Coalition
Latest news and comment on the Coalition, Tony Abbott and Australian politics
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Alan Tudge says Centrelink may check letters received before debt imposedHuman services minister says there may be other ways to ensure Centrelink clients are aware they have to explain income discrepancies
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MPs 'haven't sought to defraud', says minister as travel claims scandal widensAlan Tudge defends expense claims amid revelations Sussan Ley took $13,000 of chartered flights and Julie Bishop charged $2,700 to attend a polo event
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Parliamentary expenses: government to clarify what ‘official business’ meansGreens leader Richard Di Natale says scandals over many years show the need for a national anti-corruption watchdog
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Bronwyn Bishop blames 'socialists' for criticising Sussan Ley over expensesFormer Speaker says ‘socialists, like alcoholics, will blame anyone but themselves’ and Ley is being attacked by ‘people behaving like a pack of dogs’
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Multimillionaire Sarina Russo hosted Sussan Ley at New Year's Eve partiesExclusive: Russo, one of Australia’s richest women, owns companies that won multimillion-dollar government contracts under the Abbott government
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Childcare costs rise 6.8% to average fee of $8.50 an hourEducation minister Simon Birmingham renews calls for cuts to family tax benefits to fund a restructured rebate
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Sussan Ley secured property finance months before apartment purchaseFederal health minister – under fire over travel expenses claims – obtained finance before trip but it was not for a specific apartment, spokesman says
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Sussan Ley apologises over Gold Coast luxury apartment scandalMinister says she will pay back the cost of a trip in which she bought a $795,000 apartment from a Liberal party donor
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Australia records first trade-balance surplus in almost three yearsFigures suggest economy might avoid technical recession – a big concern after last year’s shock three-month contraction
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Centrelink crisis 'cataclysmic' says PM's former head of digital transformationPaul Shetler, appointed to transform the government’s digital approach, says Centrelink’s error rate would put a private firm out of business
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Minister defends Centrelink over welfare debt compliance systemIt is ‘as reasonable a process as you could possibly derive’, says Christian Porter of controversial automated system
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Cory Bernardi and George Christensen to speak at $150-a-head dinner for anti-Islam groupConservative Liberal parliamentarians to appear at dinner hosted by Q Society to raise funds to defend a defamation case brought by a halal certifier
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Childcare shortage fears as demand for subsidised places to swell by 300,000Labor warns of ‘looming crisis’ as budget figures show the number of children accessing subsidised childcare is expected to grow to 2 million by 2020
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New year law changes to affect pensioners, students, parents and backpackersTougher rules for welfare recipients among the measures coming into force, despite widespread concerns about data matching
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'Substantial community concerns' over changes to 18C freedom of speech lawBut ethnic groups urge government to keep Racial Discrimination Act intact, saying it protects from malicious attacks
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Australia in 2016: the year leaders flailed as populism sailedMalcolm Turnbull only just won an election and struggled with a rightwing surge, while allegations of mistreatment of the vulnerable peppered a bleak 2016. Thank heavens for Crowded House and Helen Garner, writes Katharine Murphy
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The price of 'stopping the boats': abusing asylum seekers and shaming AustraliaIn a new chapter of his updated book, a former Salvation Army worker inside the offshore detention centre on Nauru argues that the hardline stand on refugees is morally and practically flawed
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Coalition loses ground with men and older voters, Newspoll showsLarge poll spanning October to December shows government slipping rapidly among over-50s, where Labor and independents are gaining
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Best of Bowers 2016: unicorns, pyjamas and a never-ending election – in picturesGuardian Australia’s photographer-at-large Mike Bowers looks back at the year in politics
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The judge who unmade Manus Island on why offshore detention has no futurePapua New Guinea’s Justice Terence Higgins says Australia should have known the detention centre would not survive constitutional challenge
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Eric Abetz says Coalition under Abbott ensured 'everybody had their voice heard'Backbencher takes swipe at Malcolm Turnbull’s team and urges conservative colleagues to remain within party
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Federal grant to Bjørn Lomborg centre made in Turnbull era, documents showExclusive: Department agreement to provide $640,000 grant dates from March 2016, according to documents obtained under freedom of information
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A splinter movement would simultaneously hit pause on the rolling right-left struggles within the government and offer more choice to disaffected voters
A conservatives split from the Liberals would free the party to be truly liberal -
Australia's greenhouse gas emissions are rising and forecast to miss 2030 targetOfficial data quietly released before Christmas shows emissions rose 0.8% in the year to June and will miss 2030 goal based on current policies
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Federal resources minister accuses ABC of 'fake news' over Adani coalmineMatt Canavan attacks the broadcaster for being one-sided and says Australia’s biggest coalmine would improve the environment
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Christensen threatens to leave Coalition amid fears Bernardi may form own partyChief Nationals whip says he has been urged to ‘pull the pin’ on Malcolm Turnbull’s government
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Nauru refugee says medical treatment withheld after he had heart attack‘Yusuf’ says medical transfer to Papua New Guinea did not eventuate and he still suffers from chest pains and numbness
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Trump-style political disaffection taking hold in Australia, review saysAcademic review of 2016 federal election warns trend of dissatisfaction with politicians should be seen as ‘wake up call’
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$2bn in vocational student loans to remain unpaid due to poor program designAuditor general finds education department encouraged growth in loans without effectively managing risk
Sussan Ley quits as health minister as Turnbull outlines reform to expenses