Politics with Michelle Grattan

From inside the lockup political and economic journalist Tim Colebatch speaks to Michelle Grattan about his assessment of the budget. He says the income tax cuts are “well targeted” and that he can’t see any “significant negatives” from the budget. However Colebatch is “surprised the government hasn’t made more effort to find other sources of compensating tax income or making bigger spending cuts...

Ahead of Tuesday’s budget that will unveil the goverment’s tax cut plans, the Coalition is painting Labor as the big taxing party, while the ALP is attacking the government’s push to cut company tax for big business. Meanwhile the Business Council of Australia is taking its message to the public with a grassroots campaign. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen tells The Conversation he accepts that big bus...

Professor Robert E Kelly from the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Pusan University is pessimistic about how much the upcoming Korean summits will achieve. He told The Conversation that the Trump-Kim summit is likely "to be a bust" because the Americans aren't prepared for the negotiations, while the summit between the two Koreas is more important for issues of economic cooperation...

The Australia-China relationship is again in the headlines, with reports of strains between the two countries, resulting in federal ministers who want to visit finding it hard to get visas. China is reacting against the Australian government’s rhetoric and especially its legislation, now before parliament, to combat foreign interference in Australian politics. Malcolm Turnbull plays down the issue...

With the debate about equality heating up ahead of the federal election, Dr Michael Keating, the former head of three federal government departments, warns that while past economic reforms have served Australia well, there’s a risk some people may be left behind if we don’t “change the debate”. A new book co-authored by University of Queensland Political Economy Professor Stephen Bell and Keating...

As Russian Ambassador Grigory Logvinov and Foreign minister Julie Bishop trade verbal blows, ANU professor John Blaxland says the expulsion of two Russian spies from Australia will have a significant effect on Russia’s espionage here. Blaxland told The Conversation that ideologically we’re not seeing a new Cold War but the interconnectedness of the world means that activities by Russia create new...

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has strongly backed party leader Richard Di Natale’s push to purge those who leaked against candidate Alex Bhathal in the Batman byelection. Hanson-Young told The Conversation it was clear that the party infighting played on the minds of voters. “I don’t think there’s a place for people who want to undermine our party like that. This selfish act by a small number...

Byelections are not just important in the obvious sense of their results, but also for the confidence of political players. On Saturday Labor and Bill Shorten face a major test in the Melbourne seat of Batman, traditionally Labor but with the Greens now threatening the ALP’s hold. A Labor loss would be a blow to the morale of the opposition - it would also open some debate within the party about S...

The South Australian election will be held on March 17 - the same day as the federal byelection in Batman.  In SA Labor is pitching for a fifth term, with former senator Nick Xenophon's SA-Best party injecting a high element of unpredictability into the result. Jobs and power prices are to the fore in voters' minds while the gambling industry is investing heavily to try to fend off the "X factor"....

Ahead of her second Australia visit, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to Michelle Grattan about the toughness of Australian politics, her ambitious policy plans and the demands of being a young high-profile female leader that everyone wants to know about. On the New Zealand refugee offer Ardern told The Conversation it “still obviously sits on the table but it’s absolutely Australia...

The recently-created Home Affairs department, headed by Peter Dutton, is a behemoth that its critics fear will compromise civil liberties. But Dutton argues there should be no basis for such concerns. “There are no greater laws or arrest powers that have been introduced or a lessening of protections that have been provided for under this new arrangement,” he tells The Conversation. On the growing...

How to increase wages and tackle inequality are live political and economic debates. Many Australians are feeling the cost-of-living squeeze. Speaking ahead of a conference in Melbourne this week to revisit the landmark Henderson inquiry into poverty, conducted in the 1970s, former deputy prime minister Brian Howe says the targeted nature of Australia’s contemporary social security system goes han...

Introduced in the final hours of sitting last year, the government’s foreign interference legislation have been criticised for being too broad and draconian. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus says Labor acknowledges the need to do more about espionage activity and foreign influence in Australia but argues changes need to be made to the “hastily” and broadly drafted bill. On the security legisla...

Innovation has been a buzzword of Malcolm Turnbull’s government, but the public reception of this message has been less than enthusiastic. Innovation and Science Australia chair Bill Ferris launched a report this week setting out a plan over five key areas – education, industry, how government can be a catalyst for change, research and development, and culture and ambition – that seeks to put Aust...

The government’s new foreign interference laws propose broad changes to political donations, counter-surveillance, and lobbying in Australia. ANU professor John Blaxland has some real concerns about the unintended consequences of the legislation for academic debate. He says there’s a real chance that good people engaging intellectually with issues might get caught up in the broader crackdown. On t...

The Liberal National Party's loss in the Queensland election has sparked demerger discussions, while at a federal level it has emboldened the Nationals to take a more independent line. Nationals federal cabinet minister Matt Canavan, who is a Queenslander, doesn't agree that breaking up the LNP would solve any problems politically: "you can't unscramble the egg." Despite being an opponent of a roy...

New Greens senator Jordon Steele-John is the youngest person ever to sit in the senate. He was sworn in this week with two other 'accidental' senators who are the gainers from the citizenship crisis. He talks to Michelle Grattan about coming to Canberra for the first time since he was a baby, his political passion, and his commitment to promote his causes - youth and disability issues. Mentioned i...

The pundits are reluctant to place bets on who will win Queensland's November 25 election, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Opposition leader Tim Nicholls both carrying a good deal of baggage. A lot of attention is focused on Pauline Hanson's One Nation, which has been polling strongly and might end up with the balance of power in the new parliament. The Adani coal mine project has been cent...

Not for the Faint-hearted, the first volume of Kevin Rudd’s massive autobiography is out, and the former prime minister is on the promotion circuit. Rudd now spends much of his time in America, where he is president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York, and keeps a close eye on the unfolding Trump presidency. He argues Australia should minimise direct engagement with Donald Trump in fa...

The government’s long-awaited energy plan has rejected Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s Clean Energy Target, which focused on subsidies for renewables, in favour of a National Energy Guarantee (NEG). The government has promised affordability and reliability, as well as compliance with Australia’s international climate obligations. Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott headed a group of energy expe...

There are still a few weeks left to run in the same-sex marriage postal ballot campaign, and millions of votes are yet to be returned – or not returned. With 67.5% of ballots now in, Equality Campaign executive director Tiernan Brady says the high turnout shows the importance of a “yes” vote to people’s lives and dignity. He says tyranny of distance in Australia has made campaigning difficult, com...

This podcast is a recording of an In-Conversation with Gareth Evans, former foreign minister and currently Chancellor of the Australian National University, which took place on October 12 in Canberra at a dinner of university chancellors from around Australia.    The occasion was hosted by the University of Canberra's chancellor Tom Calma in collaboration with the Australian National University.  ...

Jokes about the satirical program Utopia aside, managing the rollout of infrastructure programs in Australia is a formidable task. Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester says there is too much hyper-partisanship in Australian politics. “I think that the tone of debate in Australia has deteriorated in recent years and we’ve shown ourselves incapable of having a good, rational debate on significant...

Canberra politics often seems beyond satire. So it’s perhaps not surprising that Working Dog’s TV show Utopia has more than once foreshadowed reality in its hilarious depictions of life in a federal authority. Rob Sitch, Utopia’s co-writer and star, says he’s had no need to draw on covert leaks and insights from bureaucrats for material. “90 plus percent of what we find is sitting in front of ever...

In the eye of the storm over energy policy is Liddell, an ageing coal-fired power station owned by energy giant AGL. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has twisted the arm of AGL chief executive Andy Vesey to take to the company’s board the proposition that it should extend the plant’s life beyond its scheduled 2022 closure, or alternatively sell it to an operator that would carry it on. AGL chief ec...