Coalition backs out of Gonski cash deal
Matthew Knott The Turnbull government will not fund the final two years of the Gonski school funding deals and will not compete with Labor in an election-year battle to shower more money on schools, Education Minister Simon Birmingham says.
Latest political news
Briggs quits government after 'incident' abroad
Latika Bourke Junior Minister Jamie Briggs is quitting the front bench after an "incident which occurred while he was abroad" involving a female public servant.
Brough stands aside over police inquiry
Heath Aston Mal Brough has stood aside as Special Minister of State in Malcolm Turnbull's Cabinet. Matthias Cormann and Marise Payne will take over his two portfolios.
Doctors question timing of Medicare cuts
Heath Aston Doctors have criticised the Turnbull government for using the Christmas-New Year holiday period to reveal the first tranche of items to be dropped from the government-subsidised Medicare Benefits Schedule.
Is this David Cameron's Tony Abbott moment?
Latika Bourke The likely awarding of a knighthood to Australian-born political strategist Lynton Crosby is being likened to former prime minister Tony Abbott's disastrous knighting of Prince Philip.
Coalition voters reject cut in penalty rates
Gareth Hutchens The Turnbull government will face overwhelming opposition from voters in key Liberal and Nationals seats if it supports the move to cut Sunday penalty rates.
Liberals admit 'problem with women'
Farrah Tomazin The Liberal Party is considering an ambitious target to more than double the proportion of women it has in Parliament over the next decade.
Jim Carlton 'thoroughly decent' person
A successful student politician, Jim Carlton went on to become a minister in the Fraser government, and later the head of the Red Cross in Australia.
Australia's carbon emissions jump in 2015
Latika Bourke Australia's pledged to reduce its emissions, but our output of carbon dioxide emissions just jumped.
Women's anti-violence group loses funding
Alana Schetzer Loss of federal government funding has put pressure on the National Women's Health Network and it could close in the next year.
Barnaby Joyce under the whip over levy
Heath Aston Breeders question why the Agriculture Minister has said no to a government-supported levy for equine research and development, yet similar requests from two other industries were approved.
Comment & Analysis
My Manus Island nightmare
Michael Gordon Punishing one group of people endlessly in order to deter others is immoral.
We lose the plot in real-life migrant tales
Josephine Tovey In literature and film, like the soon-to-be released Brooklyn, we sympathise with the struggle of pioneering migrants. But are we capable of the same empathy for the real-life migrants of today?
PM's phoney war with a rabble and a zombie
Paul Sheehan Malcolm Turnbull is triumphant yet not victorious. Rather than convert his sweet spot into political gold with an early election, he is likely to try to charm the Senate rabble and milk the zombie status of Bill Shorten.
How to make Australia a better federation
John Brumby Turnbull shows signs of being better at this than Abbott.
Time to recognise the good
Paul Malone It is well worth pointing out that news is about the bad things that have happened. It is not representative of what is happening overall
Another problem on Turnbull's tax reform table
Michael Gordon If the Prime Minister wants an honest debate about tax reform, he now has an even more cogent case for everything being on the table.
The dangers of driving with the Treasurer
Michael Gordon Scott Morrison overlooked one detail this week when he likened the task of returning the budget to surplus to hopping in the family car and heading off for a summer holiday with the family.
Strength from stress: Turnbull’s defining belief
Peter Hartcher The Prime Minister’s embrace of risk is more than rhetoric – it has roots in deeply personal experience.
Morrison's slow and steady journey
Peter Martin The new Treasurer is facing several headwinds that threaten the economy in the short and long term.
The political glory years are fresh as ever
Alan Ramsey Paul Keating could well have woken with a smile today and Bob Hawke with a snarl.
Turnbull will resist early poll temptation
Mark Kenny An early election would carry the risk of being perceived by voters as opportunistic and a breach of faith.
Back-to-basics approach for innovation
Ben Roediger Australian scientists and engineers are among the most inventive in the world. Any initiative that enables their ideas to be tested in the market should be lauded for the forward-thinking policy it is.
Turnbull's dilemma: how to get states on board
Peter Reith Tax reform is vital medicine for the Australian economy, but it takes a lot of time to put together a pill that people will be willing to swallow.
Dose of compassion needed
Michael Gordon Tony Abbott is gone, but the former prime minister's "nope, nope, nope" mindset when it comes to border protection is still pervasive.
Ugly truth about the budget is what we need
Peter Martin Expect the unvarnished truth in the mid-year update, because there's little point in lying.
Common sense prevails, but only just
Michael Gordon Malcolm Turnbull's authority is in tact and Ian Macfarlane's credibility is in tatters after the former resources minister's bizarre and brazen bid to force his way back into cabinet came a cropper.
Politics of exclusion must be rejected
Tim Dick The choice between the politics of the old and that of the new is not a choice only faced by Australia. It’s faced by the US, by Britain, by any developed country with a significant migrant population – almost all of them.
Treaty would build better foundation
George Williams Australia does not recognise the sovereignty of its first nations by way of a treaty, and the effects have been devastating.
Bishop, Abbott, Trump and politics of delusion
Adam Gartrell Politicians aren't just good at lying to us – they're good at lying to themselves too.
The mad monk and the coming of the raptor
Annabel Crabb The end of the year, when everyone is tired and snippy, is always a bit prone to farce of one kind or another.
Macfarlane defection will end in tears
Michael Gordon The history of political defections in Australia is replete with unhappy endings.
Special features
Best political cartoons of 2015
We bring you the best political cartoons from 2015, care of Fairfax's award winning cartoonists.
Highs and lows of the year in politics
Our awards for the people in politics who made 2015 a memorable year.
Malcolm Turnbull's first 100 days as PM
ANALYSIS Big problems persist. Short of an election, Malcolm Turnbull's authority struggles to escape the gravity of its creation.
Dose of compassion needed
Michael Gordon Tony Abbott is gone, but the former prime minister's "nope, nope, nope" mindset when it comes to border protection is still pervasive.
Tricky politics of Sunday penalty rates
Generally speaking, the loudest advocates of scrapping Sunday penalty rates don't get them and don't need them. This is no great revelation, but motive and perception are crucial to the trajectory of this important debate.
'Don't worry' budget built on bracket creep
"Bracket creep" will help rein in the budget deficit for a government unwilling to raise taxes
The best of Canberra 2015
Our best pictures of the federal political year for 2015.
Federal politics 2015: End of year mega quiz
Another year, another prime minister ousted. 2015 was chock-full of political action. Were you paying attention?
Another problem lands on PM's tax reform table
Michael Gordon If the Prime Minister wants an honest debate about tax reform, he now has an even more cogent case for everything being on the table.
Someone's playing politics. It isn't ASIO
David Wroe The war within the Coalition on national security has gone nuclear.
Cuts to hit the most needy, doctors warn
Patients will be out of pocket by up to $62 or more per test for procedures such as X-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans and MRIs, according to a doctors' group.
Morrison thinks we can't handle the full truth, yet
Every year the surplus moves a year further away. It's like driving towards an unreachable horizon.
ABC's preferred new boss 'not afraid of failure'
Matthew Knott At a conference last year, Google executive Michelle Guthrie extolled the virtue of eating your own dog food.
Budget update fails to map out road to surplus
There is nothing in the mid-year budget update to be alarmed about, but nor does it suggest Malcolm Turnbull will do any better than his predecessors at getting the budget back to surplus.
Macfarlane in political wilderness
Mark Kenny As far as political gambles go, this was a big one, and it went seriously wrong.
John Bannon: a quiet giant of politics
Mark Kenny Even now when I'm grinding out the kilometres in Canberra, I often rely on something John Bannon once confided about distance training. He said when your body wants to stop, you can always go a bit further, and you will be glad you made that choice.
Turnbull's tax reform striptease has started
It's time to start ruling out some of the options even if business doesn't like it.
