The bureaucrats behind the long-running push for mass surveillance have laid bare their reasoning for data retention. Too bad they didn't do their homework.
It's been a rough week for Labor's campaign in Queensland, with leader Annastacia Palaszczuk's media profile shrinking compared to last week.
The journalistic ethics around republishing the Charlie Hebdo cartoons are delicate, and Australian editors didn't take their responsibilities lightly.
Now that the dust has settled on the global financial crisis, we have to ask ourselves: is our business press holding the powerful to account? Is it more watchdog or lapdog? And what is the point of business journalism, anyway?
The inquiry into data retention has begun -- without the government being able to say what the "data" is or how much it will cost.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has dominated media coverage this year, with his mention numbers nearly eclipsing Kevin Rudd's at the heigh of his popularity.
The Australian media acted with considerable restraint during the Sydney Lindt cafe siege. But future terrorists and hostage takers will not need professional journalists to get their demands and agendas out.
Rob Burgess has taken a redundancy from News Corp's Business Spectator, after disagreeing with "some other journalists" about his views on things like carbon pricing and the mining tax.
Data retention is central to the government's crackdown on filesharing -- illustrating how its war on the internet is driven by commercial interests.
The government finished off its last sitting week of the year with a bang.
