Articles by Bernard Keane

Voter disenchantment with Labor now focuses on the leadership issue, despite the government’s attempts to focus on education and disability.

Good causes have a tougher time convincing policymakers of the merits of addressing social issues. So they rely on “social cost” to get into the policy space.

The US Federal Reserve has affirmed its intention to maintain monetary easing, heading off a developing market rout overnight.

While other US allies demand answers on the Edward Snowden revelations about mass US surveillance of private citizens, the Australian government wants the whole thing to go away and tells us there’s nothing to worry about. Fail.

Changing leaders won’t help Labor in the long-run unless the party tackles its core problems of structure, ideology and communication. The ALP’s problems go far deeper than Julia Gillard.

Mal Brough’s remarkable offensive misjudgment has overshadowed a misjudgment for the Prime Minister that might have proved costly.

Today’s Essential Report suggests little has changed in voting sentiment in recent weeks, but Labor has edged up just a little.

A culture of secrecy, unaccountability and outsourcing created the conditions for the Obama administration’s mass internet surveillance programs.

As despondency settles over the ALP, MPs debate whether they’re heading for a defeat or a catastrophic defeat in the September election. Then Kevin Rudd emerges to show how it might be different …

Two major revelations have exposed the extent of the Obama Administration’s mass surveillance of phone and internet use.

Changes in the way iron ore prices are set have implications for our terms of trade — and perhaps for a new government after September.

With only 100 days to go until the election, we take a look at the men and women who’ll take on ministerial responsibilities if the Coalition wins. Who are the duds, who are the stars, and who is the has-been that never was?

Today’s GDP figures show an economy exactly where the RBA says it is — poised on the difficult transition between a mining boom and domestic growth.

The record of the Attorney-General’s Department shows that, on national security, the department is the greatest threat to Australians’ rights.

The attempt to link Telstra’s asbestos / NBN problem with the pink batts fiasco ignores the basic facts — and the Coalition’s own uncomfortable history on the issue. Think twice before you point the finger …

Tony Abbott occasionally shows signs that he’s not as different from Labor as he claims — in ways that don’t augur well for his government. Can Joe Hockey assert some influence?

Tony Abbott has been forced by his colleagues to reverse his support for Labor’s cynical deal to secure more public funding. But it’s Labor that looked the most farcical.

The Attorney-General’s Department has admitted data retention will be “trivially easy” to avoid and that intelligence services want to be able to break into encrypted internet systems like Tor.

More funding for political parties will do nothing to curb the growth in donations — and will only benefit media proprietors taking ad dollars. Our man in Canberra tests the claims.

Four Corners fingered the Chinese for sleuthing on Canberra’s new security headquarters. But the truth is probably much less strange than the fiction of some alarmists.

Labor’s new political donations bill waters down its previous commitment to disclosure requirements and now comes with a big price tag. Naturally, the parties agreed on the increase.