Jacob Greber

This week in Canberra the government seemed to be getting cold feet on its superannuation tax plan and the Coalition reckoned Labor was being less than transparent.

Labor's strongest governments have often involved vibrant backbenches that took seriously the task of keeping the cabinet on its toes.

If nothing else, this week's roundtable may have started the long overdue debate on difficult topics that was sorely absent during the election campaign. 

As the roundtable nears, the list of ideas has grown longer, more ambitious and often contradictory.

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state, it is only a matter of when and how as the PM bides his time waiting for the right moment.

This is not a normal American administration and these are not normal times. The notion this generation of Australians can stand as aloof observers of far-off events could soon be tested.

Jim Chalmers will throw open the door to a wider debate on potential tax changes at the government's economic reform summit in August as the treasurer hangs a lantern on Labor's "obligation to work out what comes next".

Australia's closest ally is giving a spirited impression of behaving like a cantankerous bear ahead of G7 summit in Canada.

A potential in-person meeting between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump is still anticipated, but senior sources told the ABC it was too soon to be "definitive" and there were "lots of moving parts".

Given the backlash, Labor was politically canny to postpone its Woodside decision until after the election. 

Two consecutive federal losses and it's clear Australians aren't buying the dark and bleak interpretation of our circumstances.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has indicated privately to colleagues that he would back former rival Michael McCormack if he sought the troubled minority party's top job.

Where Barnaby Joyce, Michael McCormack, Warren Truss and almost every one of their predecessors succeeded for the best past of a century, David Littleproud has failed.

Structurally the omens are not good for the Liberals, particularly outside Queensland.

The new opposition leader's pitch conveniently air-brushes away her role as Peter Dutton's deputy and co-author of an agenda rejected by voters on May 3.

Significant appointments in the Prime Minister's Cabinet reshuffle include Michelle Rowland as the new Attorney-General.

Firebrand senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price's shock defection to the Liberal Party is condemned by one insider as a hostile takeover attempt and a form of "desperate branch stacking" to boost Angus Taylor's leadership hopes. 

The writing was on the wall for Peter Dutton long before Anthony Albanese fired the starter's gun on the election race that would see the Coalition decimated.

Kate Hulett, who has said she will be "raging" against a proposed Woodside gas extension if elected, may be delivered to parliament thanks to the Liberals preferencing her above Labor.

For the Coalition, Saturday night was like one of those gory horror movies where half the headline cast gets decapitated before the first act is over.

The Coalition enters the dying hours of the 2025 election campaign defending its budget against charges from some of the nation's top economists that it erodes the Coalition's self-declared legacy of fiscal responsibility.

The Coalition has released its policy costings two days before the federal poll.

A YouGov poll suggests Labor's momentum over the Coalition has firmed, with a two-party preferred vote approaching 53 per cent.

With just three days of campaigning left, the coalition will unveil its policy costings later today. It's promising budget deficits during the next four years will be at least $10 billion dollars better off than Labors.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor will claim the Coalition's budget deficits would be at least $10 billion smaller than Labor's forecast $150 billion shortfalls over four years.