Cabinet
Michelle Grattan
Semantics cannot hide rift in cabinet
Michelle Grattan PM and her ministers attempted to reconcile conflicting accounts of foreign worker deal.
Labor's Carr trick brings Australia within a whisker of US cabinet model
Peter Costello A big difference between Australian government and the US's is the way a cabinet is chosen. The US president can choose from an unlimited pool - a Wall Street executive to become treasurer; a retired...
New minister ready in cabinet makeover
The ACT Government used yesterday's elevation of a fifth minister to carry out a significant cabinet reshuffle.
Virtual Community Cabinet
LIVE: Join ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher and her frontbench colleagues for the third #ACTVCC.
ACT cabinet Twitters away to community
The ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher's office declared the Government's third "virtual community cabinet" yesterday a success.
Seeing sense as end nears
Peter Hartcher Labor's budget this week is like the pyramid of an Egyptian pharaoh, says one of the party's federal MPs: "Gillard is building the monuments for her legacy, and she's sacrificing us slaves in the...
When the numbers don't add up, Swan is surplus to requirements
Chris Berg They say every political career ends in failure. But some more than others. All the evidence suggests Wayne Swan's sixth budget, released last Tuesday, will be his last.
Gallagher backs paid parking - but wants funds to stay local
Emma Macdonald and Tom McIlroy Canberra workers and visitors to national institutions will be forced to cough up almost $74 million in new parking fees in the Parliamentary Triangle and at Acton over the next three years.
Industrial lite on the hill
Michael Gordon Tony Abbott has produced a minimalist industrial relations policy with a bold objective - to eliminate what he considers the biggest threat to a Coalition victory in September.
EXCLUSIVE
Combet blasts ALP whingers
Chris Johnson Senior cabinet minister Greg Combet has attacked some of his Labor Party colleagues as ''whingers'' in an angry and expletive-laden speech to supporters and donors, expressing his frustration at...
Black and white Year One
Jack Waterford Tony Abbott's plan to put a sub-department of Aboriginal affairs inside his own portfolio of Prime Minister and Cabinet has achieved some publicity as an evidence of his good intentions in the area.
Reforms a lesson in politics
Peter Hartcher From the moment the Gillard government embraced David Gonski's report into schools funding 14 months ago, the businessman's name has been the government's rallying cry for lifting schools.
The Zone transcript: Mark Triffitt
Michael Short Michael Short speaks with Mark Triffitt, long-time politics and policy thinker.
PM should junk playbook in hunt for silver linings
Mark Kenny Setting the election date eight months in advance represented a calculated risk for Julia Gillard. So far, it has not worked.
Napthine's crew in the sights of a loose cannon
Farrah Tomazin You get the feeling that Frankston MP Geoff Shaw enjoys his notoriety.
Simon says: Labor's listing
Peter Hartcher Simon Crean has said that Labor can't win the federal election as the party now stands, and he is behaving accordingly - as if there is nothing to lose.
PM is missing the point about class warfare
Peter Hartcher Today's poll confirms that the Gillard government remains on track to lose the election due in 153 days. It also shows that one of its main escape plans is not working.
High tide for women ministers
Anne Summers When she announced her new ministry last Monday, Julia Gillard made history. For the first time, women make up one-third of the Australian government.
Policy, not gender, will decide Gillard's fate at ballot box
Gerard Henderson If Julia Gillard's supporters really believe the Prime Minister's political discontents are due to prevailing misogyny in a contemporary patriarchal society, they are delusional.
Beware the hungry sharks circling in Abbott's moat
Jack Waterford In the Labor Party, they have been called tree people. The Liberals once did not have them, as such, but now also maintains a veritable forest.
