The Australian prime ministership was created out of almost nothing during the first five decades of the twentieth century A VISITOR to Australia, knowing nothing of the country, its history or its institutions, might consult the constitution, the official rule book, to understand how Australia functions. There, the visitor would find the powerful figure of...

Governments are in denial about population growth and its impact on Australia’s major cities. It’s time to take up the challenge SOMETIME over the next three months, Sydney’s population will reach five million. If Melbourne keeps growing at its current pace, by 2020 it too will have five million residents – and it won’t stay...

A bad Newspoll result suggests that Malcolm Turnbull has provoked the economic anxieties of the electorate. The question is: why? NEWSPOLL has shifted two points in two-party-preferred terms over the past fortnight, putting Labor slightly ahead, at 51–49, for the first time since Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister. Within Australia’s version of the beltway, this...

A coalition of organisations forced the hands of the world’s major polluters and forged a new politics of climate

The PM knows that voters have a simple question in mind when they enter the polling booth THE LATEST edition of Tony Abbott’s “no sniping” tour, on Monday night, saw the former prime minister explain to Sky News that it’s “very easy” for him “to campaign for the Turnbull government.” That’s because the Turnbull government...