Last week, Simon Holmes à Court and Clive Palmer presented two very different visions for the future of independent politics at the National Press Club in Canberra. They're both wealthy men, and interested in influencing the next federal parliament via the election of independent candidates, but that's where the similarities end.

In 1996 the American intellectual Noam Chomsky wrote, 'The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.' Professor Chomsky has now lost the ability to speak, but his words continue to ring true.

Despite promises of reform when the Albanese Government was elected, Australia’s political donation laws remain unchanged, which is why it took until last week to find out who was donating in the last financial year, via the AEC's Transparency Register.

Electoral reform sounds boring, which is probably why the government hoped to squeeze a substantial change to the way Australian politics works in amongst some positive-sounding modifications late last year, without too many people noticing. After independents raised the alarm, this legislation was delayed, and is now likely to be presented in the new year.

Rob Marks lives in the Tweed Shire, owns a small business and is running on Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party ticket for the federal seat of Richmond.

The phoney campaign is over and Australia will go to the polls on 21 May. Can the ALP get over the line? Will Anthony Albanese's old-fashioned John Curtin glasses and new-fashioned waistline cut it?

Morrison’s incompetence, however, is epic; it seems to derive from his belief that God has appointed him to rule in these end times, so that it is impossible for him to be wrong.

The Liberal bullies and the Murdoch-Costello press have jammed their frame around indigenous recognition, and it boils down to 'we will decide what you can have, and it’s probably going to be bugger-all'.

Clive Palmer's Mineralogy has lost its bid for an immediate royalty payment from CITIC, with ramifications for his Yabulu nickel refinery in Queensland.

While much of the media's attention on Monday was focused on the prime minister furiously stabbing the reset button other, more substantial, events were playing out, writes Crikey's Bernard Keane.