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    Canberra

    Today

    Ted O’Brien and Sally Sitou have emerged as the best stockpickers in parliament.

    Meet Canberra’s best and worst stockpickers (one got returns of 64pc)

    From investments in lithium to Fortescue, disclosures made by parliamentarians give at least a glimpse of whose portfolios are up – and whose are down.

    • Joshua Peach

    Yesterday

    Then-prime minister Paul Keating’s principal adviser Don Russell and Robert Zoellick, a senior US president George HW Bush’s White House, sparred by correspondence.

    When Keating went to war with the White House

    Secret cables reveal for the first time how Keating’s right-hand man and a senior White House official engaged in an extraordinary war of words in 1992, sometimes in personal terms.

    • James Curran

    This Month

    Anthony Albanese, Michele Bullock, Jim Chalmers

    RBA returns serve on inflation

    The RBA’s take down of government spending is reverberating loudly in Canberra and can only undermine Labor’s key argument that its fiscal policy complements monetary policy.

    • Jennifer Hewett
    An industry-wide approach makes the government less vulnerable to increasing criticism it is gambling taxpayer funds on the success or failure of specific companies.

    Future Made in Australia is already running off the rails

    The Albanese government has fallen into the trap of trying to achieve political wins at high economic cost. And nobody is stopping them.

    • John Kehoe
    Terry Snow grew up in Canberra and took pride in developing the national capital.

    Vale Terry Snow, legendary property developer with a generous heart

    The hard-headed businessman, responsible for much of modern Canberra, was also a soft-hearted philanthropist who loved equestrian horses and the arts.

    • Michael Bailey
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    Albemarle boss Kent Masters at the company’s lithium hydroxide plant at Kemerton in WA.

    Albemarle sounds warning on critical minerals processing

    The US-based firm’s decision to reduce output from its lithium hydroxide plant and write down much of its investment demonstrates the flaws in Australia’s plan for greater domestic processing of critical minerals.

    • Jennifer Hewett

    July

    From left to right: Adam Hunter, Paris performance analysis hub manager, senior biomechanist at the Australian Sports Commission Mitchell Mooney,   Sarah Taylor, intelligence lead at Athletics Australia, Jake Scheide, skill acquisition support at Paralympics Australia and Ian Morrow, head of performance at Swimming Australia.

    Meet the data junkies helping the Aussie team succeed

    They aren’t Olympians or even in Paris, but this team is critical to Australia’s success.

    • Zoe Samios
    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and Ali France (right), Labor candidate for Dickson, in Brisbane today.

    Albanese makes three-day assault on Queensland battleground

    The prime minister has thrown down the gauntlet in Queensland during a pseudo-election-campaign tour.

    • James Hall
     
Labor will survive Fatima Payman and talk of a Muslim teal-style insurgency in electorates in Western Sydney and suburban parts of Melbourne.

    Labor’s pledge is a bulwark against identity politics

    Some say Labor’s caucus discipline is outdated in modern, multicultural Australia. In reality, it is more vital when individualism has infected the party of late.

    • Nick Dyrenfurth
    Nuclear energy has become a headline policy for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

    LNP to debate nuclear despite ‘intriguing’ omission

    The LNP’s Queensland base will be “white-hot angry” if convention doesn’t debate nuclear energy, senior federal MP warns.

    • James Hall
    Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and wife Kirilly.

    What’s Peter Dutton got against David Crowe?

    Midwinter Ball speeches are meant to be roasts, and we’d never suggest journalists are off-limits. But Dutton’s dig at Crowe is starting to form a pattern.

    • Myriam Robin and Mark Di Stefano
    Donald Trump looks closer to the White House than ever after Joe Biden’s stumbling performance.

    A resurgent Trump will have consequences for Australia

    Trump 2.0 will pile rising expectations in Washington on Australia’s military readiness and on its strategic minerals. But that’s just the start.

    • Patrick Gibbons

    AUKUS ‘moonshot’ may be a tragically expensive failure

    It is alarming that both Coalition and Labor politicians fail to acknowledge the risk that Australia could be left with no submarine capability by the end of the 2030s.

    • James Curran
    James Curran’s AUKUS series is timely.

    On AUKUS, Australia must catch up, not start again – yet again

    Australia’s political, diplomatic and defence chiefs need to work with AUKUS counterparts in America and Britain to find a way through the gridlock.

    • The AFR View

    June

    Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at Parliament House last week.

    Why Dutton is flying in the face of the China hawks

    As the opposition leader’s rhetoric softens dramatically, the days of turning China into an election wedge appear to be over.

    • James Laurenceson
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    ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr

    ACT targets living costs in pre-election budget

    Chief Minister Andrew Barr says the economy is slowing and many parts of the community are enduring cost-of-living pain.

    • Poppy Johnston
    Michael Simkovic, left, of CSO Group with Wayne Gowland of xAmplify who are joining forces.

    ‘Merger of equals’ as two Aussie tech services firms become one

    The combined business will compete in a growing but crowded field as firms scramble to up their cybersecurity and add AI to their services.

    • Nick Bonyhady
    Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil.

    Social media ‘ripping at’ social fabric: O’Neil

    The Home Affairs Minister will issue bruising criticism of social media platforms and the use of opaque algorithms to “germinate and grow” bigotry online.

    • Tom McIlroy

    Rich List Snow family sets sights on Canberra’s next landmark

    It is the first major project launched by Capital Property, the owner of Canberra Airport, since Terry Snow stepped down from active management last month.

    • Nick Lenaghan
    Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock says the path to reducing inflation while avoiding a sharp slowdown ’does appear to be getting a bit narrower”

    Bullock tiptoes through a political minefield

    The Reserve Bank governor has been trying to avoid blaming Canberra and state government budgetary blowouts for fuelling inflation.

    • Karen Maley