Bill Shorten is the longest-serving Labor leader since Kim Beazley in his first stint in office.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The reality is that Bill Shorten is, in many ways, a garden-variety centre-left leader.
Today the Commonwealth exists as an organisation in search of a rationale.
Reuters
Without a clear full stop there can be no certainty that the unravelling of the British Empire has ended even now.
Barnaby Joyce has denied he breached ministerial standards with the employment of his partner, Vikki Campion.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The appointment of ministerial advisers is based on a party-political network of patronage, where the primary consideration is loyalty to the political party – not merit.
Prime Minister Bob Hawke celebrates the final cabinet meeting in Old Parliament House, 1988.
National Archives of Australia
A new ABC documentary presents a nostalgic but compelling overview of one of Australia’s most successful prime ministers.
A reversion to imperial imbalance in the British-Australian relationship began with the Whitlam government’s election and ended with its dismissal.
AAP/NAA
The continued embargo on documents relating to the dismissal of the Whitlam government point to the lingering imperial power that comes from an incomplete severance of colonial ties.
The Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast will set the scene for a year of challenges for this grouping of nations.
AAP
We are so accustomed to hearing about American exceptionalism that British exceptionalism is rarely discussed.
Same-sex marriage becoming legal was rated by as the most significant event in their history by the largest proportion of respondents.
AAP/Lukas Coch
A new survey asking Australians to rank the most significant events in their lifetimes show that same-sex marriage, September 11 and the apology to the Stolen Generations matter most.
Australia’s Constitution vests executive power in the Queen and says that that power is exercised ‘on her behalf’ by the governor-general.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Many of the questions that would arise if Australia wants to become a republic have been successfully tackled elsewhere.
Paul Keating drove a policy agenda that had been rallied after the 1993 victory.
AAP/NAA
After 1993, Paul Keating became ever-more dominant in cabinet policy discussions to ensure a legacy for the Labor government.
Queen Elizabeth signs the visitors’ book at Parliament House, while Prime Minister Paul Keating and Parliament House officials look on in February 1992.
National Archives of Australia
The arguments about a potential Australian republic in cabinet submissions suggest a failure of imagination and, more seriously, of trust.
Paul Keating is known as one of the most Indonesia-friendly Australian prime ministers.
AAP/NAA
It was Paul Keating himself who first raised the idea of a security agreement between Indonesia and Australia in June 1994 to Indonesian President Soeharto.
PA Archive
If Labour was such a disaster during this decade, how come so many of its then policies are now maintstream thinking?
Queensland Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls (right) and deputy leader Deb Frecklington.
AAP
For the Queensland LNP, the divisions between the progressive and conservative forces within the party may hamper its political prospects.
Kevin Rudd was swept into office at the 2007 federal election.
AAP/Tony Phillips
It is ten years since the 2007 election that swept Kevin Rudd into office. But if Kim Beazley had become PM instead, we might have avoided the constant instability and dysfunction we see today.
Blaxland MP Jason Clare voted ‘yes’ to same-sex marriage in a strong ‘no’ electorate.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Some people may think it’s the duty of their MP to vote in the way they do. But political theory shows this doesn’t work.
A client whose hair she had been cutting for 20 years came in as usual, and then, without any prompting or preamble, launched into a tirade against Muslims.
Shutterstock
In a suburban hair salon, a Muslim woman suddenly feels unwelcome in the country she has loved for 40 years.
The status of facts and their use in politics hasn’t changed as a result of Donald Trump’s election.
Reuters/Joshua Roberts
In politics, alternative facts exist. And they always have.
Abbott’s Right ignores completely the influence of Catholic thinking on the former prime minister.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
A new book attempts to cloak Tony Abbott in a political philosophy, but is not entirely convincing.
Beautiful Cottesloe beach in Perth – could Western Australians soon file for divorce from the rest of us?
AAP/Karen Sweeney
To secede or not to secede, that is the question for WA, as it considers going it alone (though not everyone is taking it seriously).
Past and present: Bob Brown (centre) pictured in 2010 with Greens colleagues including current leader Richard Di Natale (right).
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The environmental issues we face are ideal recruiting for green parties, but the breakthroughs aren’t happening, and after 25 years as a federal party the Greens are still fighting on the same fronts.