Scott Morrison’s comments on the 14th anniversary of the Stolen Generations’ Apology show a lack of understanding of what is really needed to ensure healing for First Nations peoples.
Although mateship is largely seen as a positive feature of Australian life, defining it is difficult and attempts to politicise it are generally frowned upon.
Click through a timeline to make sense of Australia’s long, tumultuous years of shifting climate policies ahead of next month’s international climate summit in Glasgow.
A slide by Gordon H. Woodhouse to accompany a 1901 lecture by his father Clarence entitled ‘exploration and development of Australia’.
State Library of Victoria
Exclusion has been central to utopian ideas of Australia since before Federation. It still lingers. To progress in this climate-challenged century, Australia’s foundational wrongs must be righted.
Those on the Christian right in Australia once wielded considerable clout, but they are no longer in a position to bring the majority of Australians in line with their views.
In the Howard government, there was near-consensus in Cabinet that an ETS was eventually likely. A spike in asylum-seeker arrivals stimulated the hard “deterrent’ strategy” that would morph into the “Pacific Solution” in 2001.
Michelle Grattan discusses politics, and life after politics, with Christopher Pyne.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has asked his department to probe whether Bridget McKenzie was in breach of ministerial standards in her handling of the sports grants program.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Our government has grappled for years to devise ethical standards for ministers and other officials. But codes are only part of the answer – MPs must also take responsibility for their own conduct.
John Howard called an election a fortnight after announcing the GST on August 13 1998, which he only narrowly won.
National Archives of Australia
Labor’s new policy process shouldn’t be rushed, but taking time inevitably leaves a vacuum, which Albanese will try to fill the space with a series of “vision statements”.
The perception of Jones’ power has led to him being courted by politicians, and so wielding actual power.
AAP/Joel Carrett
The 2001 federal election was a watershed moment for Australian national security that has set a policy agenda for almost two decades.
It is becoming harder to argue that neoliberal market solutions, from tax cuts to deregulation, will necessarily benefit and protect ordinary voters.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
Whether they form the next government or not, the Liberals need to reconsider their reliance on neoliberal economics, which may no longer be serving the party – or the country.
John Howard’s Coalition won the November 2001 election, but the September 11 attacks had more impact on that outcome than the Tampa crisis.
AAP/Dean Lewins
It is often thought that the Tampa incident won John Howard the 2001 election, but an analysis of polling from the time shows the September 11 attacks had a far bigger impact on voting intentions.
The newly sworn-in Howard ministry in March 1996.
National Archives of Australia
The latest release from the National Archives reveals how the Howard government managed a budget deficit, and presents a striking contrast with the Abbott government’s framing of the 2013 budget.