While most religious leaders accept climate change, the Christian right in Australia and the US make scepticism a tenet of their politics.

The government is waging a multifaceted campaign to reduce the influence of charities, requiring disclosure of how donations are spent, seeking to ban electoral campaigning if overseas funds are received, and choosing not to renew the tenure of the respected head of the sector’s regulatory body.

After leaving her post as president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs is as forthright as ever in describing the country’s slide backwards in its social policies and treatment of the vulnerable.

As politics comes to reckon with inequality, Bill Shorten’s former defence of discretionary trusts has morphed into a policy to more harshly tax them.

The Uluru statement’s call for a voice to advise parliament surprised some for its pragmatism, sidestepping earlier recognition debates. As a result it will test the major parties’ avowed commitment to give greater power to Indigenous Australians.

Just as BA Santamaria’s forces once split the Labor Party, hardline Catholics are again threatening to divide politics – this time on the conservative side.

As big pharma continues to wine and dine medical practitioners, and over-prescription is rife, the ACCC is still waiting for the industry’s peak body to undertake promised reforms in reporting payments.

While a new government program claims to boost youth employment prospects, the reality is that a different kind of intergenerational theft is at play.

Back with headland speeches and a renewed manifesto, Tony Abbott has taken off the gloves in his fight to knock out Malcolm Turnbull.