Feminist tag not essential: women's minister
JUDITH IRELAND 5:17pm The federal minister responsible for women says it is "ridiculous" that identifying as a feminist should be a prerequisite for her job.
Latest political news
Abetz promises no penalty rate changes
Jonathan Swan, Anna Patty, James Massola 8:18pm The Abbott government has said it will not meddle with workers' penalty rates during this electoral term, with Minister Eric Abetz saying the matter would be dealt with by the Fair Work umpire.
Workplace review: nothing is off the table
JAMES MASSOLA The federal government's sweeping review of Australia's workplace laws will put penalty rates, pay and conditions, union militancy and flexibility under the microscope.
Malcolm Turnbull starts fifth NBN audit
LIA TIMSON 5:32pm Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has commissioned a fifth audit of the national broadband network since coming to office in September.
Direct action like a 'Martian beauty contest'
Peter Hannam, Jonathan Swan 10:48am Abolishing carbon pricing could cost the federal budget at least $4 billion a year within five years, says economist Ross Garnaut.
RBA warning for homebuyers
1:49pm The Reserve Bank has warned home owners to be wary of taking on too much debt to buy property.
Welfare advocates call for transparent review
JUDITH IRELAND 4:11pm Disability and welfare advocates have met at Parliament House in Canberra amid fears that May budget will see cuts to people receiving disability support.
Qantas 'pressured on carbon tax'
MARK KENNY Qantas felt it was urged to complain more loudly about the carbon tax to rebuild its damaged relationship with the Abbott government, according to a Qantas source.
PNG may not allow Manus probe on its soil
SARAH WHYTE Asylum seekers and workers at the Manus Island detention centre should be flown to Australia to give their evidence to the newly established Senate inquiry, a spokesman for the PNG PM says.
Palmer angry over election ad robbery
9:38am Clive Palmer is furious thieves have stolen his party's election advertisements in a Brisbane robbery.
My School 'should be scrapped'
ALEXANDRA SMITH NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli wants the controversial My School website scrapped, arguing it is a waste of money that could be better spent on improving teacher quality.
Retail growth shows RBA policy spot on
GARETH HUTCHENS Australians are eating and drinking their way back to prosperity.
Government unmoved by Apple revelations
GARETH HUTCHENS The Abbott government remains unmoved by reports that the US tech giant Apple has shifted billions of dollars from Australia in untaxed profits over the last decade.
Plea to Labor to preference Greens
HEATH ASTON Greens leader Christine Milne has appealed to the Labor Party to abandon a plan to ''shut the Greens out of the Senate'' at the election replay in Western Australia.
Navy's destroyer project blows out
DAVID WROE The cost of building Australia's most powerful warships has blown out by $300 million - a figure likely to rise sharply - amid management problems and poor productivity, an auditor's report has found.
China sparks push for defence spend rise
David Wroe, Philip Wen China's sharp military rise underscores the need for Australia to bolster its own defence spending and in particular improve its spying capabilities, an adviser to the government's next defence blueprint says.
'Flawed' science ignored in cattle approval
Darren Gray and Tom Arup The Australian Academy of Science has damned the science around alpine cattle grazing as federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt approves a controversial grazing trial.
Abbott 'deeply concerned' by Greste charges
DAN HARRISON The Prime Minister is ''deeply concerned'' about Australian journalist Peter Greste, now jailed in Egypt.
PM's speech splits forest deal brokers
Garrett to front insulation scheme inquiry
Journalist has early win against ABC
Hockey to go slow on cuts
Slipper may take Ashby fight to High Court
Government 'moving on global tax avoidance'
Beazley visit fuels talk on replacement
Censured Nash denies wrongdoing
Visa freeze reinstated for boat arrivals
Labor unlikely to back Greens in WA
Refusal to release ABC funds report
Hunt approves cattle grazing trial
Reef faced with irreversible damage
Environment commissioner drops bucket
PM, Treasurer deny pressuring Qantas
UN to call for review of PNG processing
Loggers 'ultimate conservationists': PM
GDP figures beat expectations
'Not enough' to do: Palmer defends absence
Art by child sex offender in Parliament House
Lost votes continue to worry investigator
Comment & Analysis
Manus Island: Inside the horror
Rod St George Like many, I watched with horror as the recent violence at Manus Island unfolded. But not with surprise.
Glass ceiling scratched, not broken
ADELE FERGUSON Few Australians have played the Hollywood game with as much success as Cate Blanchett.
Refugees, stop the boats - join the dots
Susan Metcalfe We need to look more closely at displacement when considering refugee policy.
Unease over Napthine as voting season looms
JOSH GORDON The Premier is in strife, negativity is building and the Opposition Leader may just be his best hope.
Much at stake in WA senate election
John Warhurst Opinion There has never been anything like it in Australian political history.
Sorry hardest word for ABC
PAUL SHEEHAN It has been a week of discreet pain for the ABC, unfolding on the 11th floor of the Supreme Court of NSW, first in court 11E on Tuesday, then down the corridor in court 11A on Wednesday.
Joyce may benefit from false move
MALCOLM MAIDEN Qantas' big shareholders allowed the current guard to defend market share at the cost of profits.
Six months on, it's time Labor got off the floor
JACK WATERFORD Opinion Six months on, Shorten shows no strategy, won't defend Labor's record and offers no alternative vision.
More spin doctors means more to hide
Sharon Beder The further that policies are from serving the public interest, the more the public needs to be manipulated and deceived.
Special features
There's a message there somewhere
Rocco Fazzari Good old-fashioned spin doesn't work any more – what's needed is more mumbles and less cohesion.
Penalty rates on chopping block?
Liberal Wyatt Roy says current workplace laws are too inflexible, but Labor's Amanda Rishworth says the government is gearing up to revive WorkChoices.
Not a tweet out of the freedom czar
Richard Ackland Tim Wilson, human rights and free speech champion, surely should have something to say about the lad who has been lumbered with a $105,000 damages verdict for speaking his mind, via Twitter and Facebook, about a music teacher at Orange High School?
Results show public versus private gulf
The difference in academic performance between state and independent schools grows wider as students progress into high school, a Fairfax Media analysis shows.
Senator's blunt advice for PM goes viral
It was Sunday night and Western Australia Greens Senator Scott Ludlam was on another four hour flight from Perth to Canberra.
Labor plays Qantas safety card
Labor uses question time to raise the spectre that foreign ownership of Qantas could threaten the airline's flawless safety record.
Qantas: why nobody in Canberra has a plan B
Mark Kenny The Labor leader is up in the air on to how to deal with the crisis of the Flying Kangaroo.
Abbott carves out new friendship
Tony Wright The classic upbringing in a dirt-floor log cabin has been in lamentably short supply among the political class since Abe Lincoln, but when you're wooing foresters, a prime minister could barely do better than a folksy tale about a carpentering childhood.
Kev's almost in Kiev and here to help
Jacqueline Maley He always said he was here to help, but former prime minister Kevin Rudd never said his capacity to render aid was confined to national borders.
Battle for Kew: Liberal infighting threatens to tear party apart
Old tensions have reared their head in the Liberal Party, Mark Hawthorne reports.
Investigating MPs' expenses
Fairfax Media has conducted an extensive investigation on MPs claiming expense entitlements. Read our coverage here.
Political pics of the year
Three Prime Minister, two leadership ballots and an election campaign for 2013. The best photos from a tumultuous year.
Cartoon Gallery
Home of the best cartoons by our resident artists from The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times.