Tag: politics

Friday morning started with a few shock announcements as Martin Foley and three other ministers announced their leave from politics.

After being elected in 2002, Peter Gutwein has decided that he will resign from politics and focus on his family after 20 years of service.

She had recently come under fire after her party lost the by-election in the seat of Upper Hunter.

OPINION & ANALYS: Professor Jenny Hocking's victory in the release of the Palace letters is a significant one for truth and history, writes Tess Lawrence.

Dressed as the Grim Reaper, maverick MP Bob Katter says government should make Holden come back from the grave. It's dead easy, he says.

Tony Abbott was made a companion of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Queens Birthday Honours List announced by Governor-General on Monday.

PM says good news about Australia's coronavirus lockdown coming, while warning full normaily won't be until there's a vaccine.

The biggest poll-to-poll jumps for a PM in Newspoll history on both net approval and better PM.

An “unprecedented action” for “unprecedented times”, and a “uniquely Australian” solution, says Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Scott Morrison, announcing the new crackdowns, also told people to stay home, except when it was absolutely necessary to go out.

Australians are not allowed to leave the country, under extraordinary new coronavirus restrictions.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Surely Australia has not experienced such a sense of crisis since World War 2. As the coronavirus cases escalate rapidly, there is an increasing feeling things are starting to run out of control.

As the coronavirus pandemic crisis continues to unfold, the Australian share market crashed 9.7% on Monday in its worst one-day sell-off since 1987.

SPECIAL FEATURE: How do we ration and distribute limited healthcare resources in the face of the coronavirus crisis? How many of our personal freedoms are we willing to forgo to contain the pandemic?

Scott Morrison said Australia is “as well prepared as any country in the world” to deal with the virus, and the health package “is about preventing and treating coronavirus in the coming weeks.”

In the face of the coronavirus crisis, Prime minister says: “We need your perseverance, planning and enterprise. We need your common sense, calm and commitment. And we need your patriotism."

OPINION & ANALYSIS: In some ways this crisis is more complex to deal with than the GFC. Aspects of the public panic are irrational and so very hard to calm.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: The loss of AAP should be mourned not just by news men and women across the country, but by every single person who cares about democracy.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said it was important for Australians to understand the use of certain powers may become necessary in the months ahead.

“There are some challenging months ahead and the government will continue to work closely based on the best possible medical advice to keep Australians safe,” says prime minister.

"And perhaps most disturbingly, hostile intelligence services have directly threatened and intimidated Australians in this country," says ASIO boss.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: There was resentment among Nationals at Morrison being seen to push Bridget McKenzie under the bus over the sports grants, not least because they felt his office had more involvement than it admitted.

SPECIAL FEATURE: "This is a reminder that if governments, industry, communities and individuals share a vision, a positive transition can be achieved. The stunning technology advances I have witnessed in the past ten years make me optimistic." - Alan Finkel.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: The bill turns discrimination protection on its head. It doesn’t merely protect a person from being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs, it allows a person to actively discriminate on the basis of their religious beliefs.

But Barnaby Joyce is unlikely to give up his ambition, and having a restive Matt Canavan on the backbench will be unhelpful for McCormack.

The new Greens leader's challenge will be to manage from the lower house what is essentially a Senate party.

The shock resignation comes as former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce announced he would challenge Nationals leader Michael McCormack if there was a move for a leadership spill at Tuesday’s party meeting.

Sport Australia wrote to McKenzie’s office before the election expressing concern it was being compromised by political interference.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: The real reason Scott Morrison cancelled his Hawaii trip was to postpone a secret tryst with a controversial Indian mogul, writes TESS LAWRENCE.

Reports revealing McKenzie had approved a grant to a clay target shooting club without publicly disclosing her membership of it have been referred to the prime minister's office. The opposition continues to call for her resignation or sacking.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: The prime minister's Monday salvo against the NSW environment minister over the response to the bushfire disaster was gratuitous and inept.

The bushfire crisis almost certainly explains the crash in Morrison’s ratings, with opposition leader Albanese now the preferred prime minister, according to poll.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison met with angry locals of bushfire ravaged Cobargo, and it didn't go well.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Scott Morrison has refused to meet calls for a national summit or a COAG meeting on the fire effort, but he is no longer able to gloss over the climate debate.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Despite being one of the best-known and biggest characters in British politics, so much remains uncertain about Boris Johnson. Now that he has achieved his parliamentary majority, he must decide what he wants to do with it.

SPECIAL FEATURE: It almost seems as if, for many voters, the election is more about who they don’t want than who they do.

SPECIAL FEATURE: 2019 may go down as the most disrupted year in global politics since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The likelihood is that 2020 will be worse, and bloodier.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Controversial American feminist writer Naomi Wolf, in an extended phone call (which she videoed) with a Taylor staffer, demanded an apology from the energy minister over his inaccurate claim they’d been corridor near-neighbours at Oxford in 1991 and for implying that she’d campaigned against Christmas.

Lambie had indicated previously that her vote for the repeal would be conditional on the government meeting a condition which she would not specify. She suggested security matters were involved.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: If this alleged attempted interference by China is proved – if it is indeed provable – this would rise to the level of an unacceptable attempt to subvert Australia’s democratic processes.

Former prime minister Keating attacked The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in particular for their China coverage.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Fire officials warn that this week's catastrophic fire conditions are "where people die". Climate change has arrived, and politicians should drop the meaningless rhetoric.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: The aspirations for our diplomacy must be upgraded beyond the bare minimum. Ten years on from Diplomatic Deficit, Australia must resist the magical thinking that foreign affairs and trade somehow happen by themselves.

Attorney-General Christian Porter singled out Market Forces in a Monday statement that said he was co-ordinating advice across several portfolios on what could be done to protect resource businesses from such activism.

With job insecurity on the rise and widespread casual employment, many people had unpredictable income and hours and few protections. “These Australians deserve a greater sense of security”, says opposition leader.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: The imperative to protect press freedom is fundamental and deserving of general recognition and protection. In light of these concerns, our international obligations and the rule-of-law concerns for legal clarity, consistency and proportionality, it is time for a Media Freedom Act.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters he’d made the point ‘which was well received, that Australia is an independent, sovereign nation’.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Nick Warner, the new director general of the Office of National Intelligence, has sounded the alarm about Australia’s lack of preparedness to counter cyber-threats.

‘It is inevitable that Australia will make more decisions that China doesn’t like,’ said Labor's Penny Wong.

OPINION & ANALYSIS: Though the call between Trump and Morrison does not indicate any Australian government wrongdoing, it shows how the PM’s bromance with the president brings its political embarrassments.