Hastie isn't just another backbencher, he's chair of parliament's most important committee. What he says carries weight.
In yet another bungle, the Home Affairs portfolio has been savaged by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security for trying to suggest a radical change in Australia's stance on citizenship.
The government has decided parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security "stymies" security agencies and is a threat to national security — all in the name of wedge politics.
Ignore the Coalition's partisan sniping at Labor over encryption backdoors: Labor's record shows it can't be trusted to push back against corruption and misconduct by powerful security agencies.
The government is desperate to hide its prosecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery. But who will benefit from a cover-up?
Labor used to be the party that was sceptical of Australia's intelligence agencies. It's time for MPs to speak out on their party's collusion with the cover-up of the Witness K scandal — even if it means admitting Labor's own culpability in the affair.
The prosecution of Bernard Collaery and Witness K for revealing the bugging of Timor-Leste overlooks that Bob Carr and Mark Dreyfus revealed espionage claims first, and reckoned the allegations "weren't new".
Sometimes it feels like we don't actually have an opposition party in this country, especially when it comes to the Coalition's attempts to broaden and concentrate national security powers.
The constitution specifically proscribes anyone who is "entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen" from standing for parliament. What does that mean for those who could apply for Israeli citizenship under Israel's right of return?
The opposition and legal experts are confused by a $12.7 million policy for parental management hearings out of the blue in Tuesday's budget.
