Michelle Grattan

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".

You could view the present contest between the Albanese government and the Taylor-Canavan opposition as pragmatism versus populism.

Fuel prices are the immediate issue for the Albanese government but it will also be under scrutiny for how it handles Australia's relationship with the United States and its volatile president.

If the treasurer is serious about budget repair the government has to avoid the inevitable pressure for more cost-of-living relief which will only grow as many families' budgets become unmanageable.

As soon as the royal commission was announced, Dennis Richardson must have known his situation was going to be tricky.  

When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed federal parliament on Thursday, his well-crafted speech had one gaping hole.

Behind the scenes, the troops are carefully managed. Opinions are expressed at factional meetings and the prime minister meets with the factional conveners. 

The rifts in Australia's social cohesion can be seen in the blow-up over the so-called ISIS brides and their children, who want to come to Australia.

Sussan Ley has had much less than a year to try to prove herself. So how did the Liberals' first female leader find herself on the canvas so quickly and dramatically?

Jim Chalmers could face his biggest test yet as treasurer over the next few months.  

Andrew Hastie and Angus Taylor both want to run against Sussan Ley. But the two right-wingers cannot afford to split the conservative vote on which their tilts would rely.

In an extraordinary personal censure, Australia's Jewish community effectively denied Anthony Albanese the role of being the nation's chief public mourner in this week of national tragedy.

Parents will thank the government for giving them more agency in dealing with the social media issue but kids aren't voters and it is hard to see the issue deciding votes either way.

The Liberals argue Labor's industrial relations concessions to the unions are a "handbrake on productivity" but this area has been tricky for the Coalition since John Howard's disastrous overreach. 

The environmental deal is a major win for a government whose critics on the left are calling for it to be more reformist.

Neo-Nazis exploit feelings of alienation among a section of the community and making martyrs of them could play into their hands.

The Liberal conservatives' success in forcing their party to dump its commitment to the net zero emissions reduction target has been a triumph of ideology over pragmatism.