The Albanese government’s attempt to rush through major changes to Australian elections has been delayed in the Senate – at least until February, perhaps forever. As Australia Institute research identified serious flaws, risks and loopholes in the legislation, delay is welcome – but bittersweet, because electoral reform is needed to increase confidence in politics and democracy. Good

‘Tis the season for poor process, rushed law-making and railroaded parliaments. With the end of the year rapidly approaching, governments have lost patience for democratic niceties like consultation, parliamentary reviews and public hearings.

There’s a lesson for the federal government from Labor’s narrower than expected defeat in the Queensland election: voters embrace progressive policies that address cost of living pressures.

Peter Dutton and Donald Trump have a knack for political division. There’s no doubt that stoking fear and the politics of division can be brutally effective, but the last thing Australia needs is to import the damaging culture wars of the American far right, dominated by bonkers conspiracy theories adhered to by militant acolytes untroubled

Next month, the Albanese government is due to announce its proposed changes to Australian electoral laws. It has been a long road. The minister responsible, Senator Don Farrell, had planned to introduce the laws by the end of last year.

Canberra doesn’t really have a fossil fuel industry, which perhaps explains why we lead the country in decarbonising our economy.

There are no parallels for the first debate of the 2024 US presidential election cycle.

Today, in a surprise development likely weeks in the planning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to leave the United Kingdom for the first time in more than a decade after reaching a plea deal with the US government.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has just approved a new coal seam gas pipeline in Queensland.

Today, the name of Niccolò Machiavelli is a byword for cynicism and hunger for power, but there was one profession so parasitic and selfish even he could not stomach it.

Transparency, integrity and accountability were buzzwords of the 2024 state election, yet Tasmanians went to the polls without knowing where their politicians get their money, without laws requiring truth in political advertising, and without an anti-corruption body that is fit for purpose.

Who would have thought that the legal and personal travails of Julian Assange, the Australian citizen whom US authorities are invested in prosecuting and jailing for the rest of his life without deep consideration of his fundamental rights, would become a lightning rod for former President Trump’s re-election hopes?

While money can’t buy everything, the Australian Government can ‘buy’ a lower Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Nobody likes to be hoodwinked, but that’s what big companies are essentially doing when they engage in greenwashing – giving consumers the false impression they have business practices that help the environment instead of harming it.

Watch Dr Emma Shortis’ address to ‘Night Falls In The Evening Lands: The Assange Epic’ at RMIT University, Melbourne, on 9th March 2024.

While last year’s robodebt royal commission exposed a shocking lack of ethics among senior ranks of the Australian public service, the systemic condition still largely seems to be regarded as an aberration.

For three years, Meta and Google have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to Australian publishers in exchange for using news content.

Tasmanians have been badly served by its government’s exaggerated fears about the condition of the state budget.

“Who in God’s name does he think he is?”

Be it administrative incompetence, secrecy and trickery, the failure of the Morrison government to hand over Cabinet documents about the Iraq War to the National Archives should trigger serious analysis of how Australia enters conflicts, writes Ebony Bennett.

With the federal government announcing a desire to double charitable donations by 2030, Stephen Long examines the potential inefficiency & inequity of relying on charities, rather than governments, to provide essential services.

In the United States, one of the men vying for the presidency faces 91 criminal charges in four concurrent criminal cases.

The Australian politicians pushing for Assange’s release represents a rare crack in the wall of bipartisan support for the sacrosanct alliance.