Editorial

On July 29, Australia's ambassador to the Philippines was called in to that country's foreign ministry to be given a justly deserved "dressing down" over foreign minister Alexander Downer's attacks on Philippines President Gloria Arroyo's decision to

The federal election date may not yet be determined, but the vote-buying scams are already in full swing. We've already been treated to tens of millions of dollars worth of publicly funded political advertising for the Coalition government. On

At a media conference in Canberra on April 7, called by PM John Howard and Treasurer Peter Costello to release the report of the Taskforce on Reducing the Regulatory Burden on Business, Howard revealed that his government was "reviewing" the process

Over the last few weeks it has been confirmed by the government-initiated commission of inquiry that AWN Ltd, Australia's wheat export monopoly, paid $300 million in bribes to the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein between 1999 and 2003 to

On July 5, 107 Western Australian construction workers who had worked on the Perth to Mandurah rail project became victims of some of this country's most draconian anti-union laws. They face persecution at the hands of the Australian Building and

On July 23, defence minister Brendan Nelson announced that Canberra is willing to contribute armed Australian soldiers to a "robust" (meaning armed and prepared to carry out combat operations) international "peacekeeping" force to "stablise" Lebanon.

It's called democracy "With the pace-setter across the Tasman hobbled, the pressure for reform in Australia — especially the labour market— will be diminished", wrote Steve Burrell in the Financial Review. Reason enough to celebrate the

The Australian government is continuing the disgraceful 30-year bipartisan foreign policy of utter disregard for the people of East Timor. The second round of negotiations with the East Timorese government to settle the maritime boundary between

It took the federal Coalition government three attempts and 10 months of negotiations to finally get its Medicare legislation passed by the Senate — by 33 votes to 31 on March 11. This was only after health minister Tony Abbott secured the votes of

The February 12 announcement by Prime Minister John Howard that a Coalition party room meeting had approved a reduction in federal parliamentarians' superannuation to 9% (from 69.1%) would have gladdened most hearts. Howard was pleased because he

Anti-war activists have refused to be silenced or intimidated in the wake of the September 9 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta. It is crucial for the anti-war movement to remain steadfast in its vocal and determined opposition to the

The revelation that PM John Howard knew asylum seekers were innocent of the charge of throwing their children overboard, even as he continued to tell voters that it was true, is hardly a shock to most of us. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, politicians