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The aftermath of a boat sinking in the early hours of Wednesday demonstrates why improving arrangements between Indonesia and Australia is urgent, writes Stuart Ranfurlie in Jakarta.

The attack on Defence Minister Stephen Smith has been relentless.

Aside from the Skype s-x scandal, Defence Minister Stephen Smith has been bullet-proof, writes Eric Palmer, a Defence journalist and analyst.

If Julia Gillard is to have any chance of turning around her fortunes, she has a brief window of opportunity to overhaul her government.

Kevin Rudd hasn’t merely lost a vote on Labor’s leadership, he has failed to establish himself as the looming replacement for Julia Gillard.

Brands are critical to Prime Ministers and Julia Gillard’s brand is very likely terminally damaged. There’s only one viable brand in Labor ranks.

Without an Australian input into US foreign policy and strategic plans in Afghanistan, our contribution becomes little more than supplying mercenaries, writes Bruce Haigh, a political commentator and retired diplomat.

I worry about Gerard Henderson, really. He has a chronic case of corresponditis — the inability, at the end of a protracted exchange of letters, to allow his correspondent to have the last word, writes former Labor leader Mark Latham.

For nearly two decades, Australia’s annual budget has been a bit of a ho-hum experience for Defence. But last night it got raided for the first time in years, says Graeme Dobell.

It’s stand-offs and resignations everywhere as The Australian deals with the ADFA scandal.

With Anzac Day looming, it seems a fitting time to re-examine our attitude towards and within the Australian Defence Force in light of the ADFA scandal.

Stephen Smith has cleverly seized on the crisis of confidence in the ADF engendered by the ADFA scandal to push through a reform the military wants.

Crikey media wrap: A sex scandal in the Defence Force has led to Australian women finally being allowed to fight on the front line and opened a conversation on misogyny and the culture of Australia’s defence force academies.

The biggest lesson in this case is that the whole matter could have been resolved in much more detail, much swifter and in a much more effective manner if the Commandant of ADFA had been allowed to explain the facts from the beginning, writes Neil James, executive director, Australia Defence Association

There are more brave soldiers, I read somewhere recently, than there are brave politicians.

Crikey media wrap: Top-level meetings between Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, Defence Minister Stephen Smith and their UK contemporaries, were declared “the most substantial British visit to Australia in many decades.”

In an entirely minimalist pre-election reshuffle, Julia Gillard has shifted Trade Minister Simon Crean to her former portfolio, with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith picking up Crean’s workload, reports Bernard Keane.

Daily Media Wrap: The Government has booted an Israeli diplomat out of Australia over the use of fake Australian passports. A bold act of diplomatic bravery, or just bowing down to the Arab world? This one’s just heating up.