<img height="1" width="1" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=108339229558248&amp;ev=PageView &amp;noscript=1">

Crikey is an independent news website featuring commentary on politics, media, business, culture and technology.

Scroll to top
AFLW Grand Final between North Melbourne and Brisbane, November 29, 2024 (Image: AAP/Scott Barbour)

Communications minister hasn’t deemed women’s footy ‘important’, ‘culturally significant’ enough to protect

Changes to anti-siphoning legislation show what the government’s priorities are — and getting women’s sport to the masses isn’t one of them.

Former Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo in 2023 (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

Are you HARD ENOUGH for Mike Pezzullo’s comeback?

Discredited former Home Affairs head Mike Pezzullo has called for national service and ‘hard patriotism’ to fight China.

Marc Dodd, Kate McClymont, Gabrielle Jackson, Kishor Napier-Raman and Eliza Sorman Nilsson (Image: Private Media)

‘Salaciousness’, ‘Qantas’, ‘Melissa Caddick’: Revealing the clickiest, most loved subjects with readers

‘Sadly what clicks with readers is shrill opinion rather than considered analysis, clear solutions when nuance is needed.’

Treasurer Jim Chalmers (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

Chalmers reveals lower deficit this year, and billions more in deficits beyond

Economists expected blowout in this year’s mid-year budget update, but the government has unveiled a smaller deficit (with the blowouts coming later).

RBA changes do nothing for ordinary households. Labor must do more than tinker

Labor continues to fiddle with the margins of the economy rather than use the power of government to deliver reform.

Does Facebook owe you money? Find out if you’re part of the $50m Cambridge Analytica privacy settlement

Meta has agreed to a $50 million settlement over the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And you might be eligible for a payout.

Shitstirrers Index — rank 4-2
Crikey's Shitstirrers Index: rank 4-2 (Image: Private Media)

A renegade, a courtroom star, an objector: Welcome to the pointy end of our Shitstirrers Index

‘If calling out genocide, racism and hypocrisy makes me a shitstirrer, then I’ll wear the badge with pride.’

‘Capacity crisis’: Qantas scraps PNG flights to free up planes, catches government unaware

‘One crew shortage, one breakdown, one delay, one bad weather event, and the whole system starts to fall apart,’ a pilot said. 

‘The shame must change sides’: Gisèle Pelicot and her refusal to look away

Gisèle Pelicot, who has suffered more than many of us could imagine, has used her suffering to change the world for the better.

The late Liberal MP Kevin Andrews (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Let’s not forget the damaging legacy of the late Kevin Andrews

If a man’s legacy is to be understood, it deserves to be considered in full. And part of Kevin Andrews’ legacy is his decision to stand in the way of Territorians having the right to die with dignity.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (Image: AAP/EPA/Caroline Brehman)

This shift is complete. This is America

What transpired in America in 2024 wasn’t a shock. The return of Trump has been a long time coming.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

And Crikey’s politician of the year for 2024 is…

Readers might not like it, but it’s clear which politician has been most brutally effective in 2024.

Forget migration ‘benefits’. Convince people that restrictions harm everyone

Migration restrictions always serve dual purposes: to exclude and repel some, while ensuring the unequal inclusion of the vast majority.

‘I think women are better at it’: Sarah Hanson-Young on negotiating in a divided Parliament

The Greens senator reckons Tanya Plibersek and Katy Gallagher are able to leave their egos at the door. So why can’t the blokes?

Independent Senator Tammy Tyrrell (Image: Private Media/Zennie)

Tammy Tyrrell isn’t just Lambie Lite, and now she’s going after Labor’s social media ban

Former Jacqui Lambie staffer Tammy Tyrrell is very different to her former boss. But is that what the people of Tasmania voted for?

‘I think the major parties need a kick in the nuts’: How ‘Punter’s Politics’ stormed Parliament House

Punter Konrad has built up a large social following by questioning politicians on behalf of ‘the punters’.

NACC commissioner Paul Brereton, the NACC and Paladin logos, and a tear-out of Operation Barrister report (Image: Private Media/Zennie)

A $532m security contract and the NACC’s corrosive secrecy

The only thing the NACC’s report into Paladin has revealed is how damaging the commission’s lack of transparency is both for the public and potentially the people investigated.

(Image: Zennie/Private Media)

The rise of Paladin, KPMG’s cameo, and what the NACC isn’t telling us

Just a week after being sent the tender for the Manus contract, Paladin submitted its bid. Its initial quote to provide the services was $152m. After negotiations, Paladin was awarded a revised contract… of $229.5m. 

Paladin remains cloaked in secrecy: NACC needs to deliver or risk destroying its reputation

The unresolved questions at the centre of Paladin’s Manus Island contract aren’t theoretical or abstract concerns. They go to the heart of governance and political responsibility in Australia. 

Our reporters
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Image: AAP/Russell Freeman)

Labor elevates early childhood education as Coalition tells regions: less childcare for you

This issue represents the rare intersection of good policy and good politics. Surely even Labor couldn’t stuff it up?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw (Image: AAP/Dominic Giannini)

Law and order crackdown won’t make Jewish community safer

Jewish communities deserve real protection — not a false sense of security purchased at the expense of other marginalised groups.

Joe Aston, Kate McClymont, Waleed Aly, Janine Perrett and Sue Chrysanthou (Image: Private Media)

Australia’s media movers and shakers on the biggest threats to journalism

From Kate McClymont to Waleed Aly to Joe Aston, we asked 200 of the nation’s most influential media figures what they’re most concerned about and how the sector has shifted.

Peter Dutton at a press conference at Parliament House (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Journos were told they’d be given Dutton’s nuclear costings this week. He’s running out of time

One well-connected journalist at a major publication speculated that if the news is indeed to be communicated this week, it will have to be done by Thursday.

Suspect in the murder of Brian Thompson Luigi Mangione (left) and a protester outside the McDonalds where he was arrested (Images: EPA)

Growing alienation and violence makes the murder of hated executives normal

When you have rising inequality, increasing political violence and a president who endorses violence, why NOT assassinate a CEO?

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Image: AP/Abir Sultan)

Dutton’s kowtow to Netanyahu splits Australians into two classes: ordinary people and Muslims

Peter Dutton and the Coalition have repeatedly placed the interests of Israel’s government above Australia’s social cohesion and national interests.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers (Image: AAP/Bianca De Marchi)

Labor has been vindicated on its spending. Will the Reserve Bank finally do its job and cut rates?

Labor’s spending has generated plenty of criticism — but it’s now the only thing standing between us and a recession engineered by the RBA.

A Commonwealth Bank branch in Melbourne (Image: AAP/Joel Carrett)

Labor’s limp rebuke of CommBank’s cash-grab is the act of a one-term government

The Albanese government should have responded to the Commonwealth Bank’s new withdrawal charges with threats of immediate reprisal.

The teen social media ban is incredibly popular. Here are some of the reasons why

No matter how you slice it, the majority of Australians say they want kids off social media. And their reasons are more nuanced than you might expect

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (Image: AAP)

Teen social media ban inquiry didn’t even respond to man with disability’s accessibility request

‘Kids with disabilities are going to be affected by the proposed ban. We should be ensuring the government gets to hear from us.’

A gas stove (Image: EPA/Hannibal Hanschke)

‘No basis whatsoever’: Is News Corp’s sponsored pro-gas coverage full of hot air?

The News Corp tabloids ran pro-gas front pages all around the country — but you had to turn the page to find the disclosure that the coverage was paid for by the gas industry.

Labor’s term began with promise on the environment. It ends with things worse than ever

The harsh lesson of this term of Parliament is that no major-party government can be trusted to take real climate action.