Democracy & Accountability

Bill Browne

Earlier this year, an Australia Institute freedom of information (FOI) request revealed that the Attorney-General’s Department had been holding back information from the public. Their apparent motive was to escape tricky questions at Senate Estimates, the rare opportunity that democratically elected representatives get to ask questions of government officials.

Amy Remeikis

What Albanese keeps missing is that the chaos is now the point. We have covered this in this column since before the last election. Keep offering people the same stuff that’s not working (and arguably never has) and people will eventually turn to a disruptor.

Richard Denniss

One Nation’s historic victory in the once safe Labor seat of Secret Harbour was of no more surprise than their recent defeat of the Liberals in the Farrer by-election, but the failure of the Greens to pick up any of the votes Labor is shedding has attracted far less attention.

Mark Ogge

In the face of surging support for One Nation, driven by cynicism about politics and vested interests, WA Labor chose to run a current Woodside lobbyist in the Secret Harbour by-election, with disastrous results. In contrast, One Nation acknowledged Australians are “rightly unhappy” with the lack of return Australians get for our resources and promised to give Australian taxpayers “vastly greater returns.”

Richard Denniss

As a long-term critic of the Productivity Commission, and someone who has called for their abolition, even I think the Prime Minister’s recent attack on the government-funded think tank was unfair and inaccurate.