Latest Government Stories

Donald Trump aside, deaths in the US continue to soar from Covid-19, with a reported 383,000, and 23 million infections. Europe has also reported huge rises in the final month of 2020, while the numbers in African countries rose sharply too. Alan Austin takes a look at the latest pandemic wave.

Gladys Berejiklian’s defence of pork barrelling will hardly enthuse ratepayers in Batemans Bay, or taxpayers for that matter. The local government debacle over a Leisure Centre, which got the tick from Deputy Premier John Barilaro in dubious circumstances is the quintessential object lesson in why governments should do their homework before they start throwing money around for political reasons. ​Elizabeth Minter reports.

How did an Australian-made transponder, a key part of drone technology, end up in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan where human rights abuses are prolific? Michelle Fahy investigates the murky trail of the drone bit and the cagey response of the Defence establishment from DFAT to DoD to Minister Marise Payne.

While the federal government indulged in semantics, Covid-19 deaths continued to rise in the woefully under-prepared residential aged care sector. Sarah Russell and Elizabeth Minter report on a horror year for older people living in residential aged care.

On the journey of Covid-19 and “enemies of the state”, hotel quarantine, sycophancy, the vaccine, MPs’report cards, and Reds under the … somewhere. Michael Tanner reports on the week in the media.

The best interests of older people are not uppermost in this government’s thinking. Referring to older people requiring care as “consumers”, describing the transfer of residents to hospital as “decanting”, talk of “cohorting” residents into sections of a home and other dehumanising language set the scene for its priorities. Using aged care homes as a dumping ground to provide work for people who are unemployed is just the latest ploy, writes Dr Sarah Russell.

Oil giants Shell, Santos, Woodside and Chevron finance the Bureau of Meteorology. Sandi Keane investigates the influence of the fossil fuel sector over the Bureau’s public documentation.

The federal Health Department has learnt a thing or two from Scotty from Marketing. It has just announced version seven of the aged care pandemic plan. Never mind that the previous six versions never existed. Trying to get any sort of accountability from the Coalition government is just tilting at windmills, writes Dr Sarah Russell.

The Australian government’s treatment of Julian Assange has revealed more than a library of leaked documents ever could about who wields power in the relationship with the United States, writes Andrew Fowler.

As Australia is a global pariah on climate change, it is a pariah for not cracking down on money laundering and financial crime that facilitates child exploitation and terrorism. But with the Greens’ amendment to the anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing bill to be debated this week, Labor, the Coalition and the cross-bench senators will have to decide

A Lockheed missile blows up a bus full of Yemeni children; in Australia Lockheed Martin gains kudos by sponsoring the National Youth Science Forum. BAE Systems sponsors underprivileged kids in Australia while being complicit in the killing of thousands of needy children in Yemen. All you see in industry marketing pitches is euphemism, with nary a mention of the word “weapons”. Michelle Fahy reports.

Australia’s psychological torture of Julian Assange includes isolating and demonising him; flatly rejecting evidence of ill-treatment; refusing to respond to specific allegations; and divesting themselves of any responsibility. Leaders can’t, or won’t, accept the difference between psychological torture and ‘a legal matter’, writes Dr Lissa Johnson.

Scott Morrison says Australia’s position has been wrongly interpreted as siding with the US over China. Yet two of the main funders of the Federal Government-owned think-tank ASPI, a constant critic of China, are the US State Department, whose secretary Mike Pompeo has led the charge of global anti-China sentiment, and foreign weapons makers. Marcus Reubenstein investigates.

Water infrastructure projects are being fast-tracked in NSW, ostensibly to drought-proof communities. But concerns are growing that this is a cover story to allow more water-guzzling mining operations to develop and expand, with taxpayers footing the bill. Troy Walsh reports.

Scott Morrison was sacked as managing director of Tourism Australia in 2006 with a year left to run on his contract. For 14 years the reason for the sacking has remained one of the best kept secrets in Parliament. FoI documents accessed by Jommy Tee reveal that the PM either lied about a critical probity report, or numerous government departments and agencies are so incompetent that they have lost it.

Donald Trump’s bigger-than-life persona hides an empty inner core. Exposure of any flaws in his façade has the potential of destroying him, at least in his mind, since there is nothing of substance to fall back on. Some experts believe the period ahead could therefore be the most dangerous period of Trump’s presidency. Dr Bandy X. Lee and Elizabeth Mika report.

Department of Defence secretly investigates itself, does not make public the review’s existence or its terms of reference, and keeps any resulting report secret. Defence recommends buying hundreds of vehicles from Thales, despite no need for them, just so Thales can keep its factory open. Houston, we have a problem, writes Michelle Fahy.

ABC’s Four Corners on Monday night raised questions about Christian Porter’s personal behaviour. Michelle Fahy reports on the Attorney General’s political integrity and concerns over dealings with multinational arms manufacturer Thales.

With its favouritism of funding wealthy Independent and Catholic schools, the Morrison Government has completed the demolition of the Gonski funding model that began with the Abbott and Turnbull governments. Yet public schools educate more than 80% of disadvantaged students and 95% of disadvantaged schools are public schools. Trevor Cobbold reports.

NSW’s integrity commission ICAC continues to uncover extraordinary corruption yet last week, under cover of the Queensland and US elections, federal parliament passed a law overriding state anti-corruption powers. Monash University’s Associate Professor Luke Beck reports.