May 2024
Bull and the budget: supplicants take over Canberra
As the treasurer hands down his third budget, hasn’t he aroused a stupendous chorus of critics?
March 2024
Former MP Joel Fitzgibbon’s son killed in parachuting incident
Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon was the only son of the former Labor MP who served as defence minister from 2007 to 2009 in the Rudd government.
November 2023
Peter V’Landys haunts AHA lunch
The powerful lobby group entertained a room bustling with Labor types. And a few Nationals too.
October 2023
Accenture hears the lucrative drumbeat of war
Accenture emerged from Canberra’s ‘war on consultants’ unscathed. Now, the company has sought outside help getting in on Defence contracts.
May 2023
Victoria faces timber supply crisis after logging exit, industry warns
Victoria will struggle to source enough timber to build the homes it needs to after the government brought forward the end to native timber harvesting, industry groups warn.
Lobbyists rail against ‘unfair’ federal reforms
The Centre for Public Integrity says the federal lobbying code should be legislated, with possible criminal sanctions, but lobbyists say the centre doesn’t understand how government works.
April 2023
Penny Wong has joined up defence, foreign policy and trade
The foreign minister rightly says that defence underpins our foreign policy. That gives our diplomats more space to do their jobs.
April 2022
Within Labor, the coal crusaders have finally won
Anthony Albanese’s support for new mines marks the end of a painful internal debate but could drive some voters to the Greens or independents.
March 2022
No goodwill shown on Parliament’s last sitting day
There was a time when the last sitting before an election would end with some measure of mutual cameraderie. Not any more.
February 2022
Plan needed for exit of thousands of coal workers: unions
The shock early closure of Origin Energy’s Eraring coal-fired power station in 2025 will put 500 workers out of a job in Labor’s heartland.
Labor’s power backflip a ‘humiliating backdown’
Its U-turn over a gas-fired power station is based on short-term political motives, not conviction, the government says.
January 2022
Labor reversal over gas-fired power in the Hunter
Federal Labor has reversed its opposition to the taxpayer-funded construction of a gas-fired power station in NSW’s Hunter Valley.
October 2021
Meet Joe Manchin, America’s Joel Fitzgibbon on steroids
Coming from coal country and sometimes a thorn in their parties’ sides, Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon and US Democrat Joe Manchin have a lot in common when it comes to climate change.
September 2021
Nationals set their price for net zero as PM presses ahead
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says ‘we need to get to net zero’, but his deputy Barnaby Joyce faces a battle in the party room.
Economic aspiration the key to Labor political success: Fitzgibbon
Joel Fitzgibbon says Labor must encourage economic aspiration, focus on national security and ‘back our major export industries’, including coal, if it is to win the next election.
June 2021
Climate zealotry and populism reignite carbon wars
The pushing up of Barnaby Joyce to the second top job in Canberra and the pushing out of Mark Vaile from the top job at Newcastle University are the depressing bookends of Australia’s renewed coal wars.
The inside story of how Mark Vaile fell back to earth
Newcastle is a city dependent on coal. But when a coal chief was appointed chancellor of the local university, all hell broke loose.
Industry steps on the gas
The APPEA conference is the annual showcase for the oil and gas industry, but in 2021 it’s all about selling the future of gas despite the increasing pressure to decarbonise or abandon projects.
Wedge season is upon us as election draws nearer
Labor’s split on energy will be exploited by the Morrison government between now and the next federal election.
May 2021
Labor must be honest on climate and jobs
Joel Fitzgibbon says that Labor cannot forget the miners. But it also cannot forget that world markets move on.