As the government announces a lifetime ban on boat arrivals ever visiting Australia, criminals deported to New Zealand can find their way back.

Jane Halton, the bureaucrat at the centre of the ‘children overboard’ affair, reflects on a career of toughness and discretion.

George Brandis’s move to control legal advice has opened a schism with Justin Gleeson, that critics say make the solicitor-general a “dog on a lead”.

“I wasn’t looking to make people angry, just aware that it happens a lot to many women in all sorts of situations, that this kind of sexual attention is not the same as flirting and it would be great if it happened a lot less. Like, never.”

A new report from the Australian Cyber Security Centre describes a recent foreign-state attack on the Bureau of Meteorology and highlights ongoing threats to government agencies.

“A few colleagues and I drafted a blacklist of politicians with lecherous reputations and worded up new female journalists about which ones to avoid. ”

The government’s negotiations with doctors over the Medicare rebate is not helped by a breach of privacy on apparently anonymised health data.

As clean-up began after South Australia’s freak storms, the federal energy minister seized the opportunity for a debate on renewables.

Marcia Langton talks about a promising welfare management trial and how constitutional recognition would complete the Commonwealth.