Morality first, politics second – Waleed Aly on political violence

After the attack on Independent MP Helen Haines, it's been a real horror week in Australian politics. Last week SMH and The Age columnist Waleed Aly wrote a column titled, "More Australians believe in political violence than go to church each week. This won't end well". Given the chilling prescien…

Jim Chalmers’ facts, an ordinary voter’s feelings and the political reality

This week – again – is all about the economy, which includes a visit from a ghost of the past in the form of former treasurer Josh Frydenberg. But the big topic for today is current treasurerJim Chalmers and a speech he gave this week, in which he warned progressives not to mock One Nation voters.…

Coalition’s 'race to the bottom on migration' and former immigration official answers your questions

It’s been a year since Liberal MP Andrew Hastie quit Sussan Ley’s frontbench to speak his mind on migration. His decision fractured the Coalition and Ley’s ambition to woo back multicultural communities with a more moderate stance. How things change in a year. But through it all, migration has be…

Interest rates and Labor's spending, and the Greens look to Mamdani

Anthony Albanese is back from the United Nations in New York to a slump in his approval rating and more economic pain. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank raised interest rates to a 15-year-high due to continued inflation pressure. So what's driving inflation? How much is government spending contributing…

Guardrails or ‘world leader’: How Anthony Albanese responds to OpenAI’s hack

Today we’re going international to talk about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trip to New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. It’s been an eventful few days for the PM who has, among other things, spoken about Australia’s attempts to crack down on social media, me…

Migration plan revealed: Who comes, who leaves and what it all means

Today we’re hot off the press, to use an old newsroom cliche, to talk about the federal government’s new plan for migration. Immigration Minister Tony Burke gave a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday where he announced significant changes. These changes included curtailing vi…

Superannuation and the One Nation press conference that had everyone watching

This week we’re joining the dots between two different stories: the fight over superannuation, and the colourful past of One Nation’s leader in Victoria, Warren Pickering. On Monday, Pauline Hanson told voters her party would allow renters and prospective home buyers to withdraw their superannuati…

What One Nation’s WA win means, and Hanson’s incitement claim

In this week’s episode, we dissect Labor’s brutal loss to One Nation in a supposedly safe seat in Western Australia. Does this byelection really signify, as victor Luke Herdegen put it, that no MP is safe from the “orange tsunami”? One Liberal MP who is worried is Andrew Hastie. Liberal strategis…

The magical mystery tour of immigration numbers, and the new One Nation voter profile

This week we reported on some interesting polling that grappled with what makes One Nation voters tick, and one issue stood out. There’s also been an argy-bargy in the party this week over immigration numbers, the net result of which being, perhaps, that One Nation is not totally against migration…

Tony Wright on the best and worst prime ministers, and the courage needed now

Today we have something special and a little bit different because Tony Wright, one of the stalwarts of Australian political writing, is stepping back from daily newsroom duties after 50 years in journalism. For about 30 of these years, Tony reported on federal politics. Bob Hawke was the first pri…