June 2023
Crescent Capital’s Healthcare Australia makes it rain
Of all the ways to validate the front-line staff caring for Australia’s sick and infirm, only private equity could think this was a good idea.
- Myriam Robin
- Analysis
- Government Observed
Morrison government caught – yet again – handing out dodgy grants
Three strikes against a billion dollars of election largesse? The auditor-general has again called out the practice of cooking up grant projects in the ministerial wing of Parliament House.
- Tom Burton
May 2023
Australia to ban recreational vaping
The government will limit vaping to prescriptions for legitimate therapeutic use, calling it a menace to children and public health.
- Phillip Coorey
March 2023
- Opinion
- Climate policy
Critical milestone reached in great safeguard compromise
The government’s safeguard mechanism agreement is neither as tough as the Greens hoped, nor as dangerous as the gas industry has feared.
- Tony Wood
January 2023
- Opinion
- Climate policy
Liberals can’t win another climate war
If Peter Dutton takes the Coalition back to the Abbott era, then more of their seats will tumble to the teals next time.
- Craig Emerson
November 2022
Morrison to be censured, but Coalition won’t join in
Former prime minister Scott Morrison will be censured by parliament this week, but his Coalition colleagues believe the move is gratuitous.
- Phillip Coorey
Peter Reith ‘wrote the playbook’ on the brutal game of politics
As industrial relations minister after the Coalition’s crushing 1996 election win, Reith was tasked with drafting and implementing the Howard’s IR policy.
- Andrew Clark
September 2022
Teal candidate targets housing crisis in tourist hotspot
Mornington Peninsula is best known for its beaches and wineries, but it is also facing a housing crisis and teal candidate Kate Lardner wants to fix it.
- Gus McCubbing
August 2022
Governor-General’s diary blank on Morrison’s secret ministries
Governor-General David Hurley’s diary makes no mention of the five times he handed extra ministerial powers to then-prime minister Scott Morrison.
- Finbar O'Mallon
Secret ministerial deeds tarnish Scott Morrison’s legacy
The former PM’s defence of secretly backing up the health and finance ministers doesn’t pass muster. Ghosting Treasury, Home Affairs and Resources was abuse.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Morrison portfolio saga
Morrison stands defiant in the face of overwhelming political logic
Scott Morrison’s explanation for his behaviour used a biblical analogy to justify his supreme faith in his own actions.
- Updated
- Jennifer Hewett
Colleagues call for Morrison to go as more secret ministries revealed
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg was understood to be livid after only learning on Tuesday that his portfolio was one of the five Scott Morrison assumed.
- Updated
- Phillip Coorey
Asset Energy learned in May Morrison was the secret resources minister
The revelation Scott Morrison held the resources portfolio prompted the company to launch Federal Court action, accusing the former prime minister of bias.
- Michael Read and Phillip Coorey
Frydenberg did not know Morrison took on his portfolio
Former treasurer Scott Morrison and current Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy believed to be unaware of portfolio takeover; Morrison apologises “for any offence” to colleagues in lengthy social media post.
- Updated
- Georgie Moore and Joanna Mather
‘It’s time to go’: senior Liberal demands Morrison resign
Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews demands Scott Morrison quit politics after learning the former PM ghosted her portfolio without telling her.
- Phillip Coorey
Albanese poised to probe into Morrison’s ghost ministries
Anthony Albanese said the secrecy surrounding Mr Morrison’s extra portfolios challenged the accountability conventions demanded by Parliament.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Coronavirus pandemic
It’s the secrecy that makes Morrison look dodgy
Anthony Albanese could use Scott Morrison’s ghost portfolios to kick-start his long-promised royal commission into the handling of the pandemic.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Federal election
Morrison is the gift that keeps on giving ... to Labor
Scott Morrison’s self-confidence meant he didn’t even tell most of his own cabinet colleagues of his intention to share the responsibilities of other ministers by being appointed to their portfolios. It’s another example of unnecessary political self-harm.
- Jennifer Hewett
July 2022
Tougher climate policies will ‘drive up carbon credit price’
The Albanese government’s plans to introduce a 43 per cent emission reduction target by 2030 and changes to the safeguard mechanism should boost the value of carbon credits.
- Mark Ludlow
April 2022
- Opinion
- Healthcare
Healthcare promises that just can’t be kept
Neither the Coalition nor Labor can go on pretending that health spending is sustainable in its present form.
- Terry Barnes
