Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The Roman poet Juvenal asked “Who will watch the watchmen?” two thousand years ago and the question remains as apposite as ever, as a population suffused with “bread and circuses” scarcely bats an eye at their rulers’ excesses.

A four-way tussle for Farrer

Sussan Ley’s decision to leave Parliament after losing the Liberal Party leadership will provoke a fascinating by-election whose result may shape the future of right wing politics in this country.

Mister Ed

The recent election of Angus Taylor as the new leader of the Liberal Party has prompted much discussion about the new direction it may take but should also draw attention to dubious business linked with both parties.

Not waving, but drowning

The Liberal’s leadership switch is an admission of how bad things have become as the party loses support on the right to One Nation and the left to the Teals, but the new leader’s grand plan amounts to ‘Trust me, Bro.”

Crisis? What crisis? Aristocratic terrorism

In a new 3-part series, Bernard Cordon argues the Chicago school of monetarist economics in the 1970s and the neo-liberal political movement which followed in the 1980s set the scene for Donald Trump’s thuggish dismantling of the USA today.

Why preferential voting beats first past the post

Some conservatives want a return to first past the post voting, but the history of Australian elections shows that preference voting allows Parliament to reflect the will of the people with the greatest accuracy.

Is it really getting harder to govern?

Is governing harder in the 2020s than in earlier decades? The instinctive, and popular, answer would be “of course it is” but the truth is always more complex.

Hastie pulls his hat from the ring

The battle over the Liberal leadership took a dramatic turn late on Friday when Andrew Hastie announced he was pulling out.

The Liberals’ phony leadership war

Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor are now jockeying for position in their bids to become the next leader of the Liberal Party, given Sussan Ley’s struggles to keep the Coalition together and offer a compelling agenda of her own.

A plague on both houses

Sussan Ley may pay the price for the implosion of the Coalition, but the blame rests squarely with Nationals leader David Littleproud whose leadership should also be on the line.

Lessons in crisis leadership

Macho “can do” leadership appeals to the public in times of national crisis but a more considered values based approach would probably produce better results.

Bondi royal commission finally announced

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese prides himself with being in tune with the public mood, but holding out for weeks against a royal commission into antisemitism misjudged that mood, making Thursday’s backdown a humiliation.