South Australian Senator, Cory Bernardi, is said to be preparing to quit the Liberals and launch a new party. Perhaps. It is rumoured. The signs are there. And he would, apparently, be bankrolled by mining magnate, Gina Rinehart. Bernardi appears to have drawn great inspiration from Donald Trump’s success in the United States. But if...

Like much else in the forty-fifth parliament’s infancy, the same-sex marriage plebiscite has become hostage to the dynamics of contemporary politics: a weakened prime minister, a ferociously oppositional federal opposition led by a man also less than secure in his job, and a large, attention-craving Senate crossbench. As with last week’s big topic, political finance...

A Labor think tank has given a timely warning about the seductive appeal of triumphs past Last month in London, Michael Cooney, executive director of the Labor Party’s main think tank, the Chifley Research Centre, called for an end to what he termed “nostalgia for the new.” In a speech called “ In the Shadow...

This paper explores how the struggle between the political rights of property and the political rights of the people shaped the design of Australian political institutions and how this legacy continues to affect Australian democracy.

FEDERAL finance minister Lindsay Tanner is not a team player. We saw this on ABC1’s Q&A last week when he flagrantly and selfishly ignored the Kevin Rudd communication rulebook.