Influential donors with deep pockets are having an effect on Australian politics as a report finds election spending has reached record highs. Analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity, an independent think tank, found election spending had increased by almost 85 percent in the past two decades. In 2022, spending reached a record high of…

Independent senate candidates in two states have alleged that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) staff gave voters incorrect information on how to vote on the senate ballot paper during Australia’s recent federal election. The independents alleged that AEC staff told voters not to number unnamed boxes above the line, even though those boxes represented independent…

The defeated Liberal-National Coalition government must reconnect with its conservative roots—and middle to lower class voters—if it hopes to regain power at the next election, according to former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman. Newman, who quit the party last year over its support of heavy pandemic restrictions, said there was fertile electoral ground in the suburbs…

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson has spoken out against the over-simplification of debate on climate change and China—and the struggles of young people with understanding these issues—during the recently concluded 2022 Australian federal election. The election of so many left-wing Greens and “teal” independents reflected a strong interest from affluent and younger voters in…

Anthony Norman Albanese has been sworn in as Australia’s 31st prime minister just hours ahead of a trip to Tokyo to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden. With counting from Saturday’s election yet to confirm whether he will govern in majority, Albanese on Monday attended Government House in Canberra. He was accompanied by incoming Deputy…

A hung Parliament will cause division and hand an advantage to Australia’s adversaries, Tim Wilson, the federal MP for Goldstein has warned. “Authoritarian governments want our country to turn inward, so they could advance their interests. While we are distracted and a hung Parliament would deliver just that distraction,” the MP said in a video…

Two years of government-mandated lockdowns has left a permanent mark on how suburban and regional Australians approach elections, with voters disillusioned with the major parties and keen for change, according to live streamer Rukshan Fernando. Fernando was a permanent fixture during months-long protests against COVID-19 regulations in Melbourne in 2021. His live streams of the…

The Labor Party is simply “throwing money” at Australia’s universal healthcare program Medicare with its near $1 billion (US$700 million) election funding pledge, which one Howard-era advisor says will do little to reform the system despite the hefty price tag. In an announcement on May 14, the centre-left Labor Party followed up its pledge to…

The incumbent centre-right Coalition government’s recently announced housing policy—that will allow first home buyers to access their superannuation funds—has been criticised by the opposition, financial sector, and unions over concerns it will cause a spike in residential real estate prices. Yet in early May, one economist told The Epoch Times that the centre-left Labor Party’s…

The Australian opposition’s deputy leader Richard Marles has been forced to explain his high number of visits to the Chinese Embassy over the past five years—more than the foreign minister—despite not holding the shadow foreign policy portfolio. Marles is alleged to have engaged with Chinese diplomats at least 10 times from 2017 despite deteriorating bilateral…