Scott Morrison’s successor in Cook may on the surface appear all but locked in, but pollsters say there’s a chance things could go “pear-shaped” for the Coalition. Mr Morrison retained the Sutherland Shire electorate with a 12.4 per cent margin in 2022 – although down from 19 per cent inContinue Reading
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has tied the knot in her hometown of Adelaide, wedding her long-term partner Sophie Allouache. “We are delighted that so many of our family and friends could share this special day with us,” the Foreign Minister said in a statement. Senator Wong wore a fire-engine redContinue Reading
Foreign Minister Penny Wong is set to wed her long-term partner Sophie Allouache after years of hard-fought reforms to legalise gay marriage. The high profile and intensely private Labor frontbencher shares two daughters with Ms Allouache, who she met nearly twenty years ago in 2006. The celebration of their longContinue Reading
Beijing’s acoustic assault on an Australian warship last week follows a well-established pattern: China is pushing hard in the legal ‘grey zone’ beneath an outright act of war. But it’s a deadly game. All it takes is one mistake for the shooting to start. Two Royal Australian Navy (RAN) diversContinue Reading
China’s economy is tanking. The world expected it to bounce back from the pandemic. Exports were supposed to boom. Investment was supposed to explode. Instead, Beijing’s best-laid plans appear set to implode. Industrial output. Property financing. Infrastructure spends. Foreign investment. A string of economic assessments have all come in wellContinue Reading
Social credit scores aren’t enough. All-pervading censorship doesn’t touch the sides. So now Chairman Xi Jinping wants his country to push ahead with constructing a “national security risk monitoring and early warning system” to find dissenters before they dissent. Addressing a meeting of the National Security Commission on Tuesday, XiContinue Reading
Indigenous leaders for the Voice say they will not be deterred by the Liberal Party’s decision to formally oppose constitutionally enshrining an Indigenous Voice to parliament, endangering the success of this year’s referendum. The Liberal party room voted on Wednesday to reject the government’s proposed model for the Voice inContinue Reading
Mining magnate Clive Palmer’s controversial central Queensland coal project has been killed off in an Australian first. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has rejected Mr Palmer’s proposal for an open-cut mining project near Rockhampton under the nation’s environmental laws. It is the first time a coal mine has been refused underContinue Reading
Scott Morrison has been officially censured for secretly appointing himself to five ministerial portfolios while prime minister. In a historic vote, Mr Morrison became the first ex-Australian leader to be condemned in the house of representatives. But what does it all mean? Censure motions are incredibly rare and are parliament’sContinue Reading