Tony Abbott risks having same-sex marriage used against him electorally – just as his Liberal Party once tried to use it against Labor.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
As opposition leader Bill Shorten prepares to introduce an amendment on Monday to the Marriage Act to legalise same-sex marriage, why has Australia lagged so far behind?
In his first budget and in opposition, Joe Hockey’s single-minded focus was on cutting the budget debt and deficits. For his second budget he’s telling a different story.
AAP/Paul Miller
Joe Hockey’s first budget was a declaration of ideological belief. The second is about political survival and depends on breathing life back into the economy – the ideological urgency can wait.
Power shift: Richard Di Natale’s elevation as the new Greens’ leader, replacing Tasmanian Christine Milne, marks the rise of the Victorian Greens.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The balance of power in Australian green politics has shifted with the choice of Victorian Senator Richard Di Natale as Greens’ leader – and the speed of the change is a lesson for other parties.
Since its 2010-13 ‘partnership’ with the Greens, any failure by Labor to mark its independence has been punished by the electorate.
AAP/Alan Porritt
When it comes to producing a comprehensive, far-reaching policy regime – a coherent vision for Australia’s society and economy and how to turn it into reality – the government is only getting started.
Australian and Canadian prime ministers Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper operate in political cultures where all-out warfare is now the norm.
AAP/Steve Christo
Peta Credlin is in the classic “double bind” of all women in power: if they take charge, they transgress the gendered expectations that “female qualities” are best suited to a supporting role.
Unlike early 20th-century prime minister Alfred Deakin, Tony Abbott has no language for reaching out to the Australian people.
Library of Congress
Alfred Deakin knew what he believed in; it helped him to believe in himself, and to survive three terms as prime minister.
The Abbott government’s expedited passage of national security laws in 2014 demonstrated an underlying disrespect for the legislative process.
AAP/Nikki Short
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has made two key pledges in recent weeks – to begin “good government” and to no longer give “the benefit of doubt” to people suspected of planning terrorist activities in Australia…
Joe Hockey’s 2012 ‘age of entitlement’ speech was unusually candid, but as treasurer he has shied away from tackling the tax perks that burden the budget.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Whenever an Australian government runs into trouble we hear calls for a clearer narrative. The latest contribution comes in a thoughtful article from Waleed Aly. Aly points to the similar undermining of…
Tony Abbott is offering logical evidence and emotional appeals, but the rhetorical problem is his own loss of credibility and authority.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
“Is it me?” That was the question John Howard reportedly asked his cabinet colleagues as his government remained stubbornly behind in the polls in 2007. One of those colleagues, Tony Abbott, now confronts…
John Howard sealed his fate by going too far with WorkChoices, but he got the balance right and succeeded with the GST reform.
AAP/Andrew Brownbill
The distinction between the global and the local is collapsing under the pressure of climate change, economic restructuring, global migration and jihadism on the one hand and the populist and information…
Unlike in Queensland, NSW Premier Mike Baird will not be able to keep Tony Abbott away from the campaign trail.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
The major political parties are only days away from launching their campaigns for this year’s New South Wales state election, to be held on March 28. As state political issues that don’t involve the Independent…
The cost of leaving Tony Abbott in the prime ministership is to consign the government to limbo while the Liberals wait to judge his performance.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Tony Abbott is precariously perched on icy slopes – deeply unpopular both in the community and with his backbench. More slips and/or continued disastrous polling would plunge him to political death, while…
When Queensland MP Tim Nicholls said the Newman government didn’t ‘communicate’ well enough, he cast the audience as passive, without views or values of their own.
AAP/John Pryke
Amid uncertainty over Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s future even if he survives a leadership spill on Monday, the fallout from the shock Queensland election result and political chaos in the Northern Territory…
Why is it that, in recent years, federal party MPs have reached the conclusion that the only way to deal with an unpopular leader is by deposing them?
AAP/Nikki Short
It is difficult to pinpoint a specific reason to explain the leadership crisis presently gripping the federal Liberal Party. Why is it that Prime Minister Tony Abbott is facing a leadership spill only…
Chief Government Whip Philip Ruddock has confirmed that the Liberal party room will vote on a leadership spill motion when it meets next Tuesday. After days of speculation, backbench West Australian MP…
If the Liberal leadership comes to a crunch at some point, any “no challenge” promises from Julie Bishop become meaningless.
AAP/Nikki Short
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was dispatched on Tuesday night to announce there’d been unanimous support for Tony Abbott in cabinet, which is meeting for two days. “That’s a strong message, not only…
Liberal backbencher Dennis Jensen said Tony Abbott ‘is not capable of making the transition to prime minister’ from opposition.
AAP/Alan Porritt
West Australian Liberal backbencher Dennis Jensen has urged the Liberals to hold a leadership vote next week, declaring Tony Abbott is not an effective leader and his position is “terminal”. Jensen told…
Strong men with a strong message to promote: Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Queensland Premier Campbell Newman in happier days at the Federal Liberal Party Council meeting, June 2014.
AAP/David Crosling
* Updated Tuesday 11pm AEDT: A state premier gone, a chief minister fighting off a coup, and a prime minister struggling to avoid the others’ fate. Australian politics is suddenly all about consultative…