Paul Bongiorno

“Watt had put everything on the line politically, creating a deadline to finalise what was in fact a five-year journey to reach a destination everybody agreed was needed, namely the implementation of recommendations proposed by businessman Graeme Samuel …”

“The politics of climate and the environment is just as messy at the United Nations summit in Belém, Brazil, as it is in Canberra and the Australian states. The fate of the planet is running a poor second to vested interests and crude personal power …”

“On Thursday, Liberal shadow ministers, in a fraught four-hour meeting, decided to have their cake and eat it too. Gone: a formal goal to achieve net zero. Kept: a ‘welcome outcome’ if somehow their new stance, more favourable to fossil fuels, achieves …”

“It is not true that Australia has never experienced a revolution. Fifty years ago, the nation saw a bloodless coup where the underpinning conventions of our parliamentary democracy were overthrown. The outrage of the Dismissal established dangerous precedents, …”

“There are concerns in the opposition and the government that Sussan Ley’s ‘weird’ attack on the T-shirt Anthony Albanese wore when he returned from the United States says more about her lack of authority in a divided party room than her ability …”

“Not for a very long time has a single meeting between a prime minister and an American president been such a pivotal event for a government and its opponents.”

“Soon after Labor’s thumping election win, Jim Chalmers was assuring doubters he would not be ‘changing policies we took to the election’. Within three months, however, that determination was undercut by Anthony Albanese quietly telling …”

“Colleagues say the thumping election win has given the prime minister … an air of sure-footedness and vindication in the way he goes about his job. That belief will surely be tested when he meets Donald Trump in the Oval Office in a little over …”

“Frank Sinatra once sang that if you can make it in New York, you can ‘make it anywhere’. It could well be the anthem for Anthony Albanese’s assertive trip this week, putting his stamp on Australia’s sovereignty at the apex world forum of the United …”

“Of all the things that could have gone wrong ahead of Anthony Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump, few would have predicted the involvement of one of Australia’s most lauded journalists.”

“Anthony Albanese could only nod his head when the host of the Pacific Islands Forum, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, midweek told the assembled 18 government leaders that the ‘world around us is changing fast’.”

“Australia’s multicultural affairs minister, Anne Aly, has no doubt the March for Australia rallies that dominated much of the political debate during the week were organised by Nazis with the main purpose of protesting ‘immigration from countries …”

“Drama, often confected, is never far from the theatre of democratic politics, but there was nothing synthetic about the sombre mood that gripped the suddenly called news conference in the prime minister’s courtyard on Tuesday.”

“Treasurer Jim Chalmers summed up pretty well where Australia finds itself in a week of significant round tables in Canberra and Washington and a deepening humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. The treasurer said the Albanese government was seeking ‘to …”

“It’s pretty simple really: success in a liberal democracy like Australia comes when a political leader is able to bring a majority of the population on board with their agenda and responses to a crisis. Anthony Albanese, who entered parliament in the …”

“Neither Anthony Albanese nor any of his ministers joined last Sunday’s ‘March for Humanity’ across Sydney Harbour Bridge, which garnered international attention. Instead, the prime minister and a group of his senior cabinet colleagues …”

“In calmer times Anthony Albanese could be well satisfied with the way the first sitting fortnight of the 48th parliament played out. Key election promises such as student debt relief and cheaper medicines are now realities and there was indisputable evidence …”

“Albanese’s victory is wide and shallow, based as it is on preferences and not primary votes. In effect, this puts the onus on the Albanese government to perform more strongly than in its first term … It will be judged on what it does to convince …”

“Anthony Albanese has returned from his week of top-level meetings and high-altitude tourism in the Middle Kingdom – the first Labor leader since Gough Whitlam to admire the Great Wall of China after sharing the love with Beijing’s No. 1, …”

“The cockney rhyming slang, traditionally beloved of Australians, would have it that our old china plates in America are causing us more anxiety than our newer ones in North Asia.”

“If news is what the media reports, the dominant issue gripping the nation in the past seven days is something that hasn’t yet happened: namely Anthony Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.”

“While Trump’s own supporters fear he may be dragging the US into another ‘forever war’, many Australians will be consoled by the fact that Albanese gives every indication he has no appetite to join any American ‘unilateral action’ …”

“Donald Trump’s cavalier treatment of his supposed friends should have come as no surprise to Australia’s prime minister, left sitting on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada without so much as a phone call cancelling a much-heralded meeting.”

“Days before the prime minister departed for the G7 summit in Canada this weekend he delivered a speech drawing a powerful contrast between his government and that of United States President Donald Trump.”

“It has taken the second coming of the wildly erratic Donald Trump and a landslide election win to do it, but Anthony Albanese is finally manifesting a new-found confidence in standing up for Australia with his responses to the whims of our key strategic …”

“In politics, it is easy to misread a victory or a loss. It is only the subsequent election that can prove whether that judgement was correct or not.”

“Fresh from the papal inauguration in Rome, and after Leo XIV blessed the prime minister’s late mother’s rosary beads at his request, Anthony Albanese could be excused for thinking God is on his side.”

“Ley has one definite thing going for her: she is not Peter Dutton … A Labor campaign strategy document produced for Dutton’s seat of Dickson listed his negatives in the electorate, with No. 1 being he was not liked.”

“Colleagues have no doubt the prime minister has seared into his brain the ephemeral nature of success and the need to continue showing the same focus and discipline that has seen Labor deliver a similar drubbing to the opposition as the one meted out …”

“On Saturday, we will find out if it is possible for a major party to run a very poor campaign and still win an election. The likelihood of Peter Dutton pulling off this feat seems remote. He would need a bigger miracle than his predecessor Scott Morrison …”

“A trifecta of unmissable interruptions has made Peter Dutton’s task of winning the election in just seven days’ time a seemingly impossible mission.”

“Labor has entered the Easter holiday period with the wind in its sails, although insiders worry that the break may allow the Coalition to right its flailing campaign. These concerns are based more on memories of shock losses in the recent past than on …”

“All elections turn on competence in political and economic management. Undermine voters’ confidence in either – or, worse, both – and the chances of success are seriously diminished. That is the situation Peter Dutton finds himself in …”

“There is not a politician in the country who isn’t nervous about May 3, but there are growing concerns in the Coalition in particular about its disheartening start to the campaign. Peter Dutton, who has mostly managed not to make the opposition the …”

“Jim Chalmers insisted in the budget lock-up news conference that his fourth effort was primarily about economics and not politics, a claim that didn’t really convince his audience.”

“Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, who some colleagues believe has not laid a glove on Chalmers, says everything will be revealed in due course. In the meantime, the clock is running down and all we are getting are general statements masquerading as serious …”

“It’s back to plan A for the prime minister after Tropical Cyclone Alfred swamped any thoughts of going to an April election. However, Labor is determined to see the extended timetable as more of an opportunity than a setback.”

“Federal cabinet concluded its wide-ranging discussion on the government’s electoral prospects on Monday with the consensus that the most opportune time for the prime minister to call the election would be this Sunday, for April 12. There was, however, …”

“A flurry of major announcements in the past two weeks, taking full advantage of incumbency, has provided the launching pad for Anthony Albanese to call the election within days.”

“The prime minister’s performance in this campaign is crucial. Labor cannot afford a repeat of 2022, where the best days of the election were the ones when the Labor leader was isolating with Covid-19 and Jason Clare and other frontbenchers filled …”

“Pinned on some office walls around the parliament is a list of cut-off dates for calling the election, allowing for the statutory 33 days of any campaign. The current favoured view among the self-appointed pundits is that the prime minister will call …”

“Dutton accuses Albanese of pandering to Greens and Islamic or Palestinian voters in urban electorates. The assertion could just as well be aimed at the opposition’s response, with an eye to winning back three seats from the teal independents.”

“Anthony Albanese faces the first parliamentary sitting of the election year with the scene set for the first interest rate cut in almost three years – a bigger political boost than any government could possibly hope for. The argument over economic management …”

“Only a foolhardy politician on the cusp of an election year would insert themselves into the summer holiday rituals of the Australian populace. Better to let the voters enjoy the beach, the barbecues and the cricket than bombard them with anything that …”

“It has been very rare for the Albanese cabinet to leak, but that changed this week. On Monday, December 9, a story emerged saying the prime minister had warned his senior colleagues that the Murdoch media was openly working to install Peter Dutton as …”

“The prospect of the Dutton-led Coalition finishing a nose ahead of Labor raises fascinating possibilities on how it would get enough of the cross bench to support it in minority. Midweek, Dutton warned ‘a vote for the teal independents is a vote for …”

“Sources in Canberra say Albanese was looking for a big bang start to 2025, similar to his stage three tax cuts announcement this year. The idea was to provide a springboard into an early poll, but Trump’s economic policies are an added motivation.”

“Parliament’s last sitting fortnight of the year is off to a depressing start for anyone deluded enough to think our politicians put national interests ahead of their own. The over-riding preoccupation of the temporary residents in the big house …”

“Labor and Liberal strategists are poring over Donald Trump’s thumping win in the United States presidential election for what they can copy and what they must avoid in the run-up to Australia’s poll.”

“The real point, as far as the government is concerned, is the Dutton opposition’s refusal to support the bulk of the government’s cost-of-living relief measures. The choice is stark – either support Labor’s targeted spending and …”

“You know a government has a problem when every time a minister or even one of the backbenchers puts their head up for an interview, they are asked to defend their prime minister.”

“Judging by the glib claims of monarchists in media interviews, the king is merely ‘a figurehead at the top of the system’ that they say is not broken and serves the nation well. Somehow it is a stable underpinning of our democracy. Except …”

“Own goals were the order of the week for Australia, both on the soccer pitch and in federal politics. For the Socceroos the one-all draw with Japan in the World Cup qualifier was more of a victory than a disaster. The same cannot be said of Anthony Albanese’s …”

“Dutton’s refusal to back Albanese’s comprehensive condolence motion, acknowledging the pain of the Jewish community and extending sympathy to the Palestinian and Muslim communities, was a calculated and divisive play.”

“Dutton said the prime minister was making ‘Australians less safe’ and called on any protesters who were on visas to be deported. This conveniently dovetailed with a recurring theme of the opposition leader – that migrants and refugees, …”

“The hard-headed assessment of one of Anthony Albanese’s closest allies is that Peter Dutton is the best thing Labor has going for it at the next election. Not because the unpopular Liberal leader cannot win, but rather because he can. This creates the …”

“Far from rattling the Albanese government, Paul Keating’s verbal pyrotechnics over the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal have been taken as confirmation its credentials on national security are firmly anchored in the United States alliance – exactly where …”

“Albanese believes it will take a long time to heal the wounds created by the referendum and regain the considerable loss of momentum in reconciliation. He needs no convincing that Dutton will ruthlessly exploit subterranean and even explicit community …”

“In Burke ... [Albanese] has a minister every bit as pragmatic as he needs to be to rebut the Liberals’ default claims that Labor is soft on border security and weak on keeping the community safe.”

“In Australia, if the polls are any guide, neither major party leader is capturing voters’ imaginations. One senior minister says that after the experience of Tony Abbott, ‘no one believes that Dutton is unelectable’.”

“Albanese and his ministers say the outcome of the presidential election is the business of the American people ... However, the risks to Australia if Trump wins cannot be overstated.”

“Albanese, unlike Starmer, faces the next election as an incumbent defending the slimmest of majorities ... The prime minister can take little consolation from the fact that the UK is another country: the similarities of our political cultures are too …”

“Payman believes the Albanese government has turned its back on the recognition of Palestine committed to at two ALP national conferences. She says it is a matter of conscience and humanity that she continues to advocate for this cause.”

“The prime minister managed three significant surprises this week, which variously caught his opponents off guard or demonstrated that when it comes to dealing with our most significant ally, the United States, he has considerable cachet.”

“The first visit of a Chinese premier to Australia in seven years perfectly demonstrated the complexity of the relationship with our biggest customer. It also confirmed that for Australia’s continued prosperity, accommodating Beijing is not optional.”

“We are apparently to take the Coalition on trust even though there are internal pressures from former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and other Nationals for Australia to quit the Paris Agreement. This is something Donald Trump did soon after becoming …”

“The undercurrents of self-doubt in the Liberal Party bubbled to the surface earlier in the week, with a rush to return former treasurer and leadership hopeful Josh Frydenberg to parliament.”

“At the best of times, Minister for Immigration Andrew Giles can look like the proverbial rabbit caught in the spotlight. Mild-mannered, quietly spoken and very earnest, Giles was in the opposition’s crosshairs all week with increasingly strident …”

“It is clear Dutton sees talk of a ‘better Australia’, not a ‘bigger Australia’, as a powerful campaign tool. He is utilising immigration and its history of stirring prejudice and xenophobic sentiment, emulating John Howard’s …”

“Australian governments have a habit of not running their full three-year terms. The average time between House of Representative elections is two years and seven months. So is it any wonder the prime minister and the treasurer were hit with election speculation …”

“Jim Chalmers had a clear message for the inflation hawks as he embarked on his hectic round of budget scene-setting this week. ‘This is not the time,’ he declared, ‘for scorched-earth austerity.”

“Albanese said the flare-up should not become a distraction from the crisis of gender-based violence … The prime minister acknowledged the rallies were held to demand ‘that governments of all levels must do better, including my own, including …”

“Ominously, Musk used X to whip up a barrage of anti-Australian sentiment … Musk posted that his concern was ‘that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries … then what is to stop any country from controlling the …”

“Without fanfare, the prime minister attended early mass at St Christopher’s Cathedral in Canberra last Sunday, where he joined other worshippers in praying for the victims and survivors of the Bondi Junction shopping centre knife attack. The prayers …”

“The fissures between our political parties over the six-month-old conflict in Gaza widened dramatically this week after a major speech by Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong. It is a harbinger of the sort of bitter campaigning we can expect in the run-up …”

“Early on Wednesday morning Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, had what Albanese says was a very frank phone call. He says he demanded ‘full accountability and transparency’ over the death …”

“The Albanese government goes into the long break before parliament resumes for the May budget with its reputation tarnished after an attempted ambush that misfired. No doubt they had in mind payback for the opposition, which made hay accusing the government …”

“On Monday, 10,000 metres above continental Australia, Anthony Albanese made dead sure his government would not be distracted by another divisive culture war. There was no way he was going to allow the Coalition to suck the oxygen out of his government’s …”

“A measure of the success of Albanese’s Top End foray, according to a key strategist, was that no peep was heard – neither criticism nor praise – from Dutton or his nearly invisible shadow minister, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.”

“Anthony Albanese had a good week, thank you very much. His opponent, Peter Dutton, not so much. In fact, you could say the Dunkley byelection blew the opposition leader’s credibility out of the water and left him stranded for a reset.”

“Labor is convinced Dutton shares with Morrison the same vulnerabilities in appealing to voters. Its research suggests the opposition leader is particularly unpopular in Victoria … Yet campaign insiders say that in the byelection this may not be …”

“Zali Steggall is not the only independent in the House of Representatives to be frustrated by the fact Question Time has become a largely boring exercise in political pointscoring, something exacerbated by the looming byelection in the Victorian seat …”

“Albanese easily handled Dutton’s attempts to create a ‘look away diversion’ by asking about everything except the new stage three arrangements … One minister said it was the best Question Time performance of the term, with the …”

“Dutton says you can no longer believe anything Albanese or Chalmers say on their future tax intentions. It hasn’t dawned on him that he lacks the clout of incumbency. Governments are in charge; oppositions can only promise and decry.”

“So how have we got to this and how is Albanese going to respond? … There are big lessons from this year that, unless learnt, bode very poorly for the survival of the government. Albanese and his closest confidants know it.”

“For a prime minister on leave, Anthony Albanese had a busy week. It’s a sure sign of knowing you can take nothing for granted in politics, especially when everyone keeps telling you to lift your game.”

“The latest batch of published polls suggest voters are not yet ready to switch to the Dutton-led Coalition. In this context, it is not hard to see why Dutton, who has always been a strident partisan warrior, has given no quarter as he attempts to turn …”

“The cage fight that passes for political debate in the Australian parliament is drawing to an unedifying close for the year. The Dutton-led opposition has rushed to exploit every fear and panic, and heads to the summer break convinced it has the Albanese …”

“The opposition leader does not baulk at using the sort of post-truth politics employed by Donald Trump in the United States, where reality is not the touchstone but political advantage is. Any distortion to stir fears and resentments is utilised.”

“As this term of government rapidly nears its halfway mark, the Coalition is convinced it has a greater chance of victory at the next election than it dared imagine over the past 18 months.”

“Peter Dutton’s weaponisation of this human disaster is a cynical caricature of the government’s response. From day one Albanese and his foreign minister, Penny Wong, have not resiled from condemning the barbarity of the Hamas slaughter of …”

“Anthony Albanese has moved on from his thwarted attempt to have an Indigenous Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Constitution. It is frustrating the opposition and disappointing some key leaders in the Aboriginal community. Greatly assisting the prime …”

“Upset results and come-from-behind victories are as common in politics as they are on the sporting field. Opinion polls have famously got election results wrong over the years, although not as often as many underdogs would wish.”

“The departure of one powerful man and the sidelining of another has accentuated the profound influence both have had in shaping the direction of the nation. Their legacies are now both a challenge and an opportunity for Anthony Albanese to learn from …”

“In the shadow of the National Library, inside the Parliamentary Triangle, the Yes23 organisers could scarcely believe their eyes as the crowd built for Canberra’s version of the Walk for Yes rally and march … Researcher Peter Lewis, of Essential, …”

“Going into the last sitting week before the referendum on a Voice to Parliament, Anthony Albanese was desperate to have something positive to talk about, to assure Australians he was paying attention to their immediate concerns.”

“Somehow Anthony Albanese is being blamed for the catastrophic failure of governance by the Qantas board and its long-time chief executive. The behaviour of Qantas since Alan Joyce became boss almost 15 years ago is marked by arrogance and anti-competitive …”

“By any measure this week marks the official countdown to a significant moment in the history of the Australian Federation and its foundation on the dispossession of the original owners of the land.”

“When Tanya Plibersek was collared on the sidelines of last weekend’s conference, her assessment of how the government sees itself was particularly interesting. She fobbed off criticism that the old party of passionate firebrands from the left had …”

“For a while, late on Monday afternoon in the house of representatives, you could be forgiven for thinking the Peter Dutton-led opposition had finally cast itself adrift from Scott Morrison.”

“If you can believe the opinion polls, regional Australia has gone very cold on the idea of a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Rebel Liberal ‘Yes’ campaigner Julian Leeser certainly found a warmer reception in …”

“No one was happier in the federal opposition than Peter Dutton when the embattled Stuart Robert quit the parliament a couple of months ago. Sure it triggered today’s byelection in Robert’s Gold Coast seat of Fadden, but it made clearing out …”

“There’s a new party game in Canberra, sparked by the arrival of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The game has a simple enough name: Who’s for the NACCery?”

“The byelection in Stuart Robert’s old seat of Fadden is becoming a proxy battleground for the fortunes not only of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton but also for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.”

“Anthony Albanese is furious the ‘Greens political party’ – as he insists on always calling them – is blocking his signature Housing Australia Future Fund in the senate and he is now raising the prospect of using it as a trigger …”

“So much for respect and reconciliation in the national capital. As parliament returned for the final two weeks before the long winter break, it was more bare-knuckle combat with no one wanting to take prisoners.”

“The economy roared back into view as the major focus of contention this week, with some weird developments adding extra drama to the pain and usual blame game that happens when the going gets really tough for millions of Australians. The pain came with …”

“After Anthony Albanese received a standing ovation on Monday night for his Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration arguing the case for the Voice referendum to succeed, Adelaide’s lord mayor made a telling observation.”

“The choice Australians will have later this year in the referendum goes beyond recognising the special place of First Nations people in the constitution. It also goes to the sort of national leadership we are prepared to endorse.”

“On Monday, the Albanese government will celebrate its first birthday. The prime minister is confident it has been a year that has established in voters’ minds the character of his government as responsible, measured and very busy.”

“Treasurer Jim Chalmers was so excited about the rabbit he was going to pull out of the hat that he couldn’t wait for budget night to tell the world he was about to deliver the first surplus in 15 years.”

“With the prime minister in Britain to attend the coronation of our unelected head of state and the treasurer back home doing last-minute bean-counting ahead of Tuesday’s budget, the Greens’ Adam Bandt seized the moment to pose the key question …”

“Something truly bizarre is happening in the federal Coalition under the leadership of putative Liberal Peter Dutton. With him in charge, the conservative parties have embarked on a cunning plan to abandon metropolitan voters in favour of rural and regional …”

“The resigning shadow minister for Indigenous Australians and shadow attorney-general, Julian Leeser, did something very rare in Australian politics this week: he quit the frontbench not to launch a challenge against the party leader but rather to undermine …”

“By midweek it was obvious Peter Dutton wasn’t looking for a way to reconnect with the broader electorate, which is clearly what is needed. On the very morning Newspoll published a consolidated survey over three months of majority voter support across …”

“Peter Dutton faces his first real test at the ballot box as Liberal leader in the Aston byelection. He is bracing for the worst while hoping he is saved by the century-long precedent of oppositions never losing seats to governments in these contests.”

“Paul Keating’s verbal torpedoes aimed at the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal have begun hitting their targets in the Labor Party. Keating – often and correctly described as a ‘Labor icon’ – has been joined by two of …”

“Make no mistake: Anthony Albanese, in the bright Californian sun this week, was doing more than putting the nation on an economic and strategic war footing; he was rendering his political opponents back home defenceless.”

“There was a discernible shift in the national political calculus this week, with mounting challenges confronting the almost year-old Albanese government. It confirmed, if confirmation were needed, that there is no magic wand for easy solutions. The 10th …”

“This week Anthony Albanese trod where many thought he would never dare: he raised taxes on excessive savings held in superannuation. While he did it in a way that can wedge his political opponents in the run-up to the next election, he also handed them …”

“Not surprisingly, with so much on its plate, the government can afford to treat the Aston byelection as something of a sideshow. It sees it as secondary to getting on with its three ‘Rs’ of ‘relief, repair and restraint’.”

“Dutton has decided to leave any final decision on the Voice referendum until after the Aston byelection. His carefully crafted apology does enough to leave the impression he is more sympathetic to the referendum than his naysaying would suggest, without …”

“It is little wonder, then, that when the embattled former cabinet minister Alan Tudge finally announced his inevitable departure from parliament on Thursday, Liberal leadership speculation flared.”

“The Albanese government’s second year in power is shaping up as a wild ride. The prime minister is intent on using every opportunity to establish a legacy as a Labor reformer ‘changing the nation for the better’ Leader of the house Tony …”

“What we are seeing already is a government comfortable in the exercise of power and confident enough to risk losing a fight that it judges worth having. A Newspoll analysis of support for the past four incoming governments at the end of their first six …”

“Just when Anthony Albanese was set to finish the most successful year of his political life with another win, he was struck down by Covid-19. The acting opposition leader, Sussan Ley, sent her best wishes but little sympathy. She called for the national …”

“The last sitting week of the federal parliament at the end of a momentous election year was overshadowed by a jarring intervention in the process to enshrine recognition of First Nations people in the constitution. The Nationals on Monday spectacularly …”

“Turning on its head a famous line from the English poet T. S. Eliot, it is no exaggeration to say 2022 is ending not with a whimper but a bang for the Albanese government. The much-derided small-target leader has set a frenetic pace in the first six …”

“Anthony Albanese’s handshake with Xi Jinping was more than a reset in relations between Australia and China; it was confirmation that the dynamics of domestic politics here have changed. The spectre of the ‘yellow peril’, particularly …”

“Jim Chalmers is no stranger to the dynamics and pitfalls of federal budgets. He has worked on 16 of them in and out of government – as a staffer, adviser, shadow minister and finally, this week, at the helm himself. On Tuesday, in delivering the first …”

“The admiration for Anthony Albanese’s political smarts was palpable down the line from one of his senior colleagues. ‘Albo,’ he says, ‘has 360-degree vision.’ The prime minister is not just looking at the next …”

“The ghosts of broken promises past are spooking the Albanese government as it prepares to unveil its first budget on October 25. More specifically, the prime minister is determined not to give his political opponents the chance to criticise him on …”

“Deep in the bunker that is federal Parliament House’s cabinet room, the Albanese government’s economic brains trust spent much of Tuesday strategising about Australia’s response to what the treasurer calls the ‘gathering storm clouds in the global economy’. …”

“Shorten had flown to Brisbane for the first day of hearings at the royal commission into the robo-debt scandal. He had been relentless in his determination to expose the full extent of what he calls the ‘greatest failure of public administration …”

“It’s seven hours’ flying time from London to New York, but there is a huge chasm between the pageantry of a past empire on one side of the Atlantic and the 77th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on the other. Foreign Affairs Minister …”

“Australia’s most ardent monarchist prime minister – not Tony Abbott or John Howard but Robert Menzies – would have been very impressed with the response of our avowed republican leader, Anthony Albanese, to the passing of our borrowed head of state, …”

“Anthony Albanese is storming the Bastille erected by a sclerotic government more intent on its own maintenance of power and privilege than effectively advancing the national interest. The spectacle may not be as dramatic as that moment in French …”

“Anthony Albanese is looking to foster ‘a new culture of co-operation’ for the future, rather than pitting unions against business. What’s good for the worker should always be good for the employer. It’s a guiding light …”

“Three months into leading his new government, Anthony Albanese is riding higher than even his most ardent supporters would have imagined. This situation was given its vivid, if lurid, expression at a rock concert in Sydney earlier this week.”

“With a day to go before he was due to return to work, Anthony Albanese was at a resort in Broome when he read a report revealing his predecessor had secretly made himself a co-minister in two key portfolios at the beginning of the pandemic.”

“Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is putting extreme strain on Australia’s bipartisan foreign policy when it comes to dealing with our biggest trading partner, China. He continues to speak very loudly while Australia is carrying a stick he admits isn’t …”

“It still hasn’t dawned on the Liberal and National parties why they suffered such a stunning defeat at the May election. Maybe Labor’s slender majority masks the rejection of the Liberals in their heartland seats, which resulted in a near-record …”

“More than any other figure in our democracy, a prime minister can influence the direction of the nation. Anthony Albanese knows it, and he is not allowing the most difficult economic and strategic circumstance in more than three decades to deter him from …”

“The full impact of the change of government nine weeks ago will be clear on Tuesday when the new parliament sits for the first time. It will be an acid test for the Albanese government. The test is one it has largely set for itself. Despite claiming …”

“No one did more to shape the direction of Australian politics in the past decade than Tony Abbott. His ruthless and determined resistance to effective action on climate change was reprehensibly short-sighted but was the template for four election campaigns.”

“Thirty-four is the number and it has turned federal parliamentary politics on its head. While the Albanese government has a slender majority in the lower house – 77 of the 151-seat chamber – it falls a long way short in the senate.”

“This week, the need for the new Albanese government to fix the mess it has inherited became personal for millions of Australians at the mercy of a failed energy market. The threat of blackouts and of freezing in their homes in the middle of one of the …”

“Visual stunts – or picture opportunities, as they are called in the trade – are nothing new in contemporary politics. On Tuesday, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo provided the visual metaphor of a bike ride, which neatly summed …”

“Albanese brings to the job the enormous authority of leading the party out of the wilderness after almost a decade. Over the past three years there were plenty of wellwishers but also plenty of doubters. Albanese’s ‘come from behind, …”

“There has been an earthquake in Australian parliamentary democracy, which has checked the dominance of the two major parties and demonstrated two-thirds of the country were hungry for change.”

“Expectations of a Labor victory today have been trimmed dramatically. Far from the landslide many were increasingly confident of just a week ago, forming a minority government is now widely seen as the best they can expect.”

“Scott Morrison is desperately looking to generate a last-minute momentum shift in this election, but Anthony Albanese believes it is already occurring around the kitchen tables of the nation.”

“This week, the Reserve Bank of Australia played itself into the federal election campaign in a way we haven’t seen for 15 years. Whatever the impact of its 0.25 percentage point rate rise on Tuesday – the first in more than 10 years – …”

“Unfortunately for the prime minister, he himself is a known known, with a record over the past three years that he is having great difficulty defending or explaining. How sweet must be the memory of the blank page that he presented the last time he faced …”

“At the end of week two of the campaign we are confronting the prospect of neither major party being able to govern in their own right, which says everything about how underwhelming voters see the choice on offer.”

“A shock, a self-inflicted wound on day one of the six-week formal election campaign has put Anthony Albanese on the back foot. That has to be the biggest takeout of week one, making the next five even more fraught for the Labor leader as he tries to persuade …”

“The election campaign is off to an early and intense start. There was no need to wait for the governor-general to dissolve the house – Morrison stopped governing months ago and has been swamping the media with taxpayer-funded ‘government’ ads …”

“In fact, the Coalition is in such a spiral of self-destruction that earlier this year Labor pulled back on its social media spend. The explanation was simple: ‘The government is doing all the work for us. ’”

“The equivalent of a political nuclear bomb hit South Australia last weekend and its shockwaves are reverberating through the nation. Blown to smithereens are the notions that the Covid-19 pandemic is a guarantee for the survival of incumbents or that …”

“There’s not much doubt about it: Labor’s Anthony Albanese is messing with Scott Morrison’s head. The prime minister knows he has the fight of his life on his hands – and so far, he’s losing it.”

“A senior member of the government – a minister in Morrison’s cabinet – has begun contacting ‘like-minded’ colleagues by email to arrange meetings where they can discuss the crisis. One recipient says, ‘The last …”

“Scott Morrison’s isolation this week with Covid-19 is a pertinent metaphor for the political malaise besetting him. Always a loner, he is again friendless. This is a severe impediment for any chance he has of saving his government. If the opinion …”

“Uncertain times are usually thought to favour incumbent governments, but that presumes these governments have retained more than a modicum of confidence among a majority of voters. Evidence is mounting that the Morrison–Joyce Coalition has failed …”

“The raucous, shambolic penultimate sitting of federal parliament this year is all the evidence you need to know Scott Morrison is running very scared. Governments can find parliament a political killing field and never relish the scrutiny its opponents …”

“A hung parliament after the next election is emerging as a real possibility, enhanced by this week’s divisive religious discrimination debate. Among the winners could be the Greens and others who have stood up against a push to wind back years of …”

“Make no mistake: the tumbrel is rolling for the Morrison government and the political guillotine is looming as its inescapable fate. Responding to a devastating Newspoll at the beginning of the week, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg reminded us that ‘many …”

“The Australia Day holiday is now behind us. By convention, this signals that the nation is back at work. It also sets the clock ticking down for a federal election within four months. The sense of foreboding within the Morrison government is palpable. …”

“Wishful thinking and an incompetent handling of the pandemic over the summer have shattered the chances of Scott Morrison pulling off another improbable election win. What I would call the ‘Ellis factor’ may yet save him, but it is a …”

“This week Scott Morrison was given a lesson in the sort of diplomacy needed to deal with China, the bully that also happens to be our biggest trading partner. It was a jarring reminder, on the cusp of an election year, that the almost decade-old Coalition …”

“Three years after winning the leadership, the reality is setting in about Scott Morrison. The chance of him winning again are slimmer than before. The idea that he is a government unifier and a change from Malcolm Turnbull has shifted. The photo opportunities …”

“If the last fortnight of parliament for the year is any guide, Labor has its tail up and the government is in the doldrums. The lack of engagement from the Coalition backbench as the prime minister and his ministers slugged it out with the opposition …”

“Anthony Albanese is convinced the tide is going out on the Morrison government. Scott Morrison senses it too, but, like King Canute, he is desperately trying to prove he’s still in control. The embattled prime minister is being swamped by almost …”

“Former Australian tennis great John Alexander doesn’t like the way the game of politics is being played. Winning is everything and the biggest losers are Australians. Good policy and a genuine bipartisan search for what is best for the nation, in …”

“Morrison, like Howard, has made no secret of his determination to turn the election into a referendum on who people can most trust to run the economy, secure in the knowledge that come next May the country should be humming along.”

“In one of the most remarkable developments, certainly since the Second World War, an Australian prime minister has leaked a highly confidential security document against an American president. Think about that. On the international stage, Scott Morrison …”

“When Scott Morrison flew out of Canberra in his VIP Airbus on Thursday night for the Glasgow climate summit, Labor’s Anthony Albanese wasn’t on board. He wasn’t even on the tarmac waving goodbye.”

“As the week dragged on without agreement the impression strengthened that Morrison was a hostage to the Nationals. His claimed strategy of patience looked increasingly like impotence. ”

“The dramatic shifts in the politics of climate change have finally caught out Scott Morrison. It’s a reckoning that’s been coming since the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires.”

“Thirty-five thousand feet above the Rocky Mountains on his way home from Washington, DC, Scott Morrison indicated he had learnt little from the greatest miscalculations of his prime ministership, the ones about holidays and family.”

“Scott Morrison’s plans to make the looming election as much about keeping Australia safe from a Chinese threat as anything else have begun to take serious water.”

“Credibility is everything for a political leader. Lose it and the game is over. There are real fears within his parliamentary ranks that Scott Morrison’s has done just that – or is close to it.”

“Scott Morrison loves to keep a secret. It has become a trademark of his government and famously manifested itself long before he snatched the keys to The Lodge. It is serving him and the workings of our democracy poorly.”

“Scott Morrison is flailing about as he struggles to get back on the ‘narrow path’ he keeps talking about to deliver him another election victory. Nowhere is this more obvious than the desperate damage control he embarked on earlier this …”

“The fictional Stone Age family of largely unremembered animated children’s film The Croods is the prime minister’s latest inspiration for a nation exhausted by lockdowns and living in fear of the Delta strain of Covid-19.”

“Morrison defended our 20-year ‘longest war’ as worthwhile in the name of freedom. Australian soldiers dying for freedom is never in vain, he said. But whose freedom is the question? Apparently, it is not the freedom sought by those who flee the Taliban’s …”

“Morrison said if others wanted to undermine the government’s job looking after the health of the nation, ‘it’s up to them’. But, he said, ‘We do not support misinformation in any way, shape or form.’ What he does support …”

“The setting for the government parties room meeting back in Canberra after the winter break was depressing. It wasn’t hard to see it as a metaphor for the deep hole in which the Morrison government finds itself. Having spent the first four months of …”

“The timing of Labor’s announcement – ditching a significant tax policy it had taken to the previous two elections – may have been curious. Its significance, however, should not be missed.”

“There is an increasing likelihood that the Delta strain of the Covid-19 virus has dealt a fatal blow to the prospects of the Morrison government retaining office at the next election, whenever it is held. The prime minister has spent the week holed up …”

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, nothing was more eloquent than the joint news conference of Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian at the prime minister’s Sydney accommodation, Kirribilli House, this week. The Lodge in Canberra has been relegated …”

“Morrison’s decision to call in the military to sort out the vaccine rollout hasn’t provided him with the cover it was designed to. It’s one thing to send a general into war; it’s another not to give him any ammunition.”

“The Morrison government was brought to the brink of collapse this week in a confrontation between the prime minister and reinstalled Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. And while Scott Morrison emerged the undisputed winner after bruising negotiations over …”

“Before the voters got a chance to pass judgement on the Morrison–McCormack Coalition, the Nationals’ party room did. And its judgement was that the deputy prime minister was failing to deliver for his core constituencies. Dispatched was mild-mannered …”

“The relationship between the Australian prime minister and the country’s highest-profile devotee of the QAnon conspiracy cult became even more problematic this week for the absent Scott Morrison. The Labor opposition seized on revelations in the …”

“This weekend, Scott Morrison would be hoping pictures of him rubbing shoulders with United States President Joe Biden and the world’s major democratic leaders at the G7 summit in Britain would speak volumes about his importance and worth to Australian …”

“The latest outbreak shows only one person needs to catch the bug in hotel quarantine in Adelaide, bring it unwittingly into Melbourne and carry on with a very active life in the community across several suburbs. ”

“Scott Morrison has found a very useful ally in an unlikely place. His name is Joel Fitzgibbon, opposition member for the New South Wales seat of Hunter, and the prime minister is certainly grateful for his contribution. The veteran Labor member, whose …”

“A government doesn’t spend $100 billion in a budget addressing every political problem, either of its own making or imposed on it, and leave anything to chance. Scott Morrison certainly didn’t this week. No sooner had parliament adjourned than he …”

“The morning after the three-ring circus that is budget night in Canberra, Scott Morrison came close to telling the truth: that he and the treasurer are in fact flying blind. Morrison repeated in his round of dawn media interviews that he has a plan, a …”

“Next Tuesday the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will up-end 40 years of Liberal Party ideology with a budget that will hugely increase spending and create deficits as far as the eye can see. The small government, ‘trickle down’ prescriptions championed …”

“It may console some Australians to know that their prime minister is doing God’s work. Millions of others are more likely to be confused, and even flabbergasted. Yet courtesy of a scratchy YouTube video, shot at a Pentecostal conference on the Gold …”

“Joe Hockey infamously divided the nation into “lifters and leaners”. There’s little doubt which side of that line Prime Minister Scott Morrison now finds himself on. Morrison is a political leaner, just ask the states, who are frustrated with the …”

“Revenge, so the expression goes, is a dish best served cold. Six months after her ‘humiliation’ by the prime minister and ‘bullying’ by Australia Post’s chairman, Christine Holgate gave ice-cold vent to her fury. And while the former chief executive …”

“The prime minister ends the quarter still well ahead of Labor’s Anthony Albanese … but he has been steadily losing ground. This echoes Labor’s research that finds the PM’s support is ‘a kilometre wide and a millimetre deep’.”

“All governments have horror stretches; the Morrison government is certainly no exception, as the past six weeks attest. But it is how governments deal with these political crises that can seal or save their fate. The Americans have a colourful turn of …”

“The Morrison government resembles a sinking ship in one of those pirate movies where practically everything, including the cannons, is thrown overboard in an attempt to stay afloat. And there has been a good deal of ballast unloaded in this sitting fortnight …”

“All of a sudden, the Morrison government is looking very vulnerable. And the prime minister knows it. Like all governments staggering towards the political abyss, it is not only events beyond their control at play but also, more importantly, their misreading …”

“Key ministers in the political line of fire over the past two weeks will be missing in action when parliament resumes on Monday. The Morrison government, currently being held together by gum and string, is in full strategic retreat in the hope it can …”

“It took one week for Australia’s first law officer, Christian Porter, to come out of hiding. In those seven days, he and his prime minister did everything to minimise the grave allegations of a violent historic rape. Porter has issued vehement denials …”

“Craig Kelly’s fulsome praise of Scott Morrison as Kelly quit the Liberal Party this week was akin to the Mafia sending roses to its next victim. Kelly said he sincerely hoped Morrison would ‘go on to be one of Australia’s greatest and longest-serving …”

“When bad news is dominating the headlines, the best solution for a prime minister is to eclipse it with good news. How fortunate then for Scott Morrison that he was able to finally announce on Tuesday that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine had been approved …”

“On Monday Scott Morrison walked into RAAF Base Williamtown near Newcastle to the soundtrack of the movie Top Gun. It may have been appropriate to his mission that day – lauding the progress of the Joint Strike Fighter program – but it was …”

“Try as he might, Scott Morrison can’t help letting slip his early-election ambitions. His most telling giveaway was in his first pep talk of the year to the Coalition party room in the Great Hall at Parliament House. But the prime minister merely confirmed …”

“As the year like no other draws to an end, the challenges and crises it presented have highlighted the nation’s strengths and dramatised its weaknesses. Facing up to these realities will be particularly daunting for our political leaders as they ready …”

“The prime minister was more the circuit preacher than ‘Scotty from marketing’ as he addressed the final Coalition party room meeting of the year. His stirring words of self-congratulation were tempered with a gentle reminder they all needed to stay …”

“Upon mature reflection, it is increasingly looking as though Scott Morrison’s angry reaction to a ‘truly repugnant’ social media attack from a Chinese government official has only deepened the crisis in the relationship between the two nations … …”

“China’s ‘Wolf Warrior diplomacy’ is proving more than a menacing howl for Australia, and what to do about it seems beyond the gumption of the Morrison government. It is one thing for the prime minister to dismiss a list of grievances from the Chinese …”

“An inconvenient truth rocked the Morrison government this week when it was finally brought to some account over the long-running robo-debt scandal … Don’t imagine the architect of the scheme, the prime minister himself, doesn’t realise how big a …”

“Australia’s political leaders were among the first to declare their faith in America’s democracy when the Biden victory in the presidential election became clear. They realised that what was at stake was the credibility of a nation that for the past …”

“There’s no doubt the prime minister had picked up on the enormous hurt suffered by businesses during the pandemic, particularly in the tourism sector, but what he had missed was people’s concerns about their health. To that end, older voters …”

“During senate estimates in the past fortnight, Labor has not squandered any chance to call the government to account. Its senators have seized on the forensic work carried out by the auditor-general and indeed their own ferreting to reveal disturbing …”

“It is always fascinating to watch the cat-and-mouse game that Australian prime ministers play with election dates. Unencumbered by fixed terms, convention dictates that the campaign starts whenever the incumbent believes they are in the best position …”

“A beaming Scott Morrison gave the TV news crews the sort of picture opportunity they really appreciate. Perched behind a machinegun in the turret of a military tank, the prime minister was having a fun ride. The fun, however, didn’t last and the image …”

“The hole could surely be seen from Mars: a deficit of $213.7 billion this financial year and projected to fall to $66.9 billion in 2023-24, still massively in the red by previous Australian standards … The sheer size of the numbers suggests to seasoned …”

“‘The first thing Josh Frydenberg should do in next Tuesday night’s budget speech is say sorry,’ says Wayne Swan, the man whom the Liberals cut no slack after he failed as treasurer to deliver Labor’s promised budget surpluses. Neither a global …”

“Tony Abbott has a lot to answer for. The former prime minister’s judgement on the national broadband network, climate and energy have led to costly and embarrassing failures. Now Scott Morrison is left to pick up the pieces – trying to reposition …”

“Two weeks ago, during the last sitting of the federal parliament before the budget early next month, Anthony Albanese decided it was time to take up the fight against the government on the economy. The Labor leader sensed the prime minister and his treasurer, …”

“Scott Morrison emerged from last Friday’s meeting of his national cabinet a defeated leader. His hastily constructed vehicle to co-ordinate a coherent response to the coronavirus pandemic crisis had fractured. The prime minister announced that the notion …”

“On Wednesday, when the national accounts confirmed Australia’s biggest economic contraction since the Great Depression, the federal government had a ready and credible excuse. But it was of little consolation to the one million Australians already out …”

“Red-faced and contrite, the minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians and minister for Youth and Sport, Richard Colbeck, apologised in the senate and offered his ‘sincere condolences’ to hundreds of grieving families. That he cut a sorry figure …”

“Any notion that ministers, state or federal, are responsible for anything much appears sunk in the wake of the Ruby Princess. And the ramifications are significant for the quality of our democracy and what we as citizens can rightly demand of …”

“Scott Morrison could have picked up the phone to two members of his much-vaunted national cabinet this week, to sort out what was truly a bizarre situation. But he didn’t, and his decision not to says a lot about his approach to the pandemic. Morrison’s …”

“Scott Morrison keeps misreading the mood of a nation gripped by fear. Nowhere is this more obvious than his now-abandoned legal case against state border closures – or, to be more precise, against the lockouts in the Labor-governed states of Western …”

“Scott Morrison went into disaster management mode this week as the coronavirus pandemic came awfully close to home, both personally and politically. The ‘catastrophe’, as his political opponents described it, was the Covid-19 outbreak spreading through …”

“Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s hands were blue as he stood behind his lectern, physically distanced from Scott Morrison in the prime minister’s courtyard on Tuesday. The pair were holding an outdoor news conference on an icy Canberra morning, and nothing …”

“Four days after the voters of Eden-Monaro kept the marginal seat in opposition hands, the Reserve Bank governor summed up the nation’s predicament: we are all flying by the seat of our pants. Scott Morrison, too, put it succinctly: ‘This is a global …”

“Unfailingly, since World War II, the voters in the New South Wales seat of Eden-Monaro have picked the mood of the nation at every federal election. Well, almost every election – 2016 and 2019 were the exceptions. Today those of the seat’s 114,000 …”

“The shorthand title was the trade union royal commission – and the highest-profile targets were a former Labor prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the then Labor leader, Bill Shorten. And everybody knew it. Undaunted by the howls of foul play from the …”

“It took a carefully orchestrated sting lasting 12 months to rid the Australian Labor Party of a strongman few could tolerate any longer. But the fall of factional warlord Adem Somyurek has ramifications well beyond the borders of his Victorian fiefdom. …”

“There’s nothing like the prospect of voters about to mark their ballot papers to focus the minds of politicians. And as parliament resumed this week, the spectre of the Eden-Monaro byelection hung over the place, jolting it out of its brief coronavirus …”

“As if Scott Morrison hasn’t got enough on his plate, now he has been dragged into the quagmire of Donald Trump’s increasingly ugly campaign to cling to office. The invitation to attend the September summit of G7 world leaders in the United States …”

“At the National Press Club on Tuesday, Scott Morrison went all medical as he framed his prescription for economic recovery. Key ministers in the room smiled their nodding approval when he said: ‘At some point you’ve got to get your economy out of …”

“Just at the moment the government claimed vindication for a big win on the world stage, China ridiculed its grandstanding. A terse, one-paragraph statement from its Canberra embassy called Australia’s response ‘a joke’. If anything encapsulates …”

“If anybody needed reminding, the Australian economy is in deep trouble, much deeper than either the treasurer or the prime minister realised at the beginning of last month. Then, the talk was of a ‘snapback’ from the damage of the coronavirus pandemic; …”

“It’s been a long six weeks since Australia’s governments first imposed economy-crushing lockdowns to flatten the coronavirus curve. Scott Morrison has no doubt the pain has been worth it, saying ‘thousands of Australian lives have been saved’. …”

“Australia’s relationship with its biggest trading partner, China, has plunged to depths not seen since formal recognition of the Communist-governed state 48 years ago. The stakes for Canberra could not be higher, with business leaders and exporters …”

“No matter how hard Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his senior ministers try to ignore Malcolm Turnbull’s explosive memoir, it simply will not go away. And for that, the deposed PM is far from apologetic. During a lunchbreak this week from the …”

“The ‘Great Lockdown’ – as the International Monetary Fund dubbed the coronavirus crisis this week – is plunging Australia and the world economy into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Just as that cataclysmic economic …”

“The federal parliament came out of hibernation midweek to commit a mind-boggling $130 billion to saving the jobs of millions of workers. But there is a six-month limit on the emergency wage subsidies, with Scott Morrison desperate for a way out of the …”

“The earth moved on Monday, when the coronavirus pandemic opened up a wide chasm between Australia’s governing Coalition and its political substructure. Don’t take my word for it, take the prime minister’s: ‘We are living in unprecedented times …”

“If anything crystallises the brutal impact of the coronavirus crisis in Australia, it is the thousands queued outside Centrelink offices around the country this week. The lines began forming the day after the prime minister announced that vast sectors …”

“There in the prime ministerial courtyard of Parliament House, Scott Morrison finally admitted his world had crumbled. ‘Life is changing in Australia, as it is changing all around the world,’ he began his news conference midweek. ‘Life is going to …”

“The coronavirus-induced panic that has caused the great run on toilet paper is not confined to the herd instinct of millions of shoppers. Fear of being the first government to preside over the end of 30 years of uninterrupted growth is gripping Scott …”

“It is getting harder by the week to believe a word uttered by the prime minister of Australia. And no one has done more to undermine Scott Morrison’s credibility than the man himself. This harsh judgement is shared not only by his political opponents …”

“There’s an old saying in politics, ‘Never waste a good crisis.’ And it’s crystal clear Scott Morrison isn’t wasting any moment where he can be seen responding to the threat coronavirus – or COVID-19, as it’s now known – is posing to Australia …”

“Scott Morrison must regret that he did not use the enormous authority of his shock election win last year to impose a credible climate and energy policy on his fractious Coalition government. This failure of leadership has now painted him into a very …”

“When a prime minister has to appeal for unity in his ranks, not one but two weeks running, you know there isn’t any. And the awful reality for Scott Morrison is that he’s got one hand tied behind his back as he tries to restore the promised stability …”

“The old tautology ‘deja vu all over again’ has become a jarring reality for the Coalition. And shattering the promised peace and stability are all the same factors that destroyed the prime ministership of Malcolm Turnbull: climate change, energy policy …”

“Scott Morrison hates the pejorative nickname that has taken hold on social media. “Scotty from Marketing” was conferred on him by the satirical magazine The Betoota Advocate. The moniker has gained currency because it captures the growing gap between …”

“Scott Morrison’s year of living miraculously ended with our elected leader disappearing from view and his whereabouts being treated like a state secret. The attitude that the prime minister’s location is nobody’s business is a strong indication …”

“On a day when thick, acrid smoke made Australia’s largest city virtually uninhabitable, the prime minister claimed climate policy success. Scott Morrison told a news conference – which had been called not to respond to the crisis but to discuss the …”

“Gone in a cloud of bluff and bravado is the compassionate medevac law that gave doctors the major role in transferring sick refugees to Australia for treatment. The senate and the people of Australia were told by the Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie …”

“Scott Morrison’s handling of the police investigation into Energy Minister Angus Taylor this week brazenly flouted conventions of propriety and integrity. The prime minister actually phoned the New South Wales police commissioner, Mick Fuller, and then …”

“While politicians, experts and commentators debate the threats and opportunities China poses for Australia, our own government’s behaviour has also come into the frame. In focus: the Department of Human Services’ bullying of at least one million Australians …”

“It has been a long time coming and it has taken the biggest fire front in Australia’s history to do it, but climate change denial has finally lost its political potency. The pressure is now on Scott Morrison to resolve the fierce resistance in his own …”

“Never has it been more obvious: getting elected is one task, governing is another. While Labor tries to move on from its election loss review, delivered to the executive on Thursday, Scott Morrison is finding that running the country is harder than winning …”

“Who else but that old master of political imagery Paul Keating could sum it all up so colourfully? The Australian economy is stagnant, and he says the Morrison government can’t do anything about it because the Liberal Party has a ‘surplus virus’ …”

“A citizen’s right to know should be a motherhood statement in our liberal democracy, but too much vested interest gets in the way. Most essentially, the pursuit of power – and the holding on to it – is the primal force distorting the way our Commonwealth …”

“For Scott Morrison, God obviously votes Liberal – that’s how he explains his ‘miraculous’ win in May. His mother-in-law confirmed on election night the family had all been praying for the result they got. On Tuesday, at the National Prayer Breakfast …”

“The ghosts of leaders past are haunting the political firmament as climate change, the one issue that played a major role in their demise, flares spectacularly. While Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten ruminate on their contributions to and …”

“The Morrison government is scrambling to persuade the nation it really knows what it is on about and how it will achieve it. The drought and a stubbornly sluggish economy aren’t helping. Nor is Morrison’s new best mate, Donald Trump.”

“Scott Morrison is back on Australian soil with the ramifications of his seven-day Trumpfest romp still to play out. He returns with an accolade from the United States president still ringing in his ears. No ‘man of steel’, this Aussie leader is a …”

“The duchessing of Scott Morrison in Washington begins today with one of the most colourful ceremonies Donald Trump can muster. The United States Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, resplendent in their 18th-century uniforms and playing antique instruments, …”

“The Morrison government is running away from a national integrity commission at breakneck speed. Its reluctance is made all the starker by its unrestrained willingness to seize on the embarrassment caused to its Labor opponents by Australia’s toughest …”

“There’s no doubt the populist backlash over attempts to deport a Tamil family from Queensland has caught the government by surprise. All of a sudden the perceived advantage for the Coalition in the areas of national and border security was slipping …”

“At the very time the world’s most powerful democracy is locked in a trade war with the planet’s biggest authoritarian state, Australia’s reputation as a free nation is under severe strain. And nothing highlights this more than the independence celebrations …”

“In a frank admission – rare for prime ministers, who like to impress they are confidently in charge – Scott Morrison has revealed what keeps him awake at night. That is the feud between our biggest customer and our closest friend. The problem for …”

“Whoever chose the venue for the first day of the federal parliamentary inquiry into press freedom had a sense of humour. At least, it tickled the funny bones of journalists assigned to the story when they learnt the inquiry was to be held at the New South …”

“The Trump presidency has been a wild ride for its ally Australia, and is becoming dangerously more bizarre by the day. Canberra is being railroaded into a confrontation with Beijing, which is clearly not in its economic or strategic interests. The Morrison …”

“Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie has returned to the senate convinced that people don’t trust politicians. That’s the message she received anywhere she went in the island state during her enforced exile from parliament over citizenship eligibility, …”

“Scott Morrison, who famously shrank the Liberal Party to near-invisibility to win the May election, was this week confronted by his party’s reappearance, and he doesn’t much like it. In just the second government party room meeting since polling day, …”

“Rapturous applause welcomed Scott Morrison to the annual Hillsong conference. Twenty-one thousand delegates bowed their heads as the prime minister led them in prayer for our nation – for veterans doing it tough, young people considering suicide, those …”

“In politics, so the wisdom goes, ‘perception is reality’. And this week, with the opening of the 46th parliament, the perception and the reality of the federal election hit home, particularly for the vanquished Labor Party. But for the victors, not …”

“From New York, Josh Frydenberg aimed a political missile with laser-like accuracy. ‘Earth to Anthony Albanese: Labor lost the election. Now it’s time to support the Coalition’s tax cuts in full.’ It hit the opposition midship, striking at the …”

“The tax cuts impasse between the government and the opposition has opened the way for a familiar play from the senate crossbench. As Scott Morrison was basking in the warmth of a holiday in Fiji, it was the Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick who was …”

“Scott Morrison is assiduously doing nothing much of consequence. In fact, this week he appeared to have taken a leaf out of the opposition leader’s book and, like Anthony Albanese, is doing a lot of listening. He has apparently decided this is the safest …”

“Scott Morrison and his treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, don’t intend to repeat the Keating government’s mistake of crab-walking away from their key pre-election promises, not that they made many. Frydenberg still trumpets the $100 billion promise over …”

“Already, the race is on for the next election. Both a jubilant Scott Morrison and a perky Anthony Albanese are off and running. Morrison has set himself the task of winning a fourth term for the Coalition, while Albanese is determined to learn from the …”

“Along with the rest of the nation, Scott Morrison could scarcely believe it. His mother told journalists a lot of prayers went into the shock defeat of Labor, and her jubilant son told the cheering party faithful he had “always believed in miracles”. …”

“Bill Shorten began the week on an upbeat note, saying he had detected a mood for change. Constant opinion polling has reinforced his discerned wisdom but there is a brooding reluctance in voter-land. One of Shorten’s key strategists was quietly confident …”

“Labor has been the frontrunner in the published opinion polls for the past three years. This week was no different, with the tightening since the election was called reaching a plateau. But Bill Shorten has supplied a powerful campaign moment in an otherwise …”

“How much easier would life be for Scott Morrison if he was a Liberal prime minister seeking his third term in government? He could point to the delivery of an agenda outlined back in 2013 and his leadership of a united, cohesive team of senior ministers …”

“Just when many of his troops were beginning to believe Scott Morrison’s Easter prayers might be answered, their hopes were shattered by Barnaby Joyce. The New England MP has form in derailing Liberal prime ministers when they appear to be making …”

“Peter Dutton’s war chest to save his seat is believed to be in the vicinity of $1 million. He refuses to say how much he is spending but his face is splashed across every billboard in Dickson. A Labor insider says, ‘We are delighted to …”

“The prime minister seems to have decided the best way to win over voters is to treat them like mugs. ‘Their problem,’ one Labor strategist says of the government, ‘is the voters aren’t as dumb as they think.’”

“Consolidated Newspolls show a swing against the Coalition in every state. Government MPs are hoping that the budget will give them some momentum to save them, but that is optimistic.”

“The budget will be Scott Morrison’s attempt to buy his way back to the Treasury benches. But many of his troops believe it is too late. One MP who is battling hard to hold his marginal seat says, ‘Nothing can save us now.’ Not even massive tax cuts, …”

“The cowardly, hate-filled attack has shaken both nations to their core, and exposed the lethal consequences of Australia’s political obsession with playing to people’s fears and prejudices. This is a dramatic shift, more potent than the demonising …”

“This week began with the Coalition government recording its 50th consecutive Newspoll loss, and that by a margin of eight points. A National Party source has no doubt it was that result that triggered Barnaby Joyce’s declaration of war on metropolitan …”

“The perception surrounding the Coalition’s late announcers is that they have waited until the eleventh hour in the hope the Morrison government’s fortunes would start looking up. More worrying for the government, though, is that its highest-profile …”

“The 2019 election campaign began in earnest last Sunday. There is a feeling among government politicians that Morrison will go to the polls on May 11. If he does, that’s an 11-week campaign. Liberal MPs need no persuading they are in the fight of their …”

“No longer confident it controls the parliament of Australia, the Morrison government has shut it down for the next six weeks. And no wonder: it is reeling from revelations of cronyism, incompetence and profligate, unaccountable spending. Scott Morrison’s …”

“What a week for the Morrison minority government. It started with the prime minister promising to keep Australians safe and secure. It ended with him and his government looking less assured they will be around long enough to deliver. Tuesday’s historic …”

“Morrison’s hyperbolic warning – that any show of compassion to the 1000 or so refugees still holed up on Manus and Nauru will destroy the border protection regime and lead to a new influx of boats – is of the same genre as his repeated warnings …”

“The speech in Brisbane on Tuesday was billed as a “major” announcement, the first for the year from the prime minister. Absent from this manifesto, though, was any mention of climate change, energy policy or stagnating wages – all issues critical …”

“Callers to the prime minister’s Radio 4CA interview weren’t distracted by quibbles about who did what centuries ago, they were more exercised over what’s happening now – to them and their businesses. A businesswoman named Linda rang in to complain …”

“The Prime Minister’s Office insists Morrison only learnt about Broad’s use of a website for ‘sugar daddy’ arrangements on the day New Idea broke the story. It is simply an incredible and grave dereliction of duty on McCormack’s …”

“The fact is they believe, as does John Howard, that the Opposition leader is the chink in Labor’s armour and they will keep attacking Shorten in the hope that wary voters will not risk him. Except negative views of the Labor leader pale into insignificance …”

“The prime minister denied the intervention was in light of Craig Kelly’s implied threats, made to several media outlets, to similarly quit the Liberals if he was disendorsed. It is the most logical explanation, although some in the party suspect Morrison …”

“The day the Morrison government sank deeper into minority with the desertion of backbencher Julia Banks, the Opposition leader went for the jugular. Bill Shorten asked, ‘Given that his minority government is consumed by division, dysfunction and chaos, …”

“Politicians staring down the barrel of defeat inexplicably think the way to avert the harsh judgement of the voters is to abandon the policies and positions that they have argued are best for the nation and do whatever it takes to give the mob what it …”

“The question dogging Scott Morrison as he rubs shoulders with world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Port Moresby this weekend is how long he will remain a member of this exclusive club. By his own admission, the chances are …”

“The near 20 per cent shift against the Liberals in Wentworth is the harbinger of impending doom for the Coalition government. The third Liberal prime minister in five years admits he has a significant challenge ahead but says he’s “getting on with …”

“Voters don’t like Shorten, or trust him, because, among other negatives, ‘he knifed two prime ministers’. But a new book by respected press gallery journalist David Speers, On Mutiny, casts serious doubt on Morrison’s …”

“The previous time a byelection was held to replace a prime minister dumped by his own party, the government lost the seat. It was 26 years ago, when Bob Hawke’s seat of Wills fell to the independent Phil Cleary. The Morrison government is giving every …”

“Morrison is signalling he wants stronger laws exempting religious institutions from Australia’s discrimination laws. Government sources say Morrison believes the Ruddock recommendations are too weak. For example, its recommendations on the legality …”

“Turnbull allies in the parliamentary party are increasingly sceptical of Scott Morrison’s ‘I knew nothing’ stance. One says Morrison confidant Stuart Robert, a former soldier, planned the manoeuvre with military precision, dudding Peter Dutton and …”

“The Scott Morrison version of the Liberal government continues to be one of relentless activity and half-baked ideas. Morrison’s hand-waving, an early feature of his prime ministership, became flag-waving during the week as he replanted the Union …”

“In the government party room on Tuesday Morrison told incredulous members that “we have momentum”. One quipped later: “Yeah, the sort of momentum you get when you jump off a cliff.” Maybe Morrison was taking heart from the fact he was more popular …”

“The stakes are extremely high in Wentworth. A loss there would see Morrison lose his majority in parliament. The prime minister is understood to have urged his state division to preselect a woman in what is an acknowledgement that he and the party have …”

“There is compelling evidence a vicious ‘Scuttle Scott’ campaign is under way and, unlike the ‘Kill Bill’ strategy, this one is being mounted from inside the government itself. The new prime minister faces parliament next week for the first time …”

“Earlier in the week, Bishop announced she would go to the back bench and was coy about her plans up to or beyond the election. She has no ambition to be opposition leader. Friends say the role of governor-general wouldn’t appeal. An ambassadorship or …”

“Previously, dumping prime ministers was not done lightly or indeed regularly. But the precedent has been well and truly set, as the musical chairs of the past decade attest. And this despite what is clearly a costly move for the government party. The …”

“Last Tuesday night, Tony Abbott was in his element. Surrounded by climate change sceptics and deniers he set about destroying Malcolm Turnbull’s signature energy policy. And he did so with panache, his opening line more a battle cry: ‘It takes character …”

“On Wednesday, the government parties in the Senate voted with a Hanson motion calling for the building of new coal-fired power stations and the retrofitting of existing base-load power stations. It failed 34–32, but proved a revealing insight on where …”

“As one Liberal lamented, no matter what happens, voters won’t have received any tax cuts in their pockets at the time of the next election. But according to the prime minister’s inner sanctum, Labor will do the Liberals a huge favour by promising …”

“The giveaway that electioneering is top of mind is the urgency claimed for bills dealing with foreign interference, espionage and sabotage. Absent from the list is the long overdue bill to ban foreign political donations. Labor voluntarily gave up on …”

“As far as his Nationals colleagues are concerned, last Sunday night’s nationally televised interview was Barnaby Joyce’s political death warrant. Kevin Humphries, whose state seat of Barwon is within the boundaries of Joyce’s federal …”

“The exasperation in the government is palpable. ‘The only thing anyone is talking about this week is the Barnaby Joyce soap opera,’ was the reaction of one fed-up backbencher. But it is not only the distraction that is the issue; it is the spectre …”

“Consistency is not Hanson's strong suit, but on Tuesday she sounded Trumpesque in the way she was contradicting herself. She capped off her Hobart news conference by saying “business needs immediate relief, not seven or eight years down the track”. …”

“The fact is Labor senator Katy Gallagher referred herself to the High Court as a test case for “reasonable steps”. Turnbull’s attack on Shorten for gaming the system is very rich given he argued that Barnaby Joyce was eligible until the court declared …”

“Voters are being asked to buy a pig in a poke. Morrison wants them to take him on trust. This is despite the fact he is a treasurer whose budget last year did not foresee the massive revenue increase that materialised over the past four months, a revenue …”

“If Shorten is having nightmares over the thought of Morrison demolishing his politically toxic corporate tax cuts, the Business Council of Australia has signalled it is putting together a war chest estimated at $26 million to campaign for them. Here, …”

“The government attacks the unions, particularly the CFMMEU, for seeing fines as the cost of doing unlawful business. It has now been exposed as being far more tolerant of its corporate mates doing the same thing. No wonder Labor can throw back at the …”

“Credlin is no run-of-the-mill commentator. One veteran Liberal says there’s no doubt she’s one of the key campaign strategists for the Abbott camp. ‘She’s a player,’ he says. Just how big a player is hard to determine. But so deep are the suspicions …”

“The same strategic miscalculation was at play when other ministers decided to answer journalists’ questions with the same candour as Dutton. It was simply extraordinary that Treasurer Scott Morrison or Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg didn’t see that …”

“This trashing of the Liberal Party’s defining philosophy has some on the back bench shaking their heads. It is one thing for the Nationals, often dubbed agrarian socialists, to call for a renationalisation of energy supply. It’s quite another for …”

“The fact is Abbott has given up on the Coalition winning the next election. Last weekend he told an invitation-only meeting in his Sydney’s northern beaches electorate that the government ‘is heading for a massive defeat’. The upside to this prospect, …”

“The atmosphere was electric when Labor’s victorious Batman candidate, Ged Kearney, entered the room flanked by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. You would think they had just won the general election rather than retained a seat they had held for the past …”

“Bill Shorten seized the political agenda in a dramatic way on Tuesday, overshadowing practically everything in domestic politics. He did it by homing in on a tax concession that is costing the budget billions but is a sacred cow for the Liberals. Donning …”

“Of course preferred prime minister is not an indicator of an election outcome – it is not unusual for a premier or prime minster to be preferred right up until the time voters dump them and their party. But this metric was for a long while a morale …”

“The fate of the Turnbull Coalition government depends on McCormack holding his party together. It is no easier task than Turnbull has with his party – although the Liberals seem to have come to the realisation that Tony Abbott is no longer the answer …”

“If the Nationals were paralysed by fear that if they sacked Joyce he would set about destroying the government from the back bench, they will now see if his own resignation spares them that. As one National MP told me before Joyce’s announcement: ‘If …”

“It will take quite some work to restore credibility to the Nationals as the “family values” party. If the party room sticks by Joyce, they are endorsing his hypocrisy – nowhere more on show than in his support of the “No” case on marriage equality. …”

“‘Why would he quit his career pretty well at the top of his power and influence if he didn’t think the odds were against us winning the next election?’ was the wry comment of one Liberal.”

“Attorney-General Christian Porter seemed unwilling to replicate ICAC federally. Politicians nobbling such a body would be a very bad look, almost as bad as refusing to set one up now that it is squarely on the table. And that’s the challenge Shorten …”

“Turnbull has spent the past few weeks meticulously planning strategy and tactics for his revival. One insider says the PM has had a series of deep-dive sessions on policy. He has also had backbenchers break their holidays to meet him for a drink and frank …”

“Joyce’s ham-fistedness, if not vindictiveness, in also sacking Queenslander Keith Pitt from the frontbench has precipitated a new threat to the government’s majority. An angry Pitt has told colleagues he is seriously considering moving to the crossbench. …”

“This shift in government rhetoric and sentiment around China did not start with Dastyari and Bennelong. These two events have merely blown it out of any sane proportion. It can be traced back to the arrival of the mercurial Trump presidency worsening …”

“Maybe Bill Shorten’s luck is running out. Complicating Labor’s campaign in Bennelong is Senator Sam Dastyari’s highly controversial dealings with Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo. Turnbull slammed Dastyari as an ‘agent of foreign influence and …”

“The Courier-Mail says eight Queensland federal Nationals will divorce themselves from the LNP campaign at the next election. The eight are counting on Barnaby Joyce to win this weekend’s byelection in New England and to relaunch them in …”

“The Turnbull government’s overdraft with the Australian electorate is well and truly spent. And the prime minister’s desperate attempts to keep his creditors at bay have only served to worsen his precarious position. His decision to cancel next week’s …”

“The dangerous, retrograde bigotry pushed by many on the “No” side was rejected overwhelmingly in the survey. Fellow travellers on the right saw voters disprove their claims that they were speaking for most of them. Their mistake is to equate their …”

“It’s likely Malcolm Turnbull doesn’t want to cross Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. The creation of the new Home Affairs ministry, against the objections of erstwhile allies in cabinet such as Julie Bishop and George Brandis, is as good …”

“Turnbull’s message: “It’s business as usual.” That’s meant to assure the nation that the government will keep governing smoothly. The fixed smile can’t mask the reality. Business as usual means more of the same dithering and internecine strife …”

“While Xenophon would dearly love to run 30 candidates in SA, finding the right ones takes more than wishful thinking. The infrastructure has to be constructed from scratch and the money has to be found to fund it. Other minor parties, such as Pauline …”

“There is an irony in all of this. Turnbull moved away from the CET because Abbott and many in the party room thought it was too close to Labor’s policy. Ditching it was to emphasise product differentiation and, according to government insiders, their …”

“Flying in the face of science is not something Turnbull or Frydenberg say they want to do. Neither, incidentally, did Abbott when he was prime minister. But now if we are to believe Abbott’s London speech, that was all a charade. He never really stopped …”

“There is a strong conviction that outside of Brisbane and the increasingly urban conglomeration that is the Sunshine and Gold coasts, guns swing votes. They are “a freedom issue”, as Katter proclaimed after tough restrictions were imposed on the Adler …”

“It is completely disingenuous for Turnbull to accuse Labor of not heeding warnings eight years ago on how the intense export drive could affect domestic supply and prices. Those warnings were offset by assurances from the exporters that it would not happen. …”

“The tragedy for the nation is that Abbott is not framing his arguments in terms of ending the energy wars. Rather, he wants to inflame them. His only focus: the next election and drawing a sharp distinction between an affordable and reliable energy target …”

“The chutzpah of Turnbull strongarming Vesey can only be explained as desperation borne of diabolical politics within the government spilling over into the public’s perceptions of division and inertia. So, unable to enact the sort of energy policy recommended …”

“Many Liberal backbenchers are furious with the Nationals. One says Joyce’s unwillingness to forgo his ministerial salary is being put ahead of the government’s best interests. A minister says it has more to do with him not wanting to let a Liberal …”

“To appeal to the Hansonites, Turnbull and his ministers are trying to out-Pauline Pauline. To get at Labor they have hit the nuclear button on political hyperbole. Both tactics reek of political desperation but after 18 consecutive bad Newspolls – the …”

“You know a government is racked by self-doubt when it spends more time back-pedalling after it has thrown the first punch. Junior woodchuck minister Angus Taylor was sent out earlier in the week to demand that Bill Shorten come clean and prove he has …”

“Katter says there are two sets of rules at work here: one for Matt Canavan, a less senior minister in the Nationals, and one for the number two in the Coalition government, Barnaby Joyce. He says Turnbull can have no credibility with the Australian people …”

“The Abbott grab bag of alt-right grievances amply demonstrates his crusade against same-sex marriage is merely a proxy against the sort of modernity he identifies with Malcolm Turnbull and contemporary Australia.”

“There are three policy areas that hitherto have been identified with Turnbull: climate change, marriage equality and the republic. While it is true that politics is the art of compromise, any accommodation becomes dangerous if it is seen as a sellout. …”

“Already there is some natural justice in politics. The prime minister was quick to condemn the Greens for “incredible sloppiness”, while Trade Minister Steve Ciobo was even harsher, accusing the Greens of amateur-hour incompetence. Those assessments …”

“With Abbott’s call to arms for conservatives “to take our party back”, the prime minister has no real option but to retaliate. And nothing is more basic than defending his leadership as completely Liberal orthodox against accusations that he is …”

“Again we are seeing Abbott the pugilist, rejecting bipartisanship as a false mantra. Labor’s Mark Butler, in a thoughtful book released this week, unsurprisingly called Climate Wars, spells out the enormous price the country is paying for Abbott’s …”

“Bolt invited renegade Liberal senator Cory Bernardi on his show to begin what is now a Pyne pile-on. Bernardi, who betrayed the Liberal Party to form his own Australian Conservatives, claimed “Christopher Pyne is the most untrustworthy person he has …”

“Turnbull has unveiled a needs-based schools-funding package winning Labor’s champion reformer David Gonski to its cause. And he began to look and sound like the Turnbull of yore with a clean energy target scheme that takes climate change seriously and …”

“To the consternation of much of Australia’s legal fraternity, Dutton has set about the deliberate undermining of confidence in our judicial system. He framed changes to visa and citizenship requirements in terms of new members of society embracing Australian …”

“Politicians playing the blame game are nothing new, especially in the current febrile climate. It is made all the harder for Turnbull because he is under fire from within his own ranks for not being more outspoken on ‘Islamic’ terrorism. As a result, …”

“Seven years ago Malcolm Turnbull’s assessment of CCS was that it was an industrial pipedream. He said it was sobering that “as of today, there’s not one industrial-scale coal-fired power station using carbon capture and storage – not one”. This …”

“Turnbull’s problem is he comes to the fray politically weakened thanks to his one-seat majority. It denies him clout in dealing with the hostile senate. ‘They can’t really govern,’ is the conclusion of one Liberal veteran. It’s certainly not …”

“Morrison’s sales pitch still looks like it is coming from a government at war with its own past convictions. There is something dissonant about a Liberal treasurer talking about the banks “fleecing their customers”. He is, after all, a treasurer …”

“One of Malcolm Turnbull’s inner sanctum was upbeat as journalists pored over the details of this week’s budget. ‘Labor’s got nowhere to go,’ he said. Judging from his demeanour in the Parliament House lock-up, Treasurer Scott Morrison shared …”

“On Tuesday night at 7.30 Treasurer Scott Morrison will preside over the burial rites for the economic belief system that has guided the Liberal Party for 25 years. Gone is the dogma that the market knows best and the national interest is optimally served …”

“Malcolm Turnbull has put his prime ministership on a war footing. It worked for a similarly besieged Liberal PM 16 years ago, and it’s definitely worth a shot now. The image of a helmet-wearing, Kevlar-vested Australian leader scurrying out of an RAAF …”

“Turnbull’s visa crackdown certainly got the media talking about something else other than the government’s Abbott-fanned internal divisions. That almost certainly accounts for the announcement’s timing, even though Turnbull insists the government …”

“Turnbull is caught between the wily billionaire Gautam Adani and the hyperventilation of the Nationals prepared to give the businessman whatever he wants to get the giant Carmichael mine project in Queensland going. And, by the way, assist other billionaires …”

“Old heads on the government backbench aren’t holding out for Morrison to provide a circuit-breaker in May. Good budgets – that is, ones the public don’t get too upset with – tend to disappear within the first sitting fortnight. Even tax cuts are …”

“The botching of the treaty ratification with our biggest trading partner exposed much that is wrong with this government. It brought to the surface, yet again, deep divisions that have leadership implications. And it exposed a political tin ear that is …”

“On Wednesday, Labor tried to have the bills debated in the house of representatives. Bill Shorten said the government’s choice of the senate was nothing more than a cynical attempt by the prime minister ‘to be able to make the claim to the extreme …”

“One report says an emission intensity scheme would save businesses and households up to $15 billion in electricity bills over a decade. But that is an inconvenient truth.”

Just as Barnett benefited from the disarray in the ALP and the backlash against the Gillard government in 2013, now he has the baggage of his Canberra colleagues replaying a similar script.

Abbott’s mantra that Turnbull is losing the base to One Nation is not addressed by aping her policies.

Put simply, many on the backbench are fed up with the slack Turnbull cuts to outspoken right-wingers such as the Nationals’ George Christensen.

Political attacks often thrill partisans but appear puerile to innocent bystanders. They reinforce the impression that the politicians are more interested in themselves than voters’ concerns.

One senior Liberal doubts whether Turnbull would hang around to lead the government to a defeat. And most fear eventual defeat is more likely than not.

When asked why he wouldn’t reveal how much he had given, Turnbull’s answer was as opaque as it was shifty. On Channel Nine, Laurie Oakes accused him of ‘looking like a hypocrite’.

The numbers are in fact worse than when Morrison and the Liberals in opposition railed against “debt and deficit disasters” and a “budget emergency”.

Turnbull isn’t convincing on the so-called bread-and-butter issues. And there is growing pessimism that it is already too late for him to turn that around.

“New Zealand has a much less fraught political culture. Key certainly didn’t have a deputy PM who led another party that had a deep antipathy to, and suspicion of, him. ”

“If Turnbull – and Abbott before him – had been as prepared to compromise on the construction industry watchdog as we saw this week, the ABCC and Registered Organisation bills would have passed a couple of years ago. ”

“Peter Dutton seems convinced the best way to deal with these extremists is to match them. In that, he has allies in the Coalition National Party. ”

“Shorten didn’t need Trump to prompt him to take his message to communities with high unemployment that are resentful. This week, He made his 20th visit to regional Queensland for the year. ”

Malcolm Turnbull’s intemperate attack on Gillian Triggs is a sure indication of the heat the PM is feeling from his hard-right flank. That he panders to it in such a ham-fisted way has many on his own side despairing.

“One Liberal says when Rudd quit as foreign minister, at a dramatic press conference in Washington, it was to blow up the government. Why would Turnbull risk it with Abbott?”

Turnbull is being seen as ‘weak’ – unable to stand up for what he really believes in against the conservatives in his party. Worse, he ‘stuffs up’.

“In parliament, Turnbull did what he failed to do on Radio National and vowed never to trade away Howard’s gun laws but to strengthen them. But he then mired himself in an apparent contradiction. ”

“The difficulty for Turnbull is the split between the hardliners and the moderates. Throw in bruised egos and thwarted ambitions and all Shorten has to do is add water and stir.”

“ANZ’s Shayne Elliott, like CBA’s Ian Narev, came to the parliamentary hearing in sackcloth and ashes. But the penitent’s garb could impress only the most gullible. ”

“George Christensen says the only option is a plebiscite. If the prime minister accepts this in the hope the issue will go away, he is deluding himself.”

“If ever leadership was needed it is now, before these corrosive views are allowed to destroy the multicultural cohesive society Australia has become.”

“One of the most significant concessions was the dropping of the baby bonus. The $367 million payment was a condition of the Coalition agreement and a key promise of the Nationals.”

“The irony is that Dastyari hadn’t broken any of the disclosure rules. He even declared his dumb mistake. But what gave the government attacks force is that he appeared to have been caught out telling his Chinese donors what they wanted to hear. ”

“Destabilising Turnbull is as much a motivation as fighting for pristine free speech. The laudable conservative value of promoting ‘civility’ is collateral damage in this play.”

“While Turnbull is confident the plebiscite vote will pass, the republic, another of his magnificent causes, looked a no-brainer only to fail amid confusion and skulduggery.”

“We should remember Tony Abbott has form. He’s much like an addict who knows he has to kick the habit, says he’s going to do it, only to keep falling off the wagon.”

“The green light was given for the first online census, to outsource it and to extend the length of time for names and addresses to be held. All without serious explanation or adequate planning. The government even left the Australian Bureau of Statistics …”

“Attention to detail doesn’t seem to be the attorney-general’s strong suit. But in a scramble to save face, George Brandis, QC, would have none of the criticism.”

“Christensen’s fit of pique on superannuation only reinforces just how precarious is the Coalition’s hold on government.”

“For a prime minister who had just won an election, Turnbull’s hold on authority is remarkably precarious. ‘He’s a sitting duck and he knows it,’ was the way one of his MPs put it.”

“The question exercising the minds of many is whether Turnbull has the skills of a Menzies, to not only survive but to propel the Coalition to a handsome win next time. ”

“Turnbull’s ‘I have a scream’ speech on election night betrayed his anger and hurt. 'The boss is in a bad place,’ was the way it was put to me.”

“What is clear is that Turnbull’s rush of blood to the head in calling a double dissolution to clean out the obstructive senate is sure to prove foolhardy. ”

“The fact of the matter is the published national opinion polls have the election in a deadlock. Labor has been in front by a nose in three of five polls in the past fortnight.”

“If business is miffed that the Coalition is going softly on tax cuts, they’re not showing it. But on the Coalition’s own timeline, it’s not at all certain they’ll be in power long enough to deliver the whole plan.”

“Immigration department officials are already exploring an arrangement with the Canadians. As it was put to me: ‘Turnbull has given the department a hunting licence.’”

“It was time to get serious on an issue that works like a treat for the Coalition … National security is, to use Malcolm Turnbull’s earlier assessment, all they’ve got. ”

“It is 85 years since a first-term government was thrown out. But Victoria and Queensland state elections show that voters are more interested in performance than in precedent. ”

“This budget was more than an opportunity missed, it was a wilful blind eye to an emerging central economic reality. ”

“Turnbull’s big effort to refloat the Liberal vote in South Australia may work. Much will depend on how forgiving the threatened car industry workers and their families are.”

“For the first time since Turnbull replaced Abbott, the government did not lead in a single poll … this election will be hard-fought trench warfare in the marginals.”

“Attempts to delink rates of remuneration with road safety are not borne out by studies ... It is a no-brainer that Truck drivers struggling to meet their lease or mortgage payments will push the envelope.”

“If you compromise with zealots all you do is encourage them to keep threatening to blow up the joint. And don’t worry: Turnbull is learning that at great cost. ”

“Curiously, Scott Morrison says ‘you can’t tax your way to surplus’. Tell that to Peter Costello. The revenue that gave him his surpluses was just that: revenue. ”

“Labor’s senate strategists are scathing of Turnbull’s use of the constitutional ploy. Just how far the opposition is willing to drag “the Crown” into the political fray remains to be seen. ”

“Why would a treasurer invest so much time and capital softening up the electorate for big tax changes only to ditch them, not once but three times?”

“The mere spectacle of the leader who took the party from opposition to government sitting on the backbench puts up in neon lights failure and division.”

“Abbott and his acolytes have seized on the vacuum created by the government’s protracted consideration of its tax plans to wage a proxy war on Turnbull. ”

“In parliament Turnbull gave weight to Labor’s taunts that he was ‘rattled’. Gone was the equilibrium and humour in evidence since he grabbed the nation’s top job.”

“Turnbull is about winning a mandate in his own right. The time for bravery is year one after an election victory, providing you haven’t done a Tony Abbott and ruled out everything you want or need to do.”

“Tinkering with Medicare, or at least appearing to, is almost as dangerous for a conservative government as wanting to raise the GST. ”

“The longer the GST option is left hanging, the more ingrained becomes the perception that the conservatives really, really want to do it. ”

“Instead of merely being a lightning rod for internal dissent, Abbott intends to lead it in public as well. He knows he won’t be returning to the ministry. ”

“Morrison’s claim that he would not raise the GST simply to allow the states to spend the revenue is baffling. All revenue is raised so governments can spend it. ”

“Many Liberals are furious about Macfarlane’s venality and Joyce’s overreach. It spells humiliation for Turnbull if he caves in.”

“Why would Turnbull give the portfolio of special minister of state to a man who has a cloud over his treatment of the very institutions he is now charged with administering?”

“While some in the party frame the contrary positions on national security as healthy policy debate, the view of that argument is pretty blunt. It was put to me as follows: ‘Bullshit.’”

“Labor is hoping its leadership on the republican issue will send a message to progressive voters, who have deserted it for Turnbull.”

“Peter Hendy’s assessment about the cost of electioneering on big tax reform is shared by veteran Liberals who remember 1998 with a shiver up their spines.”

“Eric Abetz, before he was unceremoniously dumped by Turnbull, was being lined up as our ambassador to Berlin. That Abbott project has been quietly shelved.”

“Two weeks ago there were flashes of the old Turnbull in a heated phone confrontation with NSW premier Mike Baird. ‘A leopard can’t change its spots,’ was the reaction of one MP.”

“Abbott has said he’s not interested in being an ambassador. 'Diplomacy wasn’t his greatest skill,' a highly connected liberal businessman says, 'so it’s just as well.'”

“Morrison says we need to have a mature discussion. But is there a grown-up way of cutting the wages and conditions of four million Australians?”

“In a disturbing development for the Labor narrative that nothing has changed but the leader, Turnbull has parted ways with Abbott’s chief business adviser, Maurice Newman.”

“One of Labor’s key strategists says they don’t have to be explicit in playing to class envy; it is already happening. Everyone knows Turnbull is a ‘rich dude’.”

“What will give Turnbull a freer hand is his performance as measured in the opinion polls. The early signs are ominous for Labor and the hard right.”

“This issue can never shake its racist and xenophobic undertones. Abbott is to be commended for taking no notice of those in his party room on the extreme right. ”

“Arthur Sinodinos gave the ministerial disunity story a huge blast of oxygen. He would not have done so without full knowledge of the ramifications. ”

“Already, the Liberals appear not to see Abbott as a plus. He doesn’t feature in their campaign material for the seat of canning. Julie Bishop is the big attraction there.”

“Abbott’s position is so parlous every challenge his government faces is an acid test. Few doubt the September 19 appointment with Canning’s 110,000 voters will be a moment of truth.”

“Turnbull spoke for many in the party room when he pointed out that rather than taking marriage equality off the agenda, Abbott has ensured it will be an issue up to the election and beyond.”

“The Bishop saga is definitely a plague on all their houses. ”

“Labor has begun to show a political adroitness many thought beyond it. And maybe Shorten’s political luck has returned. ”

“This ability to deny reality or redefine it to suit your convenience is, for some, the art of politics. For most sane people, it is simply incredible.”

“Dragging the Labor leader through this expensive demolition exercise could be Abbott’s last throw of the dice.”

“Asylum seekers must always be seen as threats, queue jumpers and illegals, and never as desperate human beings, men, women and children.”

“Tony Abbott’s behaviour in recent weeks is throwing up pretty compelling evidence that he is poised to rush to the polls as soon as he thinks he has a better than even chance of winning.”

“Nowhere does the ‘hook or by crook’ doctrine reveal itself more dramatically than in the mounting evidence that the government is now in the people-smuggling business.”

“Immigration Minister Peter Dutton shrouds everything he does in ‘operational’ secrecy. North Korea couldn’t do it better.”

“One voterland issue finding its way into Canberra is same-sex marriage. Do not be fooled by reports the issue has become an inevitability.”

“Half a billion dollars has been saved by stopping the boats, says the budget. That’s dwarfed by the $913 million a year that implementing the policy is still costing.”

“There are signs Hockey is feeling very insecure in his job. His embarrassment is compounded by his invisibility in the past couple of weeks and Scott Morrison’s in-your-face presence everywhere.”

“Sounding like a politician who wants to win an election rather than fix his budget, Hockey said: ‘It’s only Labor that wants to increase taxes on superannuation.’ ”

“According to the polls, when it comes to one of the Coalition’s favourite mantras of ‘returning the budget to surplus’, the electorate is of little faith.”

“Real pressure is mounting on the coalition to come up with something meaningful on emissions reduction before the Paris conference at the end of the year.”

“Peter Costello’s ‘look at me’ moment had invited closer scrutiny of his contribution. Labor couldn't believe its luck.”

“Who would have thought that a joint statement from nine of Australia’s peak business groups would attack a political leader for an “almost continuing focus on budget fairness”?”

“Abbott says there can be no GST change unless Shorten wants it – either a white flag or a de facto admission he hasn’t got the political clout to pressure the senate to support a change.”

“There is still a nagging suspicion that Abbott has not completely killed off the option of a double dissolution election if his budget repositioning works. ”

“For a government desperate to re-establish its credibility, Pyne’s performance is a major setback … His education changes are a template for what not to do. ”

“Everything that is happening with the government is through the prism of leadership. The opinion polls are the pulse of the PM’s grip on his political life.”

“Why on earth would anyone think they have any idea what our economy will look like in 40 or 100 years? The only credible prediction is there will be an economy.”

“The whole episode illustrates that for Abbott little has changed. He is more comfortable attacking and creating enemies than in reaching out and making friends.”

“Some months ago there was an ugly confrontation between Philip Ruddock and the PM. It ended in acrimony, with a prime ministerial “get fucked” adding colour.”

“What Credlin and Abbott must know is that the same agitators who precipitated last Monday’s spill motion have a plan to strike again. This time the performance of Hockey will be the trigger. ”

“The fact is, the agenda that is responsible for the government’s plunge in support is still very much on the table. ”

“Abbott says he’s looking for answers on how the hostage taker slipped below the radar. Just as urgent politically is to find an answer to the toxicity poisoning his government at the top. ”

“Just as stories of the Rudd office’s dysfunction began seeping into the media for months before he was brought down, persistent reports are beginning to appear about the Abbott office.”

“Many coalition MPs are fuming at the government’s political woes and lay the blame squarely at the door of the PM and his senior ministers. Some worry that they are as delusional as Humpty Dumpty.”

“Without blushing Abbott insisted, 'This is a government that has fundamentally kept faith with the Australian people.'”

“The breakaway of Lambie and Muir spells big trouble for Abbott. Finance Minister Mathias Cormann was apoplectic. But no one was angrier than Clive Palmer.”

“When you realise the budget is in fact the government’s 'Economic Action Strategy' being trumpeted in Brisbane, the PM better hope no one is looking too closely. ”

“One senior Labor politician says the Liberals may well return to Malcolm Turnbull, 'if they get to be as desperate as we were in the run-up to the last election'.”

“Shorten was not making a sensationalist play for attention. It was a carefully thought-through statement of his principles and a manifesto for his leadership.”

Both sides of parliament rose to eulogise Whitlam, but neither shares an enthusiasm for his reforming agenda.

“The prime minister seems to acknowledge his play for domestic plaudits in this instance was at best inelegant, at worst demeaning.”

“Voters can smell a political witch-hunt. The fact that John Howard expressed negative views about going after defeated political opponents also feeds into this sentiment.”

“The ABC asked Hockey if he was about to beat a budget retreat. ‘No, the story is wrong,’ Hockey replied. ‘The bottom line is: if you can win a battle, you take that victory, but you never give up on the war.’”

“Shrouding the prime minister from any humiliation over climate change is the fog of war. Australia is now in anti-terrorism overdrive. The nation is panicked.”

“Abbott seems to be listening. He wants the recognition referendum to succeed. He’s burying the habit of a lifetime to be a national, inclusive leader. ”

This week the government relentlessly pursued fallen political foes and rhetorical enemies abroad.

“In many ways Tony Abbott is a victim of his own unequivocal promises, made simply and with a conviction deeper than the Grand Canyon.”

“The Abbott government prides itself on being a continuation of the Howard government, but its political management lacks the deft touch of the old master.”