Waves of policies from successive Coalition and Labor governments have followed a paternalistic lead. This has created further impediments to thousands of Indigenous peoples who are doing plenty.
We thought Malcolm Turnbull had nailed his colours to the mast on climate policy - but maybe not.
AAP Image/Joel Carrett
Malcolm Turnbull has said coal will be important for “many decades to come” – joining a long line of prime ministers who talked big on climate policy but found themselves talking up fossil fuels.
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm is among those pushing for restrictions on the Adler shotgun to be lifted.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The hyperbole about the Adler shotgun simply does not match with the facts. This is symptomatic of the generally poor quality of debate around firearm policy in Australia.
Within weeks of the ‘Children Overboard’ claims, the Howard government enforced a media blackout of sorts on asylum seekers.
Tim Wimborne/Reuters
The decision to award former Prime Minister John Howard an honorary doctorate was criticised. So what are honorary titles - and why do we still have them?
Malcolm Turnbull is something of an odd-man-out in the Liberal Party.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Skirmishes over funding for renewable energy research are just the latest battle in a saga that stretches back to the early 1980s – years before the public became widely aware of the climate threat.
The LGBTI community fears the nastiness a plebiscite on marriage equality could bring forth.
AAP
As the government hints the marriage equality plebiscite may be delayed until 2017, calls intensify for the parliament to legislate on the issue instead. So what is parliament’s role here?
As per tradition Malcolm Turnbull has hosted the annual Prime Minister’s XI cricket match.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Since his ascendancy, the currently trim and muscular-looking Malcolm Turnbull has – for an Australian prime minister – had unusually little to say about sport.
Liberal senator Cory Bernardi claims his ‘Australian Conservatives’ movement has recorded more than 50,000 registrations.
AAP/Sam Mooy
In the last 12 months, under the leadership of an eastern suburbs small-l liberal, the Liberal Party has decided it wants to look more like the party of Hewson than the party of Howard.
Former prime minister John Howard says he doesn’t retreat from his decision on Iraq.
David Moir/AAP
Not only is the Australian Christian Lobby losing relevance, it has had to appeal to Bill Shorten to pay attention to the group in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull will be working hard to prevent the kind of errors and complacency that have tripped up leaders before them.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The recent history of elections in Australia is a varied one, with some spectacular crashes and own goals along the way.
Senator Ian Macdonald, pictured here speaking against the carbon tax in 2014, has since described human-induced climate change as “farcical and fanciful”.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
After fighting the 1990 election on a stronger climate platform than Labor, the following two decades saw an ebb and flow of climate scepticism in the Liberal Party, which still continues today.
Malcolm Turnbull tosses the coin ahead of the politicians versus Canberra Press Gallery cricket match on Sunday.
Lukas Coch/AAP
When you are Malcolm Turnbull floundering in the heavy seas of tax reform, it is perhaps unfortunate that the 20th anniversary of the election of the Howard government has come around at this particular…
Labor has accused Stuart Robert of breaching ministerial guidelines by misusing public office.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The principle underlying the ministerial standards is that ministers should uphold the public’s trust as they wield a great deal of power deriving from their public office.