This Month
Sydney train strikes to cause Christmas commuter chaos
Workers can resume industrial action after court win; Victoria’s assistant treasurer is brutally demoted. How the day unfolded.
- Updated
- Lucy Slade and Timothy Moore
More budget measures to come before the election: Labor
The government will spend the summer finalising new initiatives to woo voters, while striving not to further worsen the budget position.
- Updated
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Federal budget
Labor is losing control of a broken budget
Despite near-record government revenues, a spending surge is causing a big blowout in budget deficits over future years.
- John Kehoe
Tax rise on $3m-plus super accounts ‘unfinished business’: Chalmers
Jim Chalmers says he’ll keep pursuing higher taxes on $3 million-plus superannuation accounts, but won’t go after negative gearing.
- Phillip Coorey
Departments pushed to defer spending to shrink deficits
Bureaucrats say they are being asked to “re-profile” expenditure to minimise the size of deficits in time for the federal polls.
- Phillip Coorey
- Exclusive
- Federal election
More power bill discounts likely in new cost of living package
The Albanese government is mulling a third round of power bill discounts to take to the next election.
- Phillip Coorey
November
Labor wants to ram 36 bills through Senate today. This is the list
The government has dropped plans to rush through its electoral donations changes before the summer break, but could secure other big wins in a day of frenetic votes.
- Tom McIlroy, Michael Read and Jessica Gardner
- Analysis
- Future Fund
‘Like bears to a honey-pot’: how the Future Fund got political
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ planned changes to the nation’s $230 billion savings account might be unfinished business for Labor.
- Tom McIlroy
October
‘She likes the attention’: Growing anger over Thorpe protest
The Coalition is seeking legal advice on whether the Victorian independent senator was rightfully sworn into parliament.
- Tom McIlroy
September
The 10 most covertly powerful people in Australia in 2024
Those who wield the most clout behind the scenes in the nation’s business and politics.
- Tom McIlroy
Coalition nuclear policy relies on coal for longer than experts expect
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has conceded that the Coalition’s nuclear policy relies on an extended use of coal power and a sharply increased role for gas power.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith and Phillip Coorey
Only Labor can form majority government: Albanese
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stepped up his stability pitch to voters by disparaging the Greens as a party of extremists
- Phillip Coorey
The most powerful people in the consulting sector in 2024
As the fallout from the PwC scandal still looms large, smaller operations are moving in on the big four’s turf.
- Edmund Tadros
August
Jim Chalmers warns of $3b budget hit on iron ore slump
After hopes a buoyant Chinese economy would keep prices high faded away, the commodity’s price fell sharply and is now trading below Treasury’s indicative forecast in the budget.
- Ronald Mizen
- Exclusive
- Legal profession
How the NACC helped a global law firm take top spot for taxpayer work
“I think the NACC certainly has sharpened people’s focus on integrity,” says Holly McAdam, the firm’s head of Commonwealth government.
- Ronald Mizen
July
Dutton moves to election footing after budget shift, NATO snub
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has told his party room to “be ready” for an election as early as September.
- Phillip Coorey
June
The final push on inflation will be the toughest: Chalmers
The final push to lower inflation to within the RBA’s target band will be the toughest, Jim Chalmers has warned.
- Phillip Coorey
‘Deeply offensive’: ATO boss slams robo-debt comparison
New Tax Commissioner Rob Heferen was forceful in his first appearance before Parliament, rejecting criticism of a Tax Office program to chase small debts.
- Tom McIlroy
May
- Opinion
- Canberra Observed
This budget sees the return of government as saviour
Two decades ago, Australia was poised to shed the hard-done-by battler mindset. Now it is more entrenched than ever.
- Phillip Coorey
- Opinion
- Federal budget
Gender and family advocates will have to wait a bit longer
The issue with announcing a rise in wages for childcare workers is that there is a multi-enterprise bargaining process underway.
- Sally Patten