Australia is the land of shonks, spivs and charlatans — and that’s just Parliament
Our broken politics was on full display this week at both the state and federal level — systems of government that encourage politicians to misbehave with our money.
Want a federal ICAC? These are the Coalition MPs you should call
Independent MP Helen Haines is appealing to government MPs to support a real federal integrity body. Here's who's on her wish list — and how you can help.
Oh Alan, the yoof of today and yesteryear are the same — wayward until sacrificed
Education Minister Alan Tudge goes for the culture war hat-trick, complaining that woke black-armband history will stop the kids of today from becoming the soldiers of tomorrow.
Pfizer v lockdown: vaccine contract leak shows what might have been
A release of documents has revealed the cost of Pfizer vaccine doses around the world. It's another sore reminder of Australia's bungled rollout, despite our outsized purchasing power.
From hero to net zero: ICAC blasts the sheen off Gladys, her restoration in grave doubt
Those who championed Gladys Berejiklian a few short weeks ago are now silent as ICAC hearings drag on.
Just what is the point of Barnaby Joyce?
For someone said to be one of the country's best retail politicians, Joyce and his National Party have few achievements to brag about.
Farewell, NSW, my job here is done…
And now John Barilaro. Another one bites the dust as the state government shitshow just keeps on giving.
Crown AGM set to be a cracker — and it won’t be the only one
Remuneration strikes, withdrawn constitutional amendments and 'Twiggy' Forrest dodging scrutiny. Stay tuned for scandals and dramas in this year’s corporate AGM season.
First, Parliament was unsafe for women. Now it is unsafe for democracy itself
If parliamentarians refuse to govern themselves, Parliament becomes a place where literally anything goes.
Dear Leslie: Are social media pile-ons justified, or is it just mob rule?
Online cancel culture may be rough justice but there are times when it gets the job done. Ethicist Leslie Cannold tackles a thorny topic.
The stack, the rort and the backhander: the self-serving plays corrupting government
Taken together, these peculiarly Australian practices are taking the ideological conflict out of politics, replacing it with debates about process and administration.
The National Party is based on a myth. Here is why
Jobs in regional Australia have been transforming for years — and the pandemic is set to push them even further. So who has their eyes on the road?
COVID and school: it’s not just a learning experience. It could save kids’ lives
Children will be exposed to COVID if schools reopen. But evidence of long-term physical and mental harm under lockdown may make exposure the lesser of two evils.
Don’t mess with Texas … stay home staffers … bad news for wizard fans
We can't expect Ted Cruz to have a real idea about what's going on in 'Texas of the Pacific' Australia, but maybe he should do a little research. Plus more from the Crikey bunker.
Australia locked out the world. Now it’s returning the favour
Since COVID, Australians struggle to work out how to open up to each other, let alone relate to other countries. But it's time to remedy that.
Scary side of back to normal — out goes day-drinking, in comes office chit-chat
It's been a time of reckless dressing and drinking and plenty of navel-gazing. But that's coming to an end, and it'll be life-changing.
Violent anti-vaxxers are wrong. But can their tactics hold any lessons for climate activists?
Climate change's promise of death and destruction is violence, so why shouldn't its victims be violent in self-defence?
The world will be asked to work together on climate. What chance that’ll happen?
It's the economy, stupid. Diplomacy is all well and good, but it's the economics of climate that's at the heart of the world 'coming together'.
Follow the money — or pay more for it
A greener future is going to require mobilising a different kind of green: dollars. Trillions of them, in fact.
Question Time: Anonymous authors, disappearing cartoonists and outraged staffers
From the literary world to the streets of Christchurch, it was a week of thrills and spills. Test your news brain now!
Taxpayers paid for the privilege of awarding Maguire gun club grant
ICAC has heard that NSW taxpayers bore consulting costs for the business case that led to a Wagga Wagga gun club's $5.5 million grant.
Guys, dolls, mods: catching up on the branch stack inquiry
The IBAC hearing into Victorian Labor branch stacking has been a history lesson in the dirty business of faction-building.
Was Ten a good faith reporter of the Parliament House scandals?
The Ten Network was an important player in the coverage of the workplace and gender issues that roiled Parliament House earlier this year. But did it have workplace issues of its own in its press gallery office?
Who’s spending $10K on anti-Morrison Facebook ads? We don’t know — and that’s a problem
Little to no information can be found on who runs a Facebook page which has spent a sizeable sum running clearly partisan ads in key states.
How News Corp’s ‘best of both worlds’ status is normalised by the media
News Corp enjoys the dual status of a political party and a media organisation, with the power of one and the non-accountability of the other. And the rest of the mainstream media is complicit.
Colin Powell may be gone, but his doctrine lives on in Joe Biden
As the Biden administration and a new generation of US policymakers learn the hard lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, the words of the former secretary of state ring true: 'you break it, you own it'.
Pandora Papers reveal the fatal flaw in the West’s fight against autocracy
Western countries and the anonymous financial secrecy tools they provide are playing a critical role in propping up autocratic regimes — the same ones they purport to fight.
Build Back Better — US takes its fight with China on the road
The West finally has an answer to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Will it stand up?
‘Without truth, no democracy can stand’: why we are calling out the prime minister
Today Crikey publishes an uncomfortable but important investigation that exposes the prime minister as a systemic, consistent and unremitting public liar.
A national leader with a readiness to lie and a reflex to do so when under pressure
Scott Morrison lies. A lot. And it's particularly true when he's feeling the political heat.
The truth is precious. Let’s not take it for granted
It’s easy to be cynical about politics and politicians, but we mustn't forget how important the truth is to a functioning democracy.
What Steven Pinker gets so wrong about reason
With Rationality, Steven Pinker offers a book unable to see its own grand assumptions, resolving itself into incuriosity and platitudes time and again.
Chronicling an uneasy clash between the political and the moral
Scott Ryan's essay provides insights into how a working politician of a certain type of liberalism thinks -- and also works as a guide to their march to extinction.
Historians versus hysterians
A brilliant and moving work on how we came to be shows how radical history revives the past in ways that right-wing history fails to.
We must learn to see the corruption that pervades Australian public life, and restructure it
Australians, and especially our governing class, have normalised soft corruption. If we want things to change, we need to bring back the outrage.
How to end corruption? First break down the code of silence allowing it to thrive
The culture of silence that permits the soft corruption and alleged abuse witnessed in Parliament cannot be allowed to endure.
Solutions to corruption: a voters’ strike to end political donations?
Refusing to vote? Maybe. But there are other ways to clean up Australian politics.
