In the past year, the government has directed nearly $5 billion to various schemes using a process lawyers say is likely unconstitutional.

Scott Morrison is sandwiched between the climate deniers in his own government on one side and Russell Crowe on the other, as he tries to come up with a new climate policy.

Meet Keith Pitt - climate sceptic, coal evangelist and the parliament’s most strident nuclear advocate. He’s also the new minister for Water and Resources.

The government has spent more than a decade fighting compensation claims launched by more than 60 former asylum seekers detained in Australia’s notorious detention centres. Today, we ask why it’s taking so long.

Asylum seekers who have been cut off from government support are finding solace in an unexpected place: their own community garden.

How a British model to end climate dysfunction is being introduced in parliament and could work here.

Why the chaos that installed Llew O’Brien as deputy speaker is really about Queensland state politics - and how it’s set the clock on nine months of dysfunction from the Coalition.

Australia’s first nuclear dump is set to be built in a small town in South Australia. The government has spent millions trying to win over locals – but the community is viciously divided.

Scott Morrison received the biggest individual political donation in Australian history. Behind it was a love story – and a man who asked for nothing in return.

From the point of view of his failed candidates, Clive Palmer’s campaign was a success. So what does $84 million buy you at an election?

Australian author Heather Morris has made millions selling books about the Holocaust, but the people in them are unrecognisable to their families.

Barnaby Joyce lost his leadership tilt but has reopened a schism in the Coalition on climate policy.

Every state and territory government in Australia has a target of net zero emissions by 2050. What are the benefits, and the risks, of the states defying the federal government?

As coronavirus shuts borders and creates global panic, Rick Morton explains where the virus originated and looks at attempts to combat it.

Controversial men’s rights activist Bettina Arndt has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. Feminist academic Eva Cox considered giving back her AO in protest – and says it’s more evidence the system needs to change.

Don Watson on why Scott Morrison is not really a politician, and how meaning left politics.

As Scott Morrison pivots to the coronavirus evacuation and deploys the military to the fire zone, questions are being asked about the management of both responses.

Current and former Red Cross staff have criticised the way the organisation is handling donations during Australia’s bushfire crisis.

As the government deals with the Bridget McKenzie scandal, questions are being asked about other larger grant programs.

As minister for defence, Brendan Nelson controversially spent $6.6 billion on Boeing fighter jets. Now he is running the company’s Australian division.

The bushfire season still has months to run. The question is whether volunteers can make it through another crisis without radical changes to how they work.

As fires continue on both sides of the continent, and the government succeeds in putting off commitments at the UN climate talks, Scott Morrison has gone on holidays.

Anthony Albanese says ending Australian coal exports won’t halt climate change. He says we need to cut emissions, but Adani should get on with it and start digging in the Galilee Basin.

Helen Garner has been keeping a diary for as long as she has been a writer. She published extracts from last year’s in the latest issue of The Monthly.

As the Hillsong Church booms internationally, its local arm is still dealing with the fallout from the royal commission into child sexual abuse.

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Anna Funder on how understanding the Stasi can help us comprehend the age of surveillance in which we live.

As fires burn across the east coast and Sydney suffers catastrophic air pollution, the Coalition government is arguing to do less on climate change.

Seven years ago, David Savage was injured while working for the Australian government in Afghanistan. He has fought since to have his compensation settled and the truth of what happened acknowledged.

Following an inquiry into digital platforms, the government finds itself wedged between News Corp and the tech giants. Both sides are lobbying heavily.

Following his wrongful conviction for the murder of Canberra’s top police officer, David Eastman sought compensation. But bigger questions remain, about mental health and the law.

David Eastman was thought of as a serial pest, until he was convicted of killing Australia’s police chief. The problem was, he didn’t do it.

Jacqui Lambie says she has a deal with the government to repeal medevac. She won’t say what it is, and the government says it never existed.

How the government – led by Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan – is ensuring Australia’s hydrogen industry is controlled by fossil fuels.

As the first two decades of the 21st century come to an end, George Megalogenis considers Australia’s place as a middle power and the demographics that will change our parliament.

Andrew Bolt has led a campaign against Bruce Pascoe and his book Dark Emu. But after reading the explorer journals on which the book is based, Rick Morton was unable to find any errors.

As the fallout from the Westpac scandal continues, attempts are already underway to limit corporate responsibility.

Scott Morrison has put himself in a difficult position, calling the NSW police commissioner to check on an investigation into his own minister.

According to Jeff Sparrow, a new fascism is emerging from the internet – one rooted in meme culture, but that harnesses mass shootings as a political tool.

As Julian Assange fights against extradition to the United States, an unlikely group of politicians is working to have him returned to Australia.

A speaking tour of Europe has revealed the strategy behind Peter Ridd’s rejection of reef science: he believes that if people doubt the reef is dying, they will doubt climate change more broadly.

Xi Jinping’s ambitions for China are paranoid and expansionist. His mindset mirrors that of the guerrilla fighters in the Chinese Civil War.

The Morrison government has halted its robo-debt program, finally confronting issues with the troubled scheme. Separately, the government has affirmed its reliance on Chinese trade – irrespective of human rights concerns.

Summary: Scott Morrison’s co-design process rules out the key aspirations of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. But there are signs that a new political fight is about to begin.

Since becoming prime minister, Scott Morrison has stamped himself on the cabinet process. There will be more PowerPoints, and less debate about issues he sees as being routine.

A review of consent laws in New South Wales is recommending changes to how juries interpret sexual assaults and the onus that is placed on defendants. Bri Lee on the response from frontline organisations and the woman whose case triggered the inquiry.

Last week, a million hectares of eastern Australia was burnt in catastrophic bushfires. In the main, politicians refused to acknowledge the science that links these fires to climate change.

As fires burn through NSW and Queensland, a fundamental shift can be detected in Canberra: the politics of climate change have altered.

We don’t know what exactly happened or what ASIO was investigating; those details are secret. We do know that early last year the spy agency broke the law while conducting an operation.

The federal government spends twice as much on income support for people affected by mental illness as it does on treatment. Rick Morton on living inside these figures – and the “arithmetic of existence”.

Scott Morrison’s speech to the Queensland Resources Council has been called a defining moment in his leadership. Mike Seccombe on what it says about his “ordinary bloke” mask.

Lech Blaine grew up in country Queensland. After the 2019 federal election, he spent several weeks driving around the state, trying to understand what makes it different.

As Labor responds to an internal review of its election defeat, some in the party feel they have already lost the next election.

In Australia, the gap in life expectancy between the rich and poor has reached 10 years – the outcome of “savage capitalism”.

Ross Garnaut – the man who wrote the Rudd government’s response to climate change – says Australia has more to gain from a zero-carbon future than any other developed country.

Anthony Albanese was shaped by the circumstances of his childhood. The question now is if his working-class background can help Labor reconnect to its working-class base.

The Morrison government is committed to a budget surplus above all else. But as Paul Keating points out, this commitment can be a kind of sickness.

Rosie Batty on Pauline Hanson’s family law inquiry, and why governments won’t do more to stop domestic violence.

As the number of police strip-searches rises in NSW, a law enforcement commission considers whether many of them are actually legal.

How the American anti-climate-science lobby hijacked local councils in Australia, changing sea-level benchmarks as it went.

A decision to hand planning about sea-level rise to local council has opened up a war around science, property values and influence.

Paul Bongiorno on how the Liberal Party celebrates and how the National Party brawls.

Australia is almost alone its willingness to lock up primary-school-age children for criminal offences, but “tough on crime” politics means there is little will to change this.

As Labor waits for a review of its election loss, and another into the operations of its NSW branch, Anthony Albanese is wrestling with divisions inside the party.

An error at the Department of Human Services caused the original robo-debt algorithm to restart, issuing thousands of unchecked debt notices.

The boom in international education has seen students become commodities. It has also changed the way universities operate - chasing rankings and casualising teaching staff.

As Scott Morrison attempts to control the message on handling the drought, there is bad news for his claims to strong economic management.

New legislation will restrict the way Australians use cash. But there are concerns the laws could jail people for using legal tender.

From anti-protest legislation to funding cuts, this government has waged war on dissent. In recent weeks, its rhetoric has intensified.

A dispute over funding and the NDIS has forced 500 families to forfeit their children into state care.

Australia’s relationship with Chinese investment has been remade in the past six years. David Uren on how ASIO helped transform the Foreign Investment Review Board.

As the Liberal Party slides further on climate change, the Labor Party fights an internal push to abandon its platform.

Each year, The Monthly assembles a panel of critics and artists to decide The Monthly Awards. This episode showcases the winners.

The latest IPCC report says current farming practices are unsustainable. But there are solutions, if farmers want to change.

The aged-care sector is on the brink of collapse. The major providers have been propped up by a government bailout, but without reform they cannot keep operating.

Scott Morrison shares a rhetorical lineage with Robert Menzies and a suburban one with John Howard. But what worked then might not work now.

As Scott Morrison tried to shift Australia’s focus to the drought, and the cash rate fell below 1 per cent, Donald Trump’s paranoia followed the prime minister home.

Penny Wong is the intellectual leader of the Labor Party. Now the subject of a major biography, her politics is shaped by her experiences of difference and her belief in compassion.

The Murray–Darling Basin is being ruined by cronyism and incompetence. But there is a new problem, too: high-yield almond crops.

The judge who sentenced Jaymes Todd for the rape and murder of Eurydice Dixon was asked to consider Todd’s age, autism diagnosis and early guilty plea.

One of the terrible facts about the day Jaymes Todd killed Eurydice Dixon is that for him it was almost all very ordinary.

When former Anglican dean Graeme Lawrence was found guilty of child sexual abuse, his victim, Ben Giggins, made the unusual decision to request that the court name him publicly.

As a royal commission into disability care begins, it emerges that key emails relating to the NDIS are held on a private bank server and cannot be accessed.

Don Watson on the end of speech making in politics, and how the loss of narrative undermines bold policy.

Tanya Day died after being arrested for drunkenness. A coroner is now asking whether systemic racism contributed to her death.

Tomorrow, Scott Morrison will be received in Washington on a state visit. It highlights his special relationship with Donald Trump and his difficulty with Beijing.

Philip Lowe is the governor of the Reserve Bank. He is a conventional person who’s been pushed by the economy to make unconventional choices.

Twenty years after Timor-Leste’s vote for independence, the country’s relationship with Australia remains fraught.

As Scott Morrison announces punitive welfare plans, Rick Morton asks what happens when you treat poverty as a moral problem.

When the impresario behind Earthcore died last year, he left behind a legacy of paranoia, intimidation and financial mismanagement.

As some backbenchers express doubt that Gladys Liu can stay in parliament, Scott Morrison is digging in behind his MP.

When Annabel Crabb decided to find out what happens to men’s work habits when they have children, she discovered a huge store of gendered norms and inequality.

As ICAC exposes apparent corruption in NSW, focus is drawn on the government’s integrity commission, which, among other things, could not make findings of corruption.

There is fresh momentum behind the Adani mine in central Queensland. What happens next could define Australia’s relationship to climate change both here and globally.

Inside the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, a place that is dysfunctional, inflexible and underfunded.

How support for a Tamil family in Biloela blindsided the government and caused the prime minister to panic.

The reality of the wage debate in Australia is that companies are geared to pay dividends rather than to invest in growth – and the treasurer’s intervention does nothing to change that.

As Brian Toohey releases his major book on national security in Australia, he reveals that American spies have been working here without detection.

The reporter behind the Panama Papers, Bastian Obermayer, on how he handled the leak and what he has found in Australia.

Months before the latest protests in Hong Kong, the Chinese government shut down an art exhibition by Chinese-Australian dissident Badiucao. This is his story.

While Australia remains belligerent over the Witness K case, Canberra is standing up to Beijing over the imprisonment of Yang Hengjun.

When a communications agency started contacting Muslim Australians for social media training, no one realised they were being pulled into Home Affairs’ propaganda machine.

The Greens is a party with a leader who many think is too mainstream, struggling with the growing pains of infighting and factionalism. It is also on the cusp of another step change.

Scott Morrison says the middle class doesn’t trust the public service. The problem is available research says the opposite.

Joelle Gergis is one of Australia’s leading climate scientists. She says there is resistance to talking about emotions around science, but she feels grief and anger.

As he arrives for talks in Vietnam, Scott Morrison is struggling to match his attempts at diplomacy with his position on climate change.

The furore over Australian swimmer Mack Horton’s stand against long-time rival Sun Yang underscores confusion about how drug testing in sport actually works.

As the Andrews government attempts to negotiate treaty with First Nations people in Victoria, it is proceeding with a plan to bulldoze hundreds of sacred Djab Wurrung trees.

As Xi Jinping increases his power and ambition, there is tension over the influence China has in Australia. Progressive critics finds themselves aligned with right-wing voices.

Adam Goodes’s AFL career was played at the intersection of race and politics. Stan Grant on what his story says about white Australia.

As the Morrison government begins its inquiry into press freedom, there is concern about the bipartisanship of the committee hearing it. At the centre is Andrew Hastie.

A strict legal framework means there is a shortage of sperm donors across Australia. But online there is a huge and unregulated market of people willing to donate.

In the past decade, reports of teachers and principals being abused by parents have increased. Jane Caro on accounts that range from intimidation to stalking.

The refusal of the major parties to hold a parliamentary inquiry into Crown Casino speaks to a larger relationship between politics and the gambling lobby. It’s not just donations: Labor draws millions in profits from poker machines it owns.

For the first time ever, individual articles can be linked to far-right recruitment drives. High on the list is reporting from The Australian, in stories about Safe Schools as well as about race.

A visit from US ministers gives a clearer picture of what America wants. But as Trump’s trade war with China escalates, it also sets the stakes for Scott Morrison’s visit to Washington.

After Kate O’Halloran’s grandmother was placed in residential care, her family complained about her treatment. The centre responded by threatening to withdraw her place.

As a judge’s comments about Aboriginal people cause outrage, lawyers in the Northern Territory wonder why a key body hasn’t made a complaint.

As the Morrison government pushes for legislation to more easily deregister unions, there are questions over timing and the new laws’ real intent.

Just on 15 years ago, almost half the country voted for Mark Latham. Now, the former Labor leader is a One Nation representative who could play a significant role in the new right.

Amid claims of misconduct against Crown Casino, Labor and the Coalition voted down a parliamentary inquiry into the affair.

As the campaign to raise Newstart intensifies, details emerge of who is actually living on the payment and for how long.

Climate change is now the defining issue for the Pacific. It is also one of the factors undermining Australia’s relationship with the region.

Home Affairs is pushing for new powers to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to embed in corporate computer systems – transforming the body into one that disrupts crime and other attacks onshore.

Australia is ahead of the world in some of its responses to domestic violence, but its national plan has no measurable targets.

The Labor Party has come back to parliament with a plan to ignore Scott Morrison, making the most of an ill-disciplined backbench.

As older voters become a larger and more powerful voting bloc, they are also becoming more organised.

A softening in the housing market has shown up defects and flaws that were being hidden by demand.

Despite hopes that were placed in Ken Wyatt as minister, Scott Morrison says there will be no constitutional enshrinement of an Indigenous Voice to parliament. Karen Middleton on the campaign to keep the Voice alive.

As China seeks to assert dominance, Australia finds itself upping the stakes in a game it doesn’t want to play.

With Scott Morrison emerging as a Donald Trump favourite, there are questions to ask about the meaning of their association.

To understand Scott Morrison, it helps to understand his faith. Tanya Levin is a former Pentecostal who argues that the church informs every aspect of his politics.

Almost two years since changes were implemented following a royal commission into youth detention, tear gas is again being used on children in the Northern Territory.

Scott Morrison’s signature achievement could be the tax cuts he legislated earlier this month – although not for the reasons he believes.

Extinction Rebellion is not focusing on one project; it’s focusing on the system as a whole. And change can come from just a small segment of society participating in sustained non-compliance.

Scott Morrison began the week praying in front of 21,000 people. He closed it promising a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

Following the death of cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne, surviving members of The Family reckon with judgement.

Scott Morrison’s tax cuts are based on an American theory of economics trialled in the 1970s, but the evidence since suggests it does not work.

As the government produces legislation to temporarily ban foreign fighters from returning to Australia, there is growing concern over whether existing citizenship legislation is unconstitutional.

The pendulum that is used to predict outcomes in elections is broken. One unexpected consequence is for the role of money in politics.

As Scott Morrison’s tax cuts make their way through the parliament, there are fresh questions over religious freedoms.

As the government pushes to repeal the medivac legislation, lawyers and doctors contradict the arguments put against it.

The high court has found that sperm donors can have fathers’ rights, but the ruling is inherently conservative.

The discovery of water ice on the moon has started a new space race – and opened a legal frontier in which Australia has a unique role.

Scott Morrison’s inner circle is a group linked by faith and friendship – and now, the front bench. Their ties were confirmed during the leadership spill last year.

As Labor loses party discipline over tax cuts, the Coalition enters into an ugly post-mortem of its leadership change.

Following the sacking of Israel Folau by Rugby Australia, a fissure has opened up in the debate over equality and freedoms.

As millions protest on the streets of Hong Kong, the democratic freedoms promised in the handover to China are being tested.

Rosie Batty talks to Martin McKenzie-Murray about grief and healing.

The election was shaped by the character of two men. Its outcome shows us how the country reacts to insecurity, and what that means for change.

As Labor and the Coalition explore a double bluff on tax cuts, Cory Bernardi wants back into the Liberal Party.

Australia records higher gambling losses than any country in the world, while the sector uses faulty research to avoid regulation.

The election result has put faith back on the national agenda. But the issue is dogged by a review Malcolm Turnbull commissioned and never had the chance to answer.

As Al Gore continues his fight against climate change, Mike Cannon-Brookes has become the movement’s Australian face.

The mass shooting in Darwin was the worst in Australia since Port Arthur, but it received little attention. What happens to the people left behind?

As Scott Morrison searches for a path to legislate his tax cuts, concerns over press freedom continue to trouble his government.

As the trade war escalates between China and the United States, it’s the US that has become the radical actor.

Once a radical thought, the idea of breaking up tech giants to help regulate them is gaining traction with politicians and tech entrepreneurs.

Before entering parliament, Scott Morrison ran Tourism Australia. He was sacked by the minister, but the details of what happened have never been made public.

Scott Morrison flies back from meeting the Queen to a flagging economy and concern over raids on the ABC and other reporters.

Charlie Teo is Australia’s best-known surgeon. His career asks difficult questions about the balance between hope and orthodoxy.

How “Mistake of Fact” makes drunkenness a legal defence for serious crimes, and the campaign to change that.

Scott Morrison’s cabinet is a careful balance between those who backed him during last year’s leadership spill, and those who backed Peter Dutton.

Anthony Albanese didn’t always expect to be Labor leader but now he’s in the job, he’s not going anywhere.

Two weeks after the election, Scott Morrison has identified 10 seats the Coalition wants to win.

Having once been rejected by government, the Uluru Statement from the Heart is readying for referendum.

Before his death, the former president of Nauru explained how a deal with Australia to open a detention centre destroyed democracy in his country.

Since its introduction, ParentsNext has been a controversial welfare program – but there is a mothers’ resistance mounting against it.

Scott Morrison’s win should not have been a surprise - Australia has been stuck on the same voting divide since 2010. We fractured first, before Trump or Brexit.