Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and chief political correspondent at The Conversation.
NSW Labor has made it clear how much of a threat One Nation is to their future, but the federal government's inflation woes are only making things worse.
It will be hard for the government to push through its private health rebate changes without sacrificing big dollars, just when it needs to preserve the budget's savings.
In the furious debate about migration policy, figures and justifications get easily lost in a quagmire of vocal stakeholders, potential losers and outcomes that may not stand the test of the real world.
In ordinary people's day-to-day thinking the cost of living dominates, and never more than this week, when the Reserve Bank hiked rates to the highest level since 2011.
The Medicare hack underscores that the work on AI has to be given even higher priority by the government. As one government man put it, it was a real-life example of a science fiction scenario.
After the embarrassment of having to abort his earlier press club appearance, Tony Burke produced a package that, on his own admission, did not contain all he'd wished.
This week the One Nation leader dug her heels in on two high-risk demonstrations.
For the average Australian, just where we are economically is, at best, confusing; at worst, alarming.
Securing a UN Security Council seat would cap the Albanese government's international efforts.
Victoria's election on November 28 has taken on a drama and significance we wouldn't have anticipated a year ago.
At last week's Labor conference, which was totally under the prime minister's thumb, only one issue was contested on the floor: support for the use of telehealth in voluntary assisted dying care.
The mismatch between where the public resides and what the Liberals are expounding is a deeper challenge — a gulf perhaps unable to be bridged, at least in the short term.
The government can read the numbers, and one thing they tell us is that without refuelling that vital growth agent, productivity, we will stay in the doldrums.
The prime minister declares the conference would be "a real opportunity to bring the whole Labor movement with us on our direction".
The Liberals, it seems, can't resist returning to damaging infighting, even in the one part of the country where things have been going quite encouragingly for them.
The government's announced changes to its tax package are seeking to allay the fierce post-budget backlash from vested interests and some commentators.
The prime minister's cavalier breaking of election promises has poured kerosene on the fire under a party that can no longer be called "minor".
While Labor is increasingly concerned about the long-term threat of One Nation, this week its attention was squarely on more immediate problems.
In an extraordinary irony, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has become best known for "own goals", rocked by internal scandals and attracting a litany of complaints.
Before the budget, Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers knew they would be hit by criticism for its broken promises, but they underestimated the extent and ferocity of the backlash.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor commits to phasing in income tax indexation under a "tax back guarantee" that he says "will fully protect all taxpayers from inflation".
The run-up to a budget always sees a degree of chaos. But this year it has looked like one of those willy-willies that blow up in outback Australia when the wind stirs a storm of dust.
The Albanese government is reading the room when it comes to intergenerational equity ahead of the May 12 budget.
The Liberals need to resolve the internal ambiguities they have on big policy questions when it comes to migration.
If you want a basic measure of the difference between Liberal leader Angus Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan, compare their reactions to US President Donald Trump's extraordinary threat this week that "a whole civilisation will die tonight".
