Leadership coups have become an increasingly common feature of Australian politics, but the electoral results aren’t always encouraging, writes Rodney Tiffen.

With declining reach and influence, the Murdoch empire can no longer determine election results. The central reason for this decline in influence is the radically shrinking reach of News Ltd’s newspapers, argues Rodney Tiffen.

Looked at over time and ranked against other OECD countries, public funding of Australian universities is at a record-breaking low At a conference of university leaders in early 2013, Tony Abbott promised “relative policy stability” in higher education if he became prime minister. A year later, Universities Australia began its first Abbott-era budget submission by...

The Australian waded into the tobacco packaging debate with a series of blunt assertions, then responded to the counter-evidence by digging in. On 6 June this year, the front page of Murdoch’s local flagship, the Australian, was dominated by an “exclusive” report headlined, “Evidence ‘World’s Toughest Anti-Smoking Laws’ Not Working: Labor’s Plain Packaging Fails As...

There’s a worrying thread running through decisionmaking in Canberra Political attention over the past few weeks has been fixed on the drama of the Abbott government’s first budget – the winners and losers, the problem of broken promises, the prospects in the Senate. Beyond that, though, the budget reinforces another trend of potentially great significance...