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Anthony Albanese was so chuffed with his meeting with US President Donald Trump that the prime minister joked he’d use Trump’s endorsement in his next campaign ads. While Trump is used to a procession of world leaders coming through his door, there was more at stake for Albanese, who is trying to manage an increasingly difficult relationship. In the end, the two leaders struck a major...

When Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin in Alaska back in August, he rolled out the red carpet, talked up his ability to end the war, but ultimately came away with no deal. Now, high off his recent Middle East peace deal, Trump is saying he’s “gotta get Russia done”. He met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky last week – and he’s preparing another face-to-face wi...

Charlie Lewis writes about politics for Crikey .  He’s been a close observer of Tony Abbott – from his time as a Liberal Party bomb thrower, to his face-offs with Julia Gillard, to his short ‘Prince Philip-themed’ time as prime minister. Now, Charlie’s tracking Abbott’s political afterlife: which brings him to Sydney’s affluent Northern Beaches, and t...

From afar, Alice Springs is a whirlpool of myth and truth. A town with competing interests and few solutions, marked by chaos and decades of government overreach.  That all came to a head earlier last year, with what’s been described as a “youth riot” in town. The violence led to the Northern Territory government imposing an emergency curfew.  This is when the headlines...

Police are everywhere in Alice Springs. You see them driving pursuit vehicles and caged vans on the streets, or stationed outside the bottle shop checking IDs. But more police doesn’t mean less crime – it just means more people are getting locked up. As Alice Springs reels from the police shooting of Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker, and in the wake of an apology from the Northern Te...

Alice Springs is littered with “For Sale” signs as those who can afford it are packing up and leaving. Punitive government curfews made daily life more challenging, and families struggle to see a future for themselves if things continue the way they are. With the Country Liberal Party elected on a promise to be even tougher on crime – and lowering the age of criminal responsibili...

This week, the federal government dramatically re-wrote its signature tax policy.  The changes mean that a small section of people with very high super balances will pay less tax. That backflip has big consequences – for the government's budget, and for its commitment to addressing wealth inequality in this country.  Today, press gallery journalist Paul Bongiorno, on why the govern...

The Australian Parliament Sports Club has been attracting a lot of unwanted attention lately – for registering as a lobbying group, accepting sponsorship from the gambling lobby, and for kicking out ex-Wallabies captain David Pocock for having a problem with all that. Daanyal Saeed is Crikey’s media reporter and he broke the story in the first place. Since then, he’s been followi...

In a desert camp in northeast Syria, behind razor wire, with thousands of other people, live 12 Australian women and 25 Australian children. They are the wives and children of men who went to Syria to join ISIS. With Australia unwilling to help bring them home, they’re living in danger – and in limbo. The recent arrival of two women and four children who smuggled themselves out of a Sy...

When the Taliban retook Afghanistan in August 2021, the country’s embassy in Canberra stayed open. It’s an embassy in exile – staffed by diplomats from the former administration – and advocating on behalf of Afghans here in Australia. Until now, there have been 17 embassies of its kind around the world – in countries that don’t formally recognise the Taliban. Bu...

Melbourne photojournalist Alex Zucco was cleaning her camera lens when a police officer hit her directly in the face with a stream of capsicum spray at a protest outside the Melbourne Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition last year. In July this year, a police officer allegedly punched former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas in the face at a pro-Palestine rally, seriously injuring her ey...

In the 1970s, eight children in Perth were sent to a psychiatric hospital to be ‘treated’ for being transgender. Their experiences became the basis of a medical study that claimed kids could be cured of their identity. Now, nearly forty years after it was released, that same study is being cited in arguments against trans healthcare and being used to shape policy and law. Today, Walkle...

Recently, Spotify’s founder, Daniel Ek, announced he’s stepping back from running the company. He leaves as one of the richest men in his home country of Sweden – with Forbes estimating his wealth at $9.6 billion. In a departure note to staff, Ek said he wants to focus on creating more European “supercompanies” – companies he described as “developing new t...

Labor is trying to land one of its toughest reforms – an overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws.  Environment Minister Murray Watt says he wants to speed up housing and energy project developments, make it clear where construction can and can’t go ahead, and create a federal environment watchdog. After a failed deal with the Greens in the last parliament, Labor is now de...

Almost two years to the day since October 7, Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza. The agreement involves the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, with Israel pulling back its troops to an agreed-upon line and allowing aid into Gaza. The first hostages are expected to be released as soon as this weekend.  Tod...

Anthony Albanese was first elected on a pledge to fix the climate wars. The most recent test of that promise was the emissions targets he announced on the world stage. But if the targets themselves don’t meet the standards set by scientists – and the policy underpinning them hasn’t dramatically altered – what’s really going to change? Today, journalist Nick Feik on th...

The government says it wants to make it easier for Australians to buy a home. Its latest expansion of the five per cent deposit scheme means almost anyone, regardless of income, can now buy a home with a fraction of the usual savings required for a deposit.  It is the boldest version yet of a policy first introduced under the Morrison government.  But behind the promise of affordability...

It started with a series of posts on social media. Nostalgic images of Australia from decades ago, accompanied by statements like  "we're starting to feel like strangers in our own home”  WA Liberal MP Andrew Hastie’s public posts about what he’s calling “out of control” immigration, as well as housing and energy costs have now led to his resignation. ...

Every Wednesday morning during sitting weeks, politicians, staffers, public servants and journalists gather for a friendly game of sport. It’s meant to be casual, even wholesome.  But recently, that club, the Parliament Sports Club, quietly re-registered as a lobbying organisation. Its board includes the Prime Minister. Its members include representatives from the major sporting codes &...

This week, Rick Morton won the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for his book Mean Streak. It’s a huge achievement and we are thrilled for him. This book was the culmination of years of reporting on Robodebt – a government scheme that destroyed lives. At 7am, we were lucky enough to work with Rick on a series, which we published in 2023, about how Robodebt was allowed to happen. A...

Anthony Albanese recently returned from a major overseas trip, rubbing shoulders with royalty and sharing the stage with world leaders. But behind the scenes, there were also quiet discussions about a possible Plan B for AUKUS.  With parliament about to sit again, his government faces pressure from the crossbench over defence and foreign policy – while the Opposition is consumed by inte...

TikTok is the most influential media platform for Australians under the age of 25. It’s where millions now get their news - whether they realise it or not.  But the app is no longer just a cultural force. It’s now at the centre of a global power struggle - between China – and Trump’s America, over who gets to control the algorithm. In the US, a Trump aligned group of i...

Rick Morton was writing about the restructures happening at several universities earlier this year when documents from the University of Technology Sydney caught his eye. UTS had hired KPMG to help it save $100 million through a restructure. That restructure has now led to the announcement of 400 job losses, with the entire School of Education gone. Rick noticed that UTS had asked KPMG to provide...

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have unveiled a 20-point proposal they say could end the war in Gaza “immediately” – after nearly two years of bombardment and mounting international pressure. At its core, Hamas must release all hostages, disarm and have no role in Gaza’s future governance. Israel would not commit to a full withdrawal – retaining the freedom to re-...

Dr Rachel Coghlan is a palliative care doctor based in Melbourne, who worked with doctors in Gaza before October 7, 2023. Since then, she has been in regular contact with her colleagues there, as they have continued to show up for work to care for their patients in increasingly horrific circumstances. But now, as Israel’s bombardment of Gaza City intensifies, doctors in Gaza face a devastati...