Was Albanese’s response to the synagogue attack really that bad?

This week was dominated by the appalling anti-Semitic attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea in Melbourne’s south-east. There followed more attacks in Sydney - A car was torched in the Eastern suburbs, where there is a strong Jewish community, and houses there were graffitied with anti-I…

Niki Savva on why the PM should retire, even if he does win the next election

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should retire. Not right now, but a “decent interval” after the next election, if he wins it.  So says Sydney Morning Herald and Age columnist Niki Savva, who joins Jacqueline Maley this week to talk about the government’s prospects of re-election, how well Peter Du…

A 2024 fire sale, ‘something big’ needed on cost of living

This week was the last sitting week of the parliamentary year, and there is speculation the Prime Minister will call an election early in 2025, meaning it might have been the last parliamentary session of the Albanese government, full stop. So what legislation did the government get through this w…

Why Peter Dutton is opposing foreign student caps

This week, the federal Opposition ruled out co-operating with the government on legislation to cap the number of international students coming to study at Australian universities.  Both Labor and the Coalition say that international student numbers need to come down, to ease pressure on housing an…

Inside Politics: What's going on with the Greens?

As much as we can know anything these days, we can probably say the next election is going to be very close.  But what about the Greens, often called the third party of Australian politics? How are they faring with the Australian public? Have they successfully rebranded from being the party of the…

Will Dutton be tempted by Trump’s ‘war on woke’?

Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th American president. His decisive victory will have major impacts on global affairs and on the Australian economy. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton were quick to congratulate Trump, and both leaders will be assessing their …

We are not America, why are we debating abortion?

Politics is full of surprises but few people expected abortion policy to be back on the agenda in 2024. The fierce abortion debate in the United States has been turbocharged by the upcoming presidential election.  Now the fight over reproductive rights has made its way to Australia.  Abortion has…

Anthony Albanese and the Copacabana drama

It’s probably our greatest national obsession. Property: buying it, selling it, how much it costs and how hard it is to afford.  This week Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made headlines when it was reported he had bought a $4.3 million ocean-front beach house at Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast…

Albanese ‘tripping himself up’ playing both sides of the war

A year on from the stunning October 7 attack by Hamas on Israeli towns, our parliament - on the other side of the world - is again convulsing over the widening war. As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese jets off to the influential ASEAN summit in Laos, he is trying to lower the temperature on a polar…

Is Dutton's strategy to derail government agenda working?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wanted to talk about the budget surplus and the crack-down on the big supermarkets over their alleged ill-treatment of customers this week, but that was derailed by the escalating conflict in the Middle East.  While the government struggled to find the right form of…