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Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in question time on Wednesday.

At this moment, grubby populism won’t help Australia. So why fuel it?

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is working hard to subdue Australia’s populist outbreak. Liberal leader Angus Taylor is doing little to contain it.

  • Peter Hartcher

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Defence Minister Richard Marles.

Marles hits out at ‘washed-up bureaucrats’ amid accusations of accounting tricks

Richard Marles warned Australia stands “at the foothills of a new nuclear arms race” in the Indo-Pacific and needed to spend more to defend itself.

  • Matthew Knott
A raft of new laws to protect Australians online and regulate the digital economy have put Anthony Albanese at odds with Donald Trump and his preference for deregulation.

Trump has changed Australia’s defence spending. Just not in the way he thinks

The US president and his administration cannot claim credit for pressuring Australia to inject $53 billion more into defence over the next decade. The changing world has.

  • Matthew Knott
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government was making the biggest ever peacetime increase in defence spending.

This is a big step forward on defence for Australia. Too bad we’re playing catch-up

The commitments of Australia’s new defence strategy and investment plan are necessary. But governments have been warned of the gathering storm for years.

  • Rory Medcalf
Royal Australian Air Force Airfield Defence Guards provide aircraft security at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul

$53 billion to be ploughed into Australia’s defence budget. Trump’s secretary of war wanted more

The government will argue defence spending will rise to 3 per cent of gross domestic product – but only by adopting a new way to calculate the figure.

  • Matthew Knott
A Ukrainian soldier holds a new model of attack drone, reflecting the changing nature of modern warfare.

‘The threat is here now’: Australia dangerously exposed without rise in defence spending

Defence Minister Richard Marles will release a 10-year defence spending plan on Thursday, in the face of increased warnings that Australia is not equipped for new types of warfare.

  • Matthew Knott
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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles and German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius shake hands ahead of the Defence Ministers’ meeting

Germany’s blunt candour about Trump highlights how timid Australia has become

The Albanese government believes it has little scope to express even the mildest criticism of Trump’s war against Iran. Not everyone feels so constrained.

  • Matthew Knott
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese holding a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

Albanese brushes off fuel warning, as government backs ‘business as usual’

A stark warning from the International Energy Agency has done little to push the government’s messaging on fuel demand, as Labor says supply is their focus.

  • Nick Newling
Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles with Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin after their meeting in Jakarta.

Australia to turn WWII site on ‘valuable’ Indonesian island into training base

The move to redevelop the site into a joint training facility highlights the Indonesian president’s eagerness to cement regional relationships amid the rise of China and an unpredictable US under Trump.

  • Zach Hope and Karuni Rompies
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Lessons from the Iran crisis: Australia looking to ramp up missile production

The prime minister said Australia would be operating in a defensive capacity only. But one analyst says Iran would make no distinction.

  • Paul Sakkal and Brittany Busch