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Forget Oprah: Contenders for Australia's next female PM
The US is buzzing about Oprah for president. But where's Australia's next female leader? Are they even in Parliament yet?
The US is buzzing about Oprah for president. But where's Australia's next female leader? Are they even in Parliament yet?
As Australian politics contemplates the year ahead, here is a wish list for how it should approach 2018.
Malcolm Turnbull can be increasingly confident of leading into the next election, but it could all end rather quickly if he pulls the wrong rein.
What a wild ride you were in federal politics, 2017. Here are some of the names that made the year such a special brew of stuff ups and historic change.
From *that* phonecall with Trump, to Dastyari's final dash. Federal politics has been full of surprises in 2017.
Bill Shorten would have felt a clear winner, but his stocks sank quickly.
Scott Morrison's warning that as Australians loaf about on their summer holidays, companies headquartered overseas would be fixing to scarper because of our uncompetitive company taxes, was either political hyperbole, or a clear and present danger to prosperity.
Two Queenslanders leapt from the backbench, straight into cabinet. It's not a joke that many press gallery journalists had to Google these guys when their names were read out by the Prime Minister on Tuesday afternoon.
Now we have a frank explanation of how power is really apportioned within the Coalition: geography.
A stroll through the national accounts as the calendar year ends reveals a country steadily putting its finances back into shape after a decade of global upheaval, and the massive stimulatory spending used to tame it. And it shows an unpopular Coalition government unaccustomed to seeing much luck, suddenly standing knee-deep in the stuff.
Malcolm Turnbull has had his share of bad luck but, of late, his fortunes seem to have changed.
If Malcolm Turnbull does notch up 30 unfavourable Newspolls in 2018, it's most likely nothing at all will happen.
Courtesy of a strong(ish) result in Bennelong, Malcolm Turnbull's Christmas just went from nervous to relaxed.
Malcolm Turnbull's year-of-living-dangerously ends today. Probably. Or a worse one begins.
Beijing's strong reaction to Australia's foreign political interference debate reflects the fact it is being increasingly called out on its activity, both here and around the world, and is hating the attention.
Christmas is a time for peace on earth and good will to all people except, it seems, in the Bennelong byelection.
Daily robocalls. Endless sponsored Facebook posts. Junk mail by the tonne. Never has anyone cared so much about the voters of Bennelong.
Bennelong – which sits in the heartland of suburban Sydney – is an electorate that matters terribly for symbolic and very real political reasons.
Looking through the numbers in this ReachTEL poll reveals the issues behind this contest, although some findings confound as much as explain.
Many Australian business already doing the right thing will welcome greater transparency.
It's been a year the federal Coalition will probably try to forget.
Ironically, the manner and timing of Sam Dastyari's departure has achieved a number of things.
The Turnbull government is now so eager to capitalise on Bill Shorten's acute pain over the Sam Dastyari affair, that it has dialled up its anti-Beijing language to eleven.
Rainbow coalition? It felt like the term was designed for this particular moment.
Like it or not, history will show it was the Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull who presided over a renovation of the nation's outdated and discriminatory marriage law.
Citizenship declaration process that was supposed to clear up the section 44 mess simply ushers in a new uncertainty.
So now they can afford a tax cut? Just months ago they had to push tax rates up.
Bill Shorten should be a lot happier. But storm clouds are gathering.
Harold Holt plunged into the turbulent waters of Victoria's isolated Cheviot Beach on December 17, 1967.
The divides within Australian society make any exercise of leadership devilishly difficult.
The hurly-burly of the 2016 election campaign, as seen through the eyes of Fairfax reporters and photographers.
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