strategically independent” country. In his new book Dangerous Allies…
The recruitment of three former Country Liberal Party indigenous MPs in the Northern Territory to Clive Palmer’s party has comes as a fresh blow to the conservative side of politics and provoked an extraordinary…
The government tries wherever possible to throw a blanket of secrecy over the Manus Island detention centre. But now Tony Abbott could face an unusual challenge to the policy of minimising information…
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has put out feelers to Clive Palmer to try to soften his opposition to the government’s direct action plan to reduce carbon emissions. Releasing the government’s white paper…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has moved to reassure older people fearful of being hit by budget changes, saying the main target of his push to contain aged pension costs will be his generation and those that follow…
If Joe Hockey’s first budget runs into problems, it won’t be for want of effort to construct a dramatic narrative about pain, personal responsibility and Australia’s fiscal health. The Treasurer believes…
Repairing the budget will require more use of means testing and co-payments, Treasurer Joe Hockey has warned, in a speech also renewing his criticism of “corporate welfare”. Hockey appealed to people not…
Treasurer Joe Hockey will today reveal the release date for the much anticipated Commission of Audit report, as he does more softening up for a tough budget. The government has promised the report will…
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