The states’ handover of driver licence data for a beefed up national facial biometric matching capability would only bring existing arrangements into ‘real time’.
The AFP and state counterparts want longer questioning and detention time between a person being arrested and either charged or released.
Georgie Moore/AAP
A plan to fine hospitals for avoidable hospitalisations and pay GPs to prevent them has many issues. The main problem is that it’s impossible to measure the outcomes of health care in Australia.
A single, national market that supplies all of Australia’s electricty is looking dangerously outdated – and politically impossible.
Shutterstock
The idea that Australia’s national electricity market is either useful or feasible has simply passed.
The controversial Narrabri coal seam gas project. Australia has plenty of gas reserves that are cheaper to develop and a safer bet.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Australia has enough gas reserves to supply the next 25 years’ demand. Federal pressure to lift state bans on onshore gas development is pointless, risky – and won’t bring prices down.
The new anti-terror laws COAG has proposed for Australia go far beyond those in the UK.
AAP/Rob Blakers
Proposed new laws will restrict parole and bail to those merely associated in some way with terrorism, even when they have not be arrested for – or convicted of – a specific terrorism offence.
Federal and state leaders will convene as soon as practicable for a special COAG meeting on counter-terrorism.
AAP/Rob Blakers
States and territories have agreed to strengthen their laws to ensure a presumption against granting bail or parole when people had ‘demonstrated support for, or have links to, terrorist activity’.
South Australia has the most wind energy in the country.
Wind turbine image from www.shutterstock.com
The federal government has fallen behind Labor in Newspoll for the first time under Malcolm Turnbull, with Labor now leading 51-49% on a two-party basis.
In a stage-managed moment organised by the Prime Minister’s Office, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison walk together to a car taking them to the airport.
Pat Hutchens
Premiers and chief ministers on Friday delivered a humiliating public blow to Malcolm Turnbull, bluntly telling him they didn’t want even to think about his “big idea” to allow them to raise income tax…
The new funding meets some of the shortfall left by the 2014 budget cuts.
AAP/Lucas Coch
States will receive an additional A$2.9 billion from July 2017 to June 2020, with growth in Commonwealth funding capped at 6.5%. The Conversation’s experts respond.
The government’s proposal looks like nothing more than a cost shifting exercise.
from www.shutterstock.com
The prime minister’s proposal to cease federal funding for public schools is a response to a budgetary problem, not a way to improve educational outcomes.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the COAG meeting with state and territory premiers and treasurers.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Giving states the power to levy income tax won’t make up for the shortfall in health and education funding and it could mean poorer states are worse off.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, meeting with state leaders today, says if we were starting from scratch we’d tax differently.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Malcolm Turnbull is the venture capitalist of politics who, with his bid to force the states to raise a slice of income tax, has invested heavily in a risky enterprise.
Whether he succeeds or not, Malcolm Turnbull’s attempt to reform the federation will be a long and tricky process.
AAP/Ben Macmahon
Malcolm Turnbull’s bold plan to give states the power to levy income tax is a risky move, and the latest in a string of attempts to ‘fix’ federal-state relations that have not succeeded.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will face off with state premiers today.
David Moir/AAP
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne