Labor party branch members are set for their first ever say in who should be the ALP’s leader, after Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten both nominated for the post. The contest will run for around a month…
- Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Incoming Treasurer Joe Hockey is easing into the job, getting a feel for the economic numbers and for how he and his departmental head, Martin Parkinson might shake down. The numbers are not so good. It…
Bill Shorten has cast himself as a strong retail politician but distanced himself from a presidential style, in at last formally announcing his bid to lead Labor in opposition. Shorten, from the right…
Tony Abbott has a woman problem, again. As he puts together his ministry, female representation is proving a difficulty. The prospect of senior frontbencher Sophie Mirabella holding her seat of Indi is…
The shadow of Kevin Rudd hangs over the ALP as it starts to grapple with opposition, complicating its choice of a new leader, and prompting dire warnings that the former PM will be a disruptive force if…
This Senate election has been very good for the tiddlers, more professionally know as “micro parties”, so much so that there is already an emerging debate about whether the big fish should do something…
Former treasurer Chris Bowen has made a public bid to “shadow” his old job in opposition. Ruling himself out as a contender for Labor leader, Bowen told a news conference he would be available to the new…
History will treat the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Labor government harshly, not for what it did or didn’t do, but for how it conducted itself. It came in with a convincing mandate in 2007 and, through bad leadership…
As Tony Abbott drew ever closer to the prime ministership towards the end of the campaign, he mused about the nature of the job. “The prime minister is probably a little more than first amongst equals…
Tony Abbott has won government with a decisive majority but the Labor party has avoided the rout that it had feared. A victorious Abbott told the Liberal faithful “Australia is under new management; Australia…
Tony Abbott has had his much anticipated election victory and Australia once again, to the great relief of most, has a majority federal government. The Abbott win is solid and comfortable, but by no means…
Tony Abbott is set to clinch a strong victory at today’s election, according to a Nielsen poll that shows the Coalition leading 54-46% in two-party terms, a 4% swing since the 2010 election. Labor’s primary…
So much for the battle. Now for the night in front of the TV. Once you take in the headline result, which mightn’t be all that long in coming, here are eight things to keep an eye on. ONE. The fight for…
Kevin Rudd’s dream is about to be shattered. The Prime Minister went into this campaign believing that he could win. After seizing back the leadership against the odds, he thought he could defy those odds…
Kevin Rudd has put the spectre of an Abbott government’s swingeing cuts at the centre of his campaign. But at every turn, he has found himself tactically out manoeuvred by the Coalition. Despite intense…
The Coalition would slash Australia’s foreign aid program by a massive $4.5 billion over the forward estimates, to finance its nearly $5 billion infrastructure plan to build roads, bridges and freight…
Kevin Rudd will claim the mantle of superior economic management and try to pin a European-type austerity label onto Tony Abbott, in the PM’s last major speech of the campaign at the National Press Club…
On the cusp of the election, Eden-Monaro voters overwhelmingly do not believe promises will be honoured, whoever is in government after Saturday. The national battle has left people across the spectrum…
For almost two million Australian voters, this election is over. They’ve marked their ballots. As of yesterday, 1.2 million of the 14.7 million on the roll had put in pre-poll votes and 750,000 postal…
Talk to mining billionaire Clive Palmer and you move into a different zone, where normal laws of probability are not applied. Palmer says polling over the last few days suggests he can win two Senate seats…
In election campaigns it’s always best to avoid the sticky paper, especially in the final days. But that’s where Labor found itself today, cornered into talking about what its stance might be in opposition…
It was a bruising encounter for the embattled Kevin Rudd when he appeared on Q&A. Most of the questions were critical or hostile. Presenter Tony Jones pushed him. Sometimes Rudd dodged; other times…
In his last set piece occasion of the campaign, at Canberra’s National Press Club, Tony Abbott returned to the issue that, more than any other, started him on the road to the victory the Coalition expects…
Tony Abbott is striving for the athlete’s discipline in this final election week. When The Conversation interviewed him at his Parliament House office, after his National Press Club address, it was clear…
Kevin Rudd would have to dramatically change the game in this last campaign week to alter a result that the latest Newspoll suggests is now virtually determined. The poll in The Australian shows Labor’s…
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