Nick Feik

Just before lunchtime yesterday, Australians were confronted with news nobody predicted. Seemingly in complete disregard of the developing narrative of major recent job losses in manufacturing and to some extent mining, the Australian Bureau of Statistics …

"Social media use by public servants has always been a tricky endeavour, but on the weekend it was revealed that things have become rather more precarious – especially for those working in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet." Also: Liberals …

"The government of Nauru has blocked a UN human rights delegation from visiting the country, making it the second time in a month that UN officials have been prevented from visiting Australia’s controversial offshore processing centres for …

"Australia has the dubious honour of having the fastest budget deterioration of 29 advanced economies tracked by the IMF… The IMF says that the Government needs to find at least $50 billion in cuts to the net deficit…by 2020 if it is …

"Bob Carr has published private text messages between himself and Julia Gillard to reveal the 'extraordinary' level of influence the pro-Israel lobby had on the former prime minister’s office. In a remarkable disclosure of private …

It's been a decade since Australia's political class have had a decent memoir controversy. In 2005 it was Mark Latham's Diaries. In 2014 it's Bob Carr's Diary of a Foreign Minister. It's …

Change the government and you change the country, Paul Keating predicted – lamented – after his government’s 1996 election loss to John Howard’s Coalition. The political priorities of Labor’s thirteen year reign …

The Abbott government secured a much-needed win yesterday with the signing of the Japan free trade deal. After several weeks spent squandering political capital on issues such as the racial discrimination act changes and the knights and dames fiasco, …

The WA senate vote post-mortem has featured the usual excuses, explanations and over-interpretations, but while the final result won’t be known for days some signals are clear. The Coalition suffered a 5% swing against it, which is close to the …

Clive Palmer is pulling out all stops to win a key WA senate seat. He’s spent big, made undeliverable promises to gain the state more GST revenue, and is now making headlines about his priority to kill the carbon tax. “The carbon tax is …

“Arithmetic suggests the dice are loaded against us,” said treasury secretary Martin Parkinson. Without major changes to the tax mix, he said, there was little chance the budget would return to surplus even by 2023-24. Health spending is …

News Corp papers, especially the Australian, have put inordinate effort  into undermining the ABC over the past few months. Last night, ABC managing director Mark Scott firmly pushed back. He spoke of the “aggressive editorial positioning …

Lenore Taylor in the Guardian reports the alarming news that in Western Australia this month Clive Palmer has spent 11 times more on advertising than the Labor party and 14 times more than the Liberals. It is “unprecedented” for a minor …

Parliament has entered its long winter recess, but it will be a while yet before the political temperature drops.  This is the last week before the crucial Western Australian senate vote, whose results will determine the federal balance of power …

The Coalition lost control of the agenda this week. The government may still be in its adolescence – this is one way to describe its bizarre and potentially destructive impetuosity recently – but it can hardly rely on this excuse …