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After Labor handed down its fifth budget, Anthony Albanese spent the week answering one question: had he broken his promise? The government wanted the budget framed as a fairness agenda built around changes to negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts, and a pitch to younger Australians locked out of housing. Instead, the immediate political fight became whether voters could trust the prime m...

Senator David Pocock has been one of the fiercest advocates for the You win some, you lose more report, known as the Murphy Review, and its recommendations to reduce the harms of online gambling. It took the Albanese government 1,049 days to formally respond to the landmark inquiry that called for urgent action to reduce gambling harm, including a phased ban on gambling advertising. When the gover...

It's a case where the art has been overshadowed by the drama.  The star of Australian film  The Deb , singer Charlotte McInnes, is suing Australian actor and director Rebel Wilson for defamation.  Over two weeks of hearings, the court was told about smear campaigns, hacked Snapchats, and the central claim: that Rebel Wilson lied about her star actress. Rebel is accused of being a fa...

The housing market – and young people without rich parents being locked out of it – has dominated dinner table conversations for years.  This budget the Albanese government decided to try and do something about it: limiting negative gearing and replacing the capital gains tax.  So what difference will that make and how long will it take for anything to change?  One perso...

It was a budget framed around fairness for workers and for young people locked out of the housing market.  Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ fifth budget restricts negative gearing – though not for anyone who was already doing it – while also promising to increase housing supply and deliver a $250 tax cut for workers.  Chalmers wants the budget to be seen as ambitious – but...

Tim Tams and Tiny Teddies aren’t usually the stuff federal court cases are made of, but product by product, dollar by dollar, the ACCC has been building its case against supermarket giants Coles and Woolies over what it claims were fake discounts. Now, both cases have wrapped and the judge is reviewing the evidence.  With inflation and grocery prices soaring, the timing couldn’t b...

It’s something Pauline Hanson has been eyeing for years – and on the weekend, she finally got it: a seat in the lower house. Her candidate for Farrer, David Farley, did even better than expected: he was elected on 57 per cent of the vote.  It changes things not just for Pauline Hanson and One Nation, but for the country.  Today, contributing editor for The New Daily, Amy Reme...

The first week of hearings at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion opened with Jewish Australians describing what life now feels like. Jewish community groups say reported antisemitic incidents in Australia have surged since October 7. But the commission is not only hearing about what’s happened. It’s also being asked to answer a difficult question: what counts as...

Last year – after months of pressure over youth crime, and claims the system had become too soft – Victoria passed what it proudly called the toughest bail laws in the country. At the time, legal and human rights experts warned the laws would put more children in custody and disproportionately affect First Nations people. Now, the Allan government is doubling down. In this week’s...

The seat of Farrer in NSW has been empty since the resignation of former Liberal leader Sussan Ley.  Today, a new member will be elected, and while the race is tight – One Nation’s David Farley is ahead in the polls. He’ll be picking up Coalition preferences, but faces a strong challenge from independent Michelle Milthorpe. So will One Nation win its first federal lower hous...

Late yesterday, four women and nine children arrived in Australia from Syria.  The women, who originally left the country to be part of the Islamic State caliphate, have spent the years since its collapse in Syrian refugee camps.  Many of their children, who are Australian citizens too, have never been here before.  But they aren’t the first to come back – since 2019, wo...

A flotilla of boats carrying aid towards Gaza was still hundreds of kilometres from the coast when the Israeli navy moved in. Australian activist Zack Schofield was on one of the 50 boats. He says the first sign something was coming was the sound of drones overhead; then radio warnings, military vessels, and soldiers boarding the ship. What happened next is now the subject of serious allegations a...

The Reserve Bank has raised interest rates again. The cash rate is now 4.35%, after the third rate hike in a row.  For Australians already stretched by the cost of living, it means another hit to mortgage repayments, rents and household budgets.  And while the decision was widely expected, the reason behind it is more complicated. Some economists are calling it the “Hormuz hike&rdq...

On April 25, Kumanjayi Little Baby was reported missing from her bed at the Old Timers town camp, just south of Alice Springs. Five days later, after a community-unifying effort, her body was found. She was five years old. Soon after, community members found the man accused of killing her. They called police and now a 47-year-old man has been charged with murder, and other charges we can’t m...

In 2023, Antionette Lattouf was sacked by the ABC after sharing a Human Rights Watch post about Gaza.  What followed became one of the most closely watched employment cases in the country, raising questions about political pressure, media independence and whose voices are allowed to be heard.  Now, after winning her case, Lattouf has written a book about her fight, and the women who&rsqu...

In December last year, in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, Anthony Albanese promised the biggest national gun buyback since Port Arthur. He wanted states and territories to agree to new gun laws by March and legislate them by July. But that first deadline has passed – and the national response is fracturing. Queensland and the Northern Territory are refusing the buyback, Tasmania is reje...

The Albanese government has moved quickly on the royal commission into antisemitism, accepting all the recommendations from its first report, before public hearings begin.  It comes at a volatile moment in national politics, after the issue was seized on by the opposition in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, and as the issue of the conflicts in Iran, Gaza and Lebanon continue to expose dee...

The first report from the Royal Commission into Antisemitism has landed at a volatile moment.  Australia’s terrorism threat level is already listed as probable, and the war in Iran is adding new pressure to an already fragile security environment that risks fuelling grievances, inflaming extremism, and increasing the risk facing Jewish communities in the wake of the Bondi terror attack....

Iran’s war time propaganda videos featuring AI rap music and Lego characters are getting millions of views online.  They praise the Islamic Republic, and mock Trump. But their message is also dark, anti-semitic and leaning into conspiracy theories. So how has a regime that’s shut down the internet, and isn’t known for its sense of humor captured the zeitgeist so well? Today,...

It was a relationship that saw both Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson rise to power. Now, the Tucker-Trump bromance is officially over. Conservative media powerhouse Tucker Carlson has offered an apology to voters for backing the president, as their relationship turned sour. Today, Jason Zengerle, staff writer for the New Yorker, on the end of Tucker and Trump – and what it means for the MAGA...

From his diagnosis with oesophageal cancer in 2024 to openly wrestling with end-of-life decisions, beloved ABC broadcaster James Valentine took his listeners along with him as he stared down his own death. Now, after his passing, that openness continues – with James’ decision to share the fact that he ended his life through voluntary assisted dying, or VAD. Today, Go Gentle Australia f...

Donald Trump has compared himself to Abraham Lincoln and JFK after an alleged shooter, dubbed in his reported-manifesto as the “friendly federal assassin”, charged a security point armed with guns and knives. For a moment, the White House Correspondents dinner continued, the president and his guests unaware until the secret service pulled him from the stage, forming a human shield. Thi...

In October 2022, Dan Duggan was arrested at a Woolworths in Orange, regional New South Wales, after dropping his kids off at school. American prosecutors claim the former US Marine pilot helped train Chinese military pilots in South Africa more than a decade ago, in breach of US arms trafficking laws. Duggan denies that, and says  he believed he was involved in lawful civilian flight training...

Dan Duggan’s case is now an extradition battle. Former attorney-general Mark Dreyfus approved the Australian citizen’s extradition to the United States and the Federal Court has rejected the latest attempt to stop it. Duggan’s supporters say this is no longer just a legal case – they believe it’s also shaped by geopolitics and the growing rivalry between the United St...

When Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan introduced the state's treaty bill into parliament, she said it would pave the way for a formal apology, the introduction of Aboriginal truth-telling into the school curriculum, and a better future for Indigenous Australians in the state. The treaty is the culmination of almost a decade of work that established the First Peoples’ Assembly – which le...