Budget receives more blows in Senate's chaotic day
Mark Kenny, Lisa Cox The federal government has suffered another blow to its beleaguered budget after being forced to retain tax-cut compensation due to start next year and an expensive energy-research agency.
Latest political news
Australia will stand up to China: Bishop
JOHN GARNAUT Australia will stand up to China to defend peace, liberal values and the rule of law, says Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
Speeches to Parliament castigated
James Massola and Deborah Snow Tony Abbott and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe flew five hours to the Pilbara chased all the way by headlines from China.
Morrison maintains secrecy over refugees
JASON KOUTSOUKIS 7:51am Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the secrecy surrounding the fate of 153 South Asian refugees is an integral part of the federal government’s operations strategy.
Asylum seekers' plea: adopt our children
SARAH WHYTE Pregnant asylum seeker women on Christmas Island pleaded with medical experts to adopt their children out to Australian families four months ago, as they became anxious about their future.
Wrong venue for Abe speech: Fraser
DEBORAH SNOW 7:47am Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser has hit out at visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's speech to the Australian Parliament on Tuesday, saying it ''should only have been made on his own soil''.
Focus on jobless need: Anglicare
JUDITH IRELAND The Abbott government needs to focus on individuals and what is going on in their lives, rather than forcing them into intensive job searching.
Cutting emissions 'will not stop growth'
TOM ARUP 6:10pm A global plan for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change has found Australia could overhaul its fossil fuel dependent energy supply and cut emissions to zero by 2050 without trashing its economy.
Budget gloom hits credit demand
12:53am The federal budget has not only hit consumer confidence and retail spending it also appears to have dampened our appetite for credit.
Boral 'black banned' by union
NICK TOSCANO 5:02pm Concrete giant Boral will allege that Australia's biggest building union has instituted a "black ban" on its products due to the company's association with developer Grocon.
Vic Labor will override race law changes
JOSH GORDON 5:50pm State-based anti-discrimination laws will be introduced to override any move by the Abbott government to water down the Racial Discrimination Act if Labor wins the November state election.
'Moral blackmail': PM on suicide attempts
Australia commits 'piracy on the high seas'
Elite officer suspected in smuggling bid
Advocates warn against NDIS slowdown
Japan pushes for closer ties
Gruen transfer leaves Treasury hole
Labor to push for new CBA probe
Sydney Uni revolt on fee rise plan
Indigenous children suffer more abuse
Senate stall on advice rules
Call for maths, science expert teachers
Canberra to keep Link business case secret
Royal commission: union boss threats
Asylum seekers secure temporary reprieve
Abbott lauds Japan's stronger security role
Muir moves to block renewable energy cuts
Abbott 'recklessly endangering' climate future
Warning on wealth disparity
Palmer blows up budget
Wilson has court win over documents
Subianto taken off visa blacklist
Lack of demand for late child care
Royal commission: super detail sought
Palmer calls for body to monitor banks
Greens struggle with internal divide on fuel
HIV home-testing kits coming to Australia
Pensioners hurt most by fees: researchers
Lawyers condemn return of asylum seekers
Abbott meets PUP senator Lambie
HECS-style loan flagged for parental leave
Comment & Analysis
China's propaganda infiltrating our shores
Paul Monk 12:10am Beijing's clandestine intrusion into our local Chinese press will have an impact on national security if it is not rooted out.
Union inquiry too little, too late
NICK MCKENZIE 7:12pm Opinion Any watcher of the union royal commission should be questioning why police and regulators appear to be missing in action in the building industry.
Afghanistan a costly mistake
PAUL SHEEHAN 1:42am The Australian Army will terminate Major Bernie Gaynor's commission tomorrow. It is not difficult to see why. Gaynor has accused the Army's higher leadership of cowardice.
Political muckraking has a way of backfiring
JOSH GORDON 12:10am Dish enough dirt and some might stick, but to whom? That's a question police are now investigating.
Banking on long way to redemption
ADELE FERGUSON On Tuesday morning Commonwealth Bank whistleblower Jeff Morris jumped in his car and headed to Canberra for a meeting with a politician.
The shame is big dodgers slip the net
MICHAEL WEST Hollywood star Mel Gibson is among the celebrities, sportsmen and prominent business types named by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for having business dealings in the tax haven of Jersey.
World citizen Japan prepares for the worst
PETER HARTCHER Opinion Australia and Japan continue to hope for the best from China, but they are putting in place mechanisms to deal with the worst.
Australia risks becoming a fuel fossil
ROSS GITTINS Doing nothing about climate change will cost us much more than doing something.
Appointments put our ABC in danger
Jonathan Holmes Those in charge of nominating ABC and SBS board candidates raise plenty of concerns.
It is childcare costs that confront parents
Jonathan Hastie There is a growing divide between the reality of raising a family and the political language associated with it.
Indonesia's election hangs on a knife-edge
JOHN GARNAUT Indonesia faces a choice between an unpredictable, maverick general, and a perceived puppet of the Sukarno dynasty.
How Abbott can win over new Senate
PETER REITH Prime Minister Tony Abbott can’t afford to let the Senate get away with shredding the budget. He will need all his political skills to get through the new Senate session.
Special features
Rookie senators deliver a good kicking
Tony Wright It seemed such a good idea at the time: devote the first week of July purely to the fresh Senate, allowing the rookie crossbenchers to assert their brand new power over Labor and the Greens.
Body of fallen commando returns
The body of fallen commando Lance Corporal Todd Chidgey has been returned home.
'Moral blackmail' on Christmas Island?
Do suicide attempts by asylum seekers amount to moral blackmail?
At sea processing 'politically motivated'
It's a "fair assumption" that processing asylum seekers at sea is politically motivated, and may be in breach of Australia's obligations says Professor of International Law Don Rothwell.
No way out or home
Michael Gordon As the civil war in Syria enters its fourth year and the resulting displacement crisis becomes the worst in the world, women are bearing the awful brunt.
Shinzo Abe 'scrums down' with Aus MPs
Japanese Prime Minister praises Australia and Japan's close ties and cracks jokes in a landmark speech to a special sitting of parliament.
Who are the new Senators?
A who's who of the new Senators taking their seats in the 44th parliament.
Behind the labels
Who is really on the disability support pension and why? Judith Ireland and Conrad Walters dig into the much-criticised benefit.
How the Senate looks from July 1
Interactive The Coalition government will need the support of the Senate to pass its legislation. Who will hold the balance of power when the Senate changes from July 1?
How we share the refugee burden
Interactive More than 85 per cent of refugees are hosted in developing countries. Australia hosts 0.3 per cent of the 11.7 million refugees under the UNHCR's mandate.
Federal budget 2014: Interactive explorer
Explore the major data points of the 2014 federal budget and see how Joe Hockey’s first budget shapes up to his predecessors.
Investigating MPs' expenses
Fairfax Media has conducted an extensive investigation on MPs claiming expense entitlements. Read our coverage here.
Cartoon Gallery
Cartoon Gallery: Home of the best cartoons from our resident artists from the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.
