Mike Seccombe

The Coalition’s proposal to direct gas for export to the domestic market has support from those who favour cuts to production – but that’s not what the plan envisages.

As disease ravages Tasmanian salmon farms, killing thousands of tonnes of fish and threatening other species, the government’s pledge to protect both the industry and the endangered Maugean skate is being called pork-barrelling.

The prime minister bowed to mining interests and poor polling in Western Australia with a last-minute decision to upend a deal with the Greens on the Nature Positive laws.

Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, despite being twice impeached and guilty of myriad crimes, will have major consequences for climate change, inflation and geopolitics.

The government’s stalled responses to gambling reforms has more to do with the power of television networks and media proprietors than it does with the betting industry itself.

Managing trusts set up for philanthropy has become a lucrative business in a concentrated market – one that is increasingly incentivised to put shareholders before charities.

It came as no surprise that Josh Burns, the Labor backbencher most vocal in expressing concerns about his government’s Future Gas Strategy last week, is a Victorian. The voters of Victoria are the most progressive in the nation, outside the ACT. John Howard once excused the Liberal Party’s poor performance in the state with a reference to America’s most leftish jurisdiction, calling Victoria “the Massachusetts of Australia”.

Dunkley is a template of the kind of seat Peter Dutton needs to win to take office. His failure at last weekend’s byelection informs a seat-by-seat analysis that shows victory is almost impossible.

Changes to Australian laws after pressure from foreign and domestic fossil fuel giants  highlight the success of lobbying by the industry’s biggest players.

Kill the chicken to frighten the monkey, goes the old Chinese proverb; meaning you make an example out of one in order to deter others. This week the Reserve Bank killed its 13th chicken, because the previous 12 had not sufficiently chastened the monkeys. On Tuesday, after having left the official interest rate unchanged since June, the bank jacked the cash rate another 25 basis points to 4.35 per cent, a 12-year high. In the statement giving reasons for the decision, the RBA governor, Michele B…