There are no parallels for the first debate of the 2024 US presidential election cycle.

The sham of Australia’s climate change policy has been made clear in the past two weeks.

Today, in a surprise development likely weeks in the planning, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was able to leave the United Kingdom for the first time in more than a decade after reaching a plea deal with the US government.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has just approved a new coal seam gas pipeline in Queensland.

The Reserve Bank’s decision to keep rates steady reinforced that the economy at this moment remains one with both good and bad signs, and the RBA governor, Michele Bullock, is refreshingly upfront about the difficulties.

Over the past few weeks some economists and commentators have become rather obsessed and unhinged about Australia’s inflation rate.

Today, the name of Niccolò Machiavelli is a byword for cynicism and hunger for power, but there was one profession so parasitic and selfish even he could not stomach it.

The latest GDP figures reveal that the RBA has got its wish of an economy growing so slowly that it teeters on the edge of a recession.

Transparency, integrity and accountability were buzzwords of the 2024 state election, yet Tasmanians went to the polls without knowing where their politicians get their money, without laws requiring truth in political advertising, and without an anti-corruption body that is fit for purpose.

In the week leading up to the conviction delivered in a Manhattan courtroom on Friday, right-wing media was focused on Donald Trump’s innocence.

Who would have thought that the legal and personal travails of Julian Assange, the Australian citizen whom US authorities are invested in prosecuting and jailing for the rest of his life without deep consideration of his fundamental rights, would become a lightning rod for former President Trump’s re-election hopes?

The latest inflation figures released on Wednesday showed that inflation is “sticky” and is no longer falling at the pace it was earlier this year.

As pressure grows for action to establish new work rights, including additional leave, for those who experience menstruation and menopause, the Centre for Future Work’s Senior Researcher, Lisa Heap, canvases the debate about whether these rights will advance gender equality at work.

The 2024 National Defence Strategy (NDS) looks more like the impactless pronouncements of consultants’ “decks” than a persuasive guide to the government’s security plans for the next decade or two.

While money can’t buy everything, the Australian Government can ‘buy’ a lower Consumer Price Index (CPI).

On Monday the Productivity Commission released its snapshot of inequality report.

Nobody likes to be hoodwinked, but that’s what big companies are essentially doing when they engage in greenwashing – giving consumers the false impression they have business practices that help the environment instead of harming it.

Remember all that talk about wage-price spirals? About wages driving inflation? All that worry about a wages breakout causing interest rates to rise? Ahh yes, good times.

A bigger surplus this year and a bit bigger deficit next year! Does it matter?

If Australia is to use and produce more fossil fuels than we are now, the rest of our climate policy amounts to tinkering at the edges, writes Rod Campbell.

It’s hard to believe in 2024 we still have Governments pretending we need to expand fossil fuel production to “help tackle climate change”.

“Mandatory and coordinated accreditation would allow workers to have their skills recognised, boost job satisfaction and make the industry more attractive as a long-term career.

“The Aged Care Royal Commission has been crystal clear about the need for these reforms. It’s beyond time to deliver them.”

With the Future Gas Strategy, government policy has entered a backward land where logic is reversed, writes Stephen Long.

It seems that some people really want a recession.

It is often said that the only way to reduce inflation is by higher interest rates. That’s not true – the government can also reduce inflation and cost of living pressures

Spreading fear about inflation not falling fast enough distorts the true picture

If the government decided to make raising Jobseeker a priority in the Budget it would not talk about not being able to afford it, writes Greg Jericho.

Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset.