Latest political news

Health matters 'more than economy': over 50s

Health trumps the economy for Australians over 50.

Peter Martin 8:00 PM   Health care is by far the most important issue determining the votes of older Australians, eclipsing economic management for the first time.

Shorten slams Trump for 'demonising' Muslims

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten

David Wroe 12:56 PM   Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has taken Donald Trump to task over the presumptive Republican candidate's claims the Orlando shooting shows he was right to call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States.

Labor's big internet play - faster broadband, same price range

Labor says it will move away from Malcolm Turnbull's NBN policy.

Mark Kenny, James Massola 11:45 PM   Twice as many Australians would get faster fibre-to-the-home internet connections under a future Shorten Labor government, but the rollout of the NBN would cost taxpayers at most only $1 billion more and would be completed in the same time, Labor says.

Greens push PM on republic with cake stunt

Greens leader Senator Richard Di Natale

Michael Koziol 12:01 AM   The Greens will attempt to put the elusive republic back on the menu today with a cake-based stunt atop Parliament House.

Greens pledge to crack down on 'free-range' eggs

The Greens say free-range eggs should live up to their name.

Cameron Atfield   The federal Greens will push for a national standard for free-range eggs that would slash the number of farm hens per hectare by 85 per cent.

Comments 34

Dissident voice in Parliament still speaking out

Judith Moylan was never afraid to speak out against her own party's policies. She has been appointed an Officer of the ...

Nicole Hasham 12:15 AM   When former rebel MP Judi Moylan departed the party room after railing against Liberal policies, less daring colleagues often approached her in solidarity.

Rudd 'overturned' prize for 'sex lives' book

Not suitable for a prime ministerial prize in an election year? The Sex Lives of Australians by Frank Bongiorno.

Michael Koziol   Judges of the prestigious Prime Minister's Literary Award say then prime minister Kevin Rudd overruled their decision on the 2013 history prize.

Record field for Queensland Senate ballot paper

Australian Electoral Commission officials conduct the draw for the Queensland Senate ballot paper.

Cameron Atfield   Queenslanders will have 40 more Senate candidates to choose from than they did at the 2013 election, after 122 candidates put their names forward for election.

ALP candidate to remove army billboards

Labor candidate Pat O'Neill's billboard, on St Paul's Terrace, will be removed along by Saturday night.

Cameron Atfield   Pat O'Neill used billboards depicting him in his army uniform.

Comments 12

Penny Wong lavishes praise on Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese launching his campaign with Penny Wong at Vic on the Park Pub in Enmore.

Deborah Snow   Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese's political love-in points to a strong alliance between the pair after the election

Defence eyes campaign ban on wearing uniforms

Canning MP Andrew Hastie says he won't remove photos of himself in uniform from his federal election campaign material.

David Wroe and Tom McIlroy   The Australian Defence Force is seriously considering asking the next government to change the law to prohibit election campaign material featuring military uniforms, Fairfax Media understands.

The tax havens costing Australia $6b a year

There are tricks available to multinational corporations to reduce their tax bills, Oxfam's report says.

Nassim Khadem   The world's poorest people, and women in particular, bear the brunt of global tax dodging, says Oxfam.

Comments 12

Australians quick to embrace China, survey finds

Some 69 per cent of Australians believe China has the most influence in Asia today.

David Wroe   Australians think China already dominates Asia – more than the Chinese even believe it themselves.

Palmer announces Qld Senate team

Outgoing federal MP Clive Palmer brushed off questions about whether his candidates had a legitimate chance given his ...

Clive Palmer has again denied his party is fuelled by nepotism after announcing two business figures and repeat candidates closely tied to him as his Queensland Senate team.

Comments 4

Liberals investigating 'black ops' meeting

NSW Young Liberal president Alex Dore with Tony Abbott.

Michael Koziol   The NSW Liberal Party is investigating an attempted leadership coup at a chaotic Young Liberal branch meeting, which sources say represents the thin end of the wedge for the factionally-riven party.

Shorten shifts focus to the economy

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten tours the storm affected Coogee Surf Life Saving Club in Sydney on Tuesday.

James Massola   Focus shifts back to the economy as Labor releases economic plan in an attempt to get on the front foot and as the govt attacks Shorten over company tax.

The torment of women at Nauru

Asylum seekers on Nauru.

Nicole Hasham   The sky was fast plunging into darkness when a car pulled up to Amina*, and the male driver leaned out to warn her about wild dogs.

Public servants could face court over death: lawyers

Manus Island detainee Hamid Khazaei, who died in 2014.

Noel Towell   Canberra bureaucrats could find themselves in the dock over young asylum seeker's death.

Subs could be vulnerable to new weapons technology: Beazley

"Technologies in the military sphere are about to change dramatically": Former Labor leader Kim Beazley.

Deborah Snow   Former Labor leader and onetime defence minister Kim Beazley has cautioned that dramatic changes in military technology over the next decade could have an impact on Australia's $50 billion submarine replacement program, given the rapid development of unmanned submersible platforms that are better able to detect conventional submarines. 

Bob Brown's new campaign: development through the Tarkine

Bob Brown

Adam Morton   Former Greens leader Bob Brown is trying to get backing for a development in pristine Tasmanian wilderness – in order to save it.

Hundreds of detention centre abuses go unreported

Comcare has not visited the Nauru or Manus Island facilities this year.

Bianca Hall and Noel Towell   Asha was only 12 months old when she pulled over container of boiling water on Nauru, severely scalding herself.

Childcare plan wins backing

Teacher Kate King with her daughter, Elise, 3, at their Malvern East home.

Carolyn Webb   Malvern East mother-of-one Kate King says she would be better off under the Labor childcare policy

Family mourns for Jamie Bright, killed by an Islamic State bullet

An image of Jamie Bright posted on social media.

David Wroe   Jamie Bright's body lies frozen in a Kurdish hospital in the centre of one of the most geopolitically fraught places on Earth.

PM falters amid company tax, super confusion

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday.

Mark Kenny   The Coalition government has slipped behind Labor for the first time since Malcolm Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott, led by a continuing collapse in Mr Turnbull's once stratospheric personal standing, according to the latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll.

Losing it, one mistake at a time

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wore hollow lens mixed reality goggles at SAAB Australia in Adelaide.

Mark Kenny   This election has often been described as Malcolm Turnbull's to lose. How prophetic because that seems to be what he is busy doing. Losing it.

'It shows our parliament is stuck in the dark ages'

Senator Nova Peris.

Latika Bourke   Even if 1 million Australians signed an online petition, the Parliament would be able to completely ignore it.

Europe needs a Tony Abbott-style approach to stopping the boats, says Tory MEP

Tory MP Daniel Hannan at a pro-Brexit event in London this week.

Latika Bourke   Europe needs to take an Australian approach to stemming the flow of migrant votes, including turning back boats, two of which have recently arrived in the channel, a prominent tory MP says.

The question that nearly threw Albanese

Anthony Albanese at Lewisham with students Oscar Chaffey, 15,  and Luc Velez, 16.

Deborah Snow   The question that threw Anthony Albanese on the campaign trail.

Comment

Election 2016: the photographers' campaign

Photographers Alex Ellinghausen and Andrew Meares are travelling with Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten.These are some of their key images.

Attack on some of us more than others, and we should say so

The Orlando attack has been described as an attack on all of us. In some ways that's true - but it's also a homophobic hate crime, and we should say so.

Labor's recurring nightmare is haunting Shorten

There's no second prize in elections. And history has a tendency to repeat itself.

Cutbacks from Labor. It's about time

Labor is about to do what the Coalition did in the leadup to the last election. It's about to face reality.

Turnbull has the numbers

Malcolm Turnbull has the key numbers and the population is not fired-up enough to see Labor take the leadership of the country come July 2.

Labor errs on the politics of economics

If you're the leader of a party known for sending a cashed-up budget into the red when last in office, then the last thing you should do is behave in ways that confirms your opponents' worst depiction of you.

RBA's vote of confidence in Turnbull

This is one of the oddest endorsements you'll see this election campaign.

Australia should not treat Bright like terrorist

Jamie Bright was shot dead by an Islamic State fighter near the town of al-Shaddadi, in north-eastern Syria.

People should be free to leave country

No-one should have to love Australia or leave but people should have the right to go if they want.

Why Turnbull is his own worst enemy

Malcolm Turnbull's courage to swim against the tide had defined the future PM in the public mind. But his non-delivery since has offered Labor its best opportunity to dismantle his allure.

Brexiters promise Australian-style immigration system

Your personally curated news with six things you need to know before you get going.

Does Shorten have a secret two-election strategy?

Bill Shorten will deny it, but does he have one eye on his survival as Labor leader and the other on 2019?

Angry Donald Trump hits out at 'sleaze' media

Your personally curated news with six things you need to know before you get going.

Let's dig deep for public schools

Six-year old Josie (not her real name) was enrolled in a prestigious private elementary school and progressing well, so well that her reading was well above average. Her parents asked the principal if she could be moved up a class or have her classes more personally tailored.

Canberra, you just don't count in this election

Canberra residents don't count for much when compared to the attention that residents of bellwether seats garner.