Heath Aston is a federal political correspondent. Most recently Heath was the state political editor for the Sun-Herald. Before joining the NSW press gallery he worked for newspapers in Sydney and London.
Tax avoidance by multinational oil and gas companies, and the rigour with which the Federal Government ensures they pay a fair share for the offshore riches they exploit, will be put under the spotlight of a Parliamentary inquiry.
Lawyers for the Labor Party have accused the Coalition of "authoritarian behaviour" after the Turnbull Government doubled down on its legal threats to a retiree and demanded the ALP also stop using the Medicare logo in its campaigning.
A damning investigation has found multinational companies are claiming billions of dollars in questionable deductions while exploiting the nation's natural riches.
Lebanese Australians have demanded Immigration Minister Peter Dutton release the ethnic backgrounds of other criminal offenders or explain why he chose to "demonise" their community in his comments to Parliament.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has promised to review legal advice that led to a retiree being threatened with court action unless he pulls down his "save Medicare" website as intellectual property experts questioned strength of the government's position.
A Labor senator has been blasted for using the appearance of Michaelia Cash as the butt of a joke about animals.
The Turnbull government has threatened to sue a retiree who established a little-visited website that campaigns against cuts to Medicare, accusing him of unauthorised use of the healthcare system's green and yellow logo.
The governments of Nigeria, Indonesia and Malaysia - Australia's competitors in the oil and gas export sector - extract twice as much tax revenue from petroleum companies as a proportion of production than the federal and state governments combined.
One of the architects of Australia's tax system on natural resources, Craig Emerson, has backed calls for a parliamentary inquiry into why the boom in liquefied natural gas exports is failing to deliver any meaningful contribution to the public purse.
Australia's most senior public servant, Martin Parkinson, has taken a veiled swipe at the short-sightedness of Donald Trump's pledge to tear up the Trans-Pacific Partnership and scale back the United States' economic leadership in Asia.
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