Christmas Island death highlights need for detention inquiry

Michael Gordon   Why was a refugee with a history of trauma and torture incarcerated indefinitely on Christmas Island?

Turnbull takes out some early insurance in risky GST debate

Mark Kenny   Ask any MP on either side of politics what went wrong with the Abbott government and right away they'll cite the 2014 budget with its hardline cuts, its failure to spread the task of budget repair to the top end and its bullish, defiant justification.

Playing spot the difference with revamped question time

Judith Ireland   Question time gets a revamp ... and it's just the same as before.

It's time to dismiss knockout punch politics

Jack Waterford   A momentous event 40 years ago led to a vicious and highly personalised version of politics, which Tony Abbott carried on in spirit. It's time for it to go.

Uthman Badar's claims were not correct

Paul Malone   The claims made by Uthman Badar of the controversial Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir deserve a response.

Royal couple crowned with love and devotion

Judith Ireland   Stop hating on Charles and Camilla. They are real people, not plastic royals.

Sandy, the only war horse to come home

Tony Wright   Great-uncle George Moore couldn't bring himself to kill anything when he came home from World War I. Not even ants marching across his kitchen table. He'd walk around snakes in a paddock and berated mates who wanted to go fishing.

Bishop and political maneuvering on same-sex marriage

Judith Ireland   There was much ado recently about the meaning of Julie Bishop's red angry face Vladimir Putin emoji.

Malcolm Turnbull clears the royal barnacle

Mark Kenny   The juxtaposition of stories dominating the Canberra news cycle says everything about the breadth of change sweeping the government.

Sir Prince Philip of The Tonys gets a let-off from nice Mr Turnbull

Tony Wright   A gust of rare merriment swept the monarch's distant end of the breakfast table at Buckingham Palace.

Open data to public use, catch up with the world

Stephen Bartos   Public servants need to ditch the control and encourage entrepreneurship.

Comments 4

Politics is losing its religion

Judith Ireland   In Australia, we're not quite sure what to do with religion in politics.

The trouble with transparency

Richard Mulgan   Senior public servants' attitudes are skewed in favour of confidentiality over disclosure, and with some cause.

Time to empower patients in healthcare

Angus Taylor   At near double digit rates, health costs are at the heart of government spending rising faster than tax revenues.

Bizarre advice for public service managers

Paddy Gourley   The Public Service Commissioner is ditching decades of painstaking work.

Does Tony Abbott really think he can reclaim the top job?

Adam Gartrell   Tony Abbott’s London speech reminded us all he’s still here. But is he crazy enough to believe he can reclaim the leadership?

Abbott's most expensive slogan

Andrew Carr, Peter Dean   It was meant to savage the Gillard government. But this promise never made any sense.

Dear Nauru... from another Australian journalist with pesky questions

Daniel Flitton   Oh, there I go again, just another Australian journalist displaying "great arrogance and an air of racial superiority".

Negotiation needed over Spratly Islands

Paul Malone   In claiming the Spratly Islands China is not changing its position one iota from that of the 1950s.

Unleashed Tony Abbott turns up the fear in migrant crisis

Nick Miller   At the Margaret Thatcher memorial lecture in London on Tuesday night, pre-dinner speaker Tony Abbott performed his usual greatest hits: death cults and immigrant threats.

The nerds have seen off the jocks

Stephanie Peatling   Science and innovation have been placed at the apex of Malcolm Turnbull's government but more needs to be done to counter the despair felt by many in the research community.

Finkel question hangs as Turnbull argues coal is good(ish)

Mark Kenny   Call it the Finkel question(s). How long will coal be around providing cheap and plentiful energy in dollar terms but expensive, unpayable bills environmentally? And what will set the terms of its departure - environmental calamity, or imaginative, preemptory public policy interventions?

Focused on our region

Marise Payne   Violent extremism, cyberattacks and growing militarisation across the Indo-Pacific region pose distinct challenges for Australia.

Submarines litmus test of political meddling

Stephen Conroy   The defence procurement process could lead to unnecessary risk, budget blow-outs and undermine our sovereignty.

Our enduring problem with Islamic radicalisation

Rodger Shanahan   The military might want to move on from the '9/11 decade', but there's little sign of that happening.

Expanding budget is a hard sell for new minister

Mark Thomson   Money will need to be found through higher taxes or cuts to services, and the public will rightly demand an explanation.

White paper will suit political needs, not Australia's

Nicholas Stuart   The soon-to-be-unveiled document is unlikely to offer a realistic guide to what may actually happen in future.

'Exclusive': Prime Minister pours his own tea

Peter Munro   The nation needs to be "agile", pronounced the Prime Minister, while displaying decent dexterity in tailoring his message to suit different newspapers.