In 1963, Arthur Calwell published Labor’s Role in Modern Society, his 190-page treatise on his political party and Australian politics.

Around this time 12 years ago, Barnaby Joyce stood up and declared the average family lamb roast was about to cost $100.

You could almost taste the desperation in the air as various Liberal MPs attempted to justify their self destruction; but perhaps the most tasteless excuses were when it came to justifying their decision to the next generation.

The capital gains tax concession and negative gearing have worked together to make housing less affordable and exacerbate inequality.

One of my first journalism jobs was at a regional newspaper with a printing press attached. As a baby journalist, it was magical – you could see your front page story printed in front of you before it was bundled and sent out on trucks to become the next day’s news.

One of the hardest things for people to understand with this latest Liberal Party implosion is that it’s not rational.

We are in, quite possibly, the stupidest timeline.

The dispute between Chris Hedges and David Marr reveals much about the state of our press.

“Single JobSeeker [payment] just hit $400 a week. Let me know how you’d go if you were getting that little and were randomly not paid.” This comment, from the people behind Nobody Deserves Poverty, points to the ignored cruelty at the heart of one of Australia’s most shameful open secrets. The mutual obligations system –

Back in 2003, then prime minister John Howard spoke to ABC radio Brisbane and made the infamous claim that no one was approaching him on the street to complain about their house prices going up.

Australia has always had influence and power, it has just been too cowed to use it.

We need to talk about the Pacific.

Let’s take a bit of a look at responsibility shall we?

Northern Ireland political philosopher Onora O’Neill gave a series of lectures on “trust” in 2002, where she observed it is one of the most important social constructs we can hold:

This shouldn’t be new information to anyone who has been paying attention, but it is now undeniable. The Coalition is a fringe party, and should be treated as such.

A key problem with the economic roundtable is many of those hauled in to fix Australia’s productivity black hole have spent the past 25 years gunning for more privatisation.

“Prime Minister, how do you get the relationship with Israel back on track from here?”

Canberra is in the grip of Abundance fever, a virus that threatens to overwhelm public policy with a diagnosis of overregulation. For those afflicted, the treatment is to maintain the status quo, but with the sheen of progressivism. The Abundance agenda is being presented as a panacea for all of America’s problems, and therefore also Australia’s problems. It’s shaping

After months of reflection, recriminations and resolute commitments to change, we finally have the first concrete policy position for a government Sussan Ley would lead.

US professor and activist Noam Chomsky used to always advise people who wanted to know the truth to read the business press, because their readers needed to know what was really going on.

Most children with Eastern European relatives will learn this lesson young; a scorpion wants to cross a river but it can not swim. It sees a frog about to get into the river and pleads with it for a ride.

There used to be a myth that News Corp could make or break governments.

The Wrap with Amy Remeikis If there is one thing you can bank on, it is that conservative governments know how to use power. They never shy away from it. If a conservative government wants to change something, it will, and it won’t worry about who it is annoying, or the pushback, or whether or

The first week of the 48th Parliament was very revealing.

Amy Remeikis and Matt Grudnoff preview the first parliamentary sitting week.

Former Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley famously didn’t own a dinner suit.

This week, press gallery doyenne Michelle Grattan wrote about political and news cycles and how the two work.

If you feel like you are going a little insane at the moment, you’re not alone.