Politics

Neither Anthony Albanese nor any of his ministers joined last Sunday’s ‘March for Humanity’ across Sydney Harbour Bridge, which garnered international attention. Instead, the prime minister and a group of his senior cabinet colleagues attended Australia’s largest Indigenous cultural gathering in north-east Arnhem Land.

Trump has bluffed his way into two presidencies, and may be trying to orchestrate the possibility of a third. His strange alt world seems finally to be losing its magical glow for millions of captivated Americans, however.

Albanese’s victory is wide and shallow, based as it is on preferences and not primary votes. In effect, this puts the onus on the Albanese government to perform more strongly than in its first term … It will be judged on what it does to convince Australians it is prepared to take on reforms that will improve their lot.

If you are indeed giving aid and comfort to Vladimir Putin, a foreign enemy, are you not a traitor and are you not in blatant violation of article III, section 3 of the constitution?

Anthony Albanese has returned from his week of top-level meetings and high-altitude tourism in the Middle Kingdom – the first Labor leader since Gough Whitlam to admire the Great Wall of China after sharing the love with Beijing’s No. 1, in this instance Xi Jinping.

Whitlam’s claim to ‘a mandate from the people to carry out all its programs’ is both a statement of political intent and a pointer to the role of ‘the people’ in the notion of the mandate. Seen in this way, the mandate is much more than simply an expression of electoral algebra.

The cockney rhyming slang, traditionally beloved of Australians, would have it that our old china plates in America are causing us more anxiety than our newer ones in North Asia.

If news is what the media reports, the dominant issue gripping the nation in the past seven days is something that hasn’t yet happened: namely Anthony Albanese’s first face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump.

As opinions about our defence posture gather force, the case for complete transparency of the process has become overwhelming. The Australian people have a right to know what discussions are being undertaken, and what deals, commitments and understandings are being entered into.

The treasurer’s recent speech to the National Press Club seems to have caught many in the conservative media off guard. So much for the constant chant about a dangerous, mad, left-wing government. On the contrary, Jim Chalmers has outlined a reform agenda that may well be the envy of the Coalition. He has filled the vacuum that their policy inactivity has left.