The Latest Breaking News from Whitlam

Fifty years ago, Liberal MPs chose Malcolm Fraser as their leader. Eight months later, he led them into power in extraordinary – some might say reprehensible – circumstances. He governed for seven and a half years, and remains our fourth-longest serving prime minister.

In the 1970s the government recruited a team of film-makers to make short films that would advertise the nation overseas – but then they began capturing reality

Something strange and sad has happened to Labor. The policy courage of Whitlam, Hawke and Keating has been replaced.

The election of the Hawke Labor government on March 5 1983 began an era of once-in-a-century economic reforms that opened the Australian economy to the world. It floated the dollar, eliminated controls on international capital flows, and dismantled the high tariffs that protected local manufacturers from imports. It refocused Australia’s…

Treasurer Jim Chalmers begins his Monthly essay “Capitalism After the Crises” with a quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus: “No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”

There is much to be excited about in Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’s draft Family Law Amendment Bill 2023, the first in a projected series of reforms that promise to put children’s needs and interests back at the centre of family law.

The Albanese government hasn’t wasted a moment since assuming office in May, much like the reforming Whitlam government of 50 years ago.

Governments usually change after a recession, not before one, so the job is a nice one – to manage the recovery. But this time is different.

Women much like the PM’s mum Maryanne need action to raise welfare payments and cut waiting lists for public housing