Hard times, but dole rise opposed

Stephanie Peatling MORE than 1000 payments for urgent assistance are being granted to welfare recipients every day, government figures provided to a Senate inquiry into the adequacy of welfare payments show.

We have blood on our hands, says Liberal MP

Stephanie Peatling The Liberal MP Mal Washer says he feels he has blood on his hands for the latest deaths of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Health group gets green light to import abortion drug into Australia

Stephanie Peatling The so-called abortion drug RU486 will be widely available to Australian women after the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved an application to import the drug by a company set up by the...

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Abbott admits carbon tax not a catastrophe

Stephanie Peatling Tony Abbott has admitted the introduction of a price on carbon had not immediately been ''catastrophic''.

I'll protect abortion rights, says Gillard

Stephanie Peatling Labor will always support and protect access to publicly funded abortions, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has promised in yet another pitch to the female vote.

Stephanie Peatling

PM's timely swipe at sexist treatment

Stephanie Peatling Gillard knows the tough reality that confronts women in politics: the treatment is different but don't talk about it because it's not worth the backlash.

Abbott: I'll revive Howard's golden age

Stephanie Peatling TONY ABBOTT has promised to return Australia to the ''golden age'' of the Howard government under his ''incoming Coalition government''.

A hard marker

Stephanie Peatling SCHOOLS will have to produce performance plans outlining how they will improve students' results in exchange for increased funding and control over their own budgets under the Gillard government's...

Smokers spared higher premiums

Stephanie Peatling Private health insurers have failed in a push to charge smokers higher premiums.

Backers: Rudd must lead by year's end

Stephanie Peatling KEVIN RUDD'S supporters want Labor's leadership saga dealt with by December, saying any move to change the prime minister after that would not leave a new leader with enough time to try to claw back...

Tassie's gay marriage tours

Stephanie Peatling TASMANIA could become the first state to legalise gay marriage after the Premier, Lara Giddings, said the time had come to end discrimination against same-sex couples.

'Cow' insult riles Labor

Stephanie Peatling LABOR ministers have branded an Australian cattle company boss ''sexist and silly'' after he compared the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to an ''old cow''.

'Gender tax' a grim reality - Summers

Stephanie Peatling YOUNG women face a million-dollar ''gender tax'' and must confront the possibility that the pay gap between men and women ''is now firmly entrenched'', one of Australia's leading feminists has warned.

Get serious, Swan tells Newman

Stephanie Peatling THE Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has accused the Queensland Premier, Campbell Newman, of being ''callous and cold hearted'' about people with disabilities, in an attempt to pressure him into supporting the...

Rudd groupies get their man

Stephanie Peatling THE official fan groups of the former prime minister Kevin Rudd will travel to Canberra next month where they hope to meet the man they believe should be returned to the top job.

Rudd 'outed' PM's gay marriage support

Stephanie Peatling Three gay marriage advocates have recalled a conversation in which Kevin Rudd told them he would ''fix'' the marriage law and that Julia Gillard had previously spoken in support of the change when...

'Put a sock in it': Faulkner tries to calm Greens rhetoric

Misha Schubert and Stephanie Peatling Labor elder John Faulkner tells young turk Paul Howes to 'put a sock in it' during a debate over Labor no longer giving automatic preferences to the Greens.

Stephanie Peatling

Matter of life and deathly silence

Stephanie Peatling This week there was a huge international conference in London about contraception and family planning.

Gillard to court state support to raise community worker wages

Stephanie Peatling THE Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will use an address to the state conference of the Labor Party today to challenge state governments to fund a historic decision to increase the wages of 150,000...