Rick Morton

“I am furious. Angry, certainly, about the federal government’s proposed freedom of information laws, which mock the very idea of transparency, but seething especially about the justification for them, a continuation of the rhetorical trickery that …”

The government is using an ‘instrument’ designed by the University of Melbourne to reassess support payments for disabled people.

The University of Technology Sydney denied the existence of a KPMG spreadsheet ranking the research performance of academics, in breach of its EBA, until it was forced to release it.

SafeWork NSW’s first prohibition notice on the grounds of psychological safety, made against staff cuts at University of Technology Sydney, is emblematic of a higher education sector in meltdown.

While advocates say they have been ambushed by Labor’s plans to eject autistic children from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the agency has been accused of ignoring multiple legal orders.

Despite being warned in 2018 that jobseekers were being exposed to unfair and excessive decisions, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations ‘chose to continue with the status quo’.

The employment department quietly stopped welfare cancellations after a complaint from a disabled woman – but did not intervene in her case, which she won six months later.

A report showing increased smoking and vaping among young Australians was pulled after it embarrassed the government and led to complaints from other researchers.

Internal emails show the National Disability Insurance Agency rushed to withdraw access for a disabled person whose funding was criticised on talkback radio, only to reinstate it 10 months later.

Nous Group has slowly taken over the university sector, filling VCs’ offices with ex-staff and buying ‘incredibly sensitive’ data that is sold back for benchmarking.

As the author prepares for an extended stay on the other side of the world, the details of the life he leaves behind take on new significance.

The audit office has found the Department of Health failed to disclose conflicts of interest, did not keep records of entertainment and ignored legal advice when awarding a consultancy millions of dollars in a disastrous attempt to reform Meals on Wheels.

A senior executive dedicated to working with the disability community on reforms to the NDIS has resigned, and the government admits critical supports for those no longer eligible are not ready.

A leaked report of the KPMG-led restructure plan for UTS is based on a performance metric not permitted by labour contracts.

Just weeks before massive aged-care reforms are due to take effect, providers are still lobbying for changes to their oversight, and accommodation costs are already rising.

As the ANU slashes costs to address its purportedly dire finances, documents seen by The Saturday Paper reveal it is paying a consultancy $3 million for a confidential strategy focused on profit growth.

In its efforts to cut costs, the agency running the NDIS has taken an adversarial approach that has left participants exhausted and independent reviewers appalled.

The Bureau of Meteorology made plans to charge for access to critical climate data but shelved the plan following concerns from scientists.

Despite promises to end the Coalition’s Cashless Debit Card, Labor has rebranded the welfare payment system that is compulsory in some Indigenous communities.

Letters from the NSW government threatening disciplinary action against doctors striking for better pay and conditions have encouraged walkouts on an unprecedented scale.

Almost a decade after a royal commission recommended the government establish counselling services for child abuse survivors and others, a bungled tender process has failed to establish the helplines.

As Australia loses research funding following a Trump crackdown, academics believe the government has failed universities by rejecting multiple invitations to join Europe’s largest fund.

It’s business as usual in the university sector, where exorbitant executive pay, insecure jobs and exploitation of academic staff continue unabated.

The involvement of the public service in the aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred underscores the reality of the Coalition’s promise to cut 36,000 people from government departments.

Despite the findings of the robodebt royal commission, the government is yet to put a time limit on the pursuit of historic welfare debts.

The lessons Rick Morton was taught by his Year 11 and 12 modern history teacher stood him in good stead as a journalist seeking justice amid the intricacies of social policy and government bureaucracy. More than two decades later, he had a chance to return the favour.

The Department of Social Services provided legal correspondence to the Catholic Church that was then leaked to the Murdoch press and used in an attempt to silence victims.

The government was informed of a glitch that caused more than a thousand people to be cut off from welfare payments but ignored it for more than three years because halting it would harm private providers.

A consultancy is in receivership and a senior public servant has described himself as ‘not fit-for-duty’ after a series of troubled contracts was awarded to reform Meals on Wheels.

Tanya Plibersek has sought an ‘urgent briefing’ on the management of the Bureau of Meteorology after it was revealed it was using hundreds of millions of dollars in maintenance funds to cover cost overruns.

In an attempt to force the reallocation of NDIS costs, Anthony Albanese has halted funding negotiations for state hospitals – a move that could ‘bankrupt’ the system.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has shifted his campaign strategy to again involve the teal electorates, although moderates in the party say he is still using ‘the Trump playbook’.

Despite claims the government’s reform of the National Disability Insurance Scheme is focused on fraud, a third of the savings will come from pushing children off the scheme.

Following confidential briefings, disability advocates say hundreds of thousands of people will be underserved by new eligibility rules that are reminiscent of failed Coalition policy.

The Administrative Review Tribunal, which was intended to restore transparency and trust, has released none of the decisions from its first two months of operation, owing to technical problems.

The hunt for ‘anomalies’ in the JobSeeker compliance system will take months and the Department of Employment is unable to say if it is legal.

An error in the interpretation of welfare legislation has led to the unlawful cancellation of payments, as the department fails to manage its own compliance system.

As the National Anti-Corruption Commission continues to face criticism over its decision-making, new details have emerged about compliance issues and disclosures at the body.

We bring you Michael’s conversation from Canberra Writers’ Festival with Rick as they discuss Mean Streak.

Former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson’s appointment to review the NACC’s decision on robodebt was rescinded over concerns it might offend a Coalition minister who was referred for investigation.

An enormous escalation in ‘reassessments’ of eligibility for the NDIS has seen people who should be on the scheme incorrectly removed without explanation.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission’s first major decision has ended in a finding of official misconduct against the commission itself and a possible reopening of investigations into robodebt.

Evidence from the robodebt royal commission has opened the door for victims to pursue new compensation claims and the possibility of a ‘misfeasance in public office’ finding.

Only five people have been given access to the royal commission’s sealed section. One is the attorney-general, who is ‘giving consideration to questions relating to the release of the confidential chapter’.

A report by the Australian Public Service Commission has found a dozen public servants, including two departmental secretaries, breached the Public Service Code of Conduct in their handling of robodebt.

In a meeting with staff, the chief executive of the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the agency was dipping into future operational funds to pay for current projects.

Infighting has whittled the party to just two members, though Jacqui Lambie still wants to run candidates in the next federal election.

Disability advocates say the government’s reform of the National Disability Insurance Scheme has been rushed and creates more opportunity for mistreatment.

Giving evidence in Linda Reynolds’ defamation trial, Scott Morrison says he doesn’t remember the details of the review he commissioned into Brittany Higgins’s rape but says Reynolds suffered as a result of prolonged ‘attacks’.

A new aged-care bill gives explicit powers to place people under the age of 65 with disability into residential aged care, although the government claims the laws will improve the situation.

As one man tries to find work, he has been failed in multiple and complicating ways, with the government outsourcing his case to an employment services company owned out of Florida by a group of men who made their fortune in turbo ovens.

As the government struggles to pass its NDIS reforms, the scheme’s reviewer says he was briefed on focus group research before he completed his recommendations.

EXCLUSIVE: A system glitch has wrongly punished more than 1300 jobseekers by cutting off their income in an IT disaster that is a potent reminder of the dark days of robodebt.

In an interview with The Saturday Paper, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has called for the government to introduce new powers to sanction tech platforms.

The Bureau of Meteorology is facing internal dissent after it seconded forecasters from its overstretched aviation unit to provide contract services to mining companies.

Job cuts at the CSIRO will see the agency close two clinical research units and shelve a plan to establish a food research centre in Victoria.

The budget’s failure to deliver the funds recommended in a review two months earlier leaves community legal services with a massive shortfall and pleading with the attorney-general for assistance.

As the Bureau of Meteorology pulls back on its international obligations, increasing automation and a lack of experienced staff has made forecasts less reliable.

Cost-saving reforms to the NDIS will allow debts to be raised against disabled people and give extraordinary new powers to cancel support entirely.

Right-wing and libertarian lobby groups are expanding their funding and influence since the Voice to Parliament referendum, and the free speech union is the latest addition to a growing ecosystem.

The acting auditor-general is considering an investigation into contracts awarded to a private firm following complications over a tech upgrade for the Meals on Wheels service.

As Australia struggles with a surge in calls for help to domestic violence services, treatment programs for violent men are also struggling to meet demand.

Karen Webb was an unexpected pick for commissioner of the NSW Police Force. She came through a field defined by infighting, phone taps and complex power plays. Now she is at the forefront of the country’s response to domestic violence.

As media companies including News Corp prepare for more redundancies following the loss of payments from Facebook, the government fears the platform will leave Australia entirely.

Bruce Lehrmann’s rape of Brittany Higgins has dragged in dozens of people, almost all of them damaged by the scandal and its fallout.

Services Australia is failing to acquit its basic functions as it waits for a legal decision that could force it to wipe hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged debts.

The latest developments in the Bruce Lehrmann case are an expression of poisonous fallings out and the reckless tabloid culture in Sydney media.

The handling of an unfair dismissal case has again exposed concern about the running of the Bureau of Meteorology, which continues to fail its international obligations and miss other targets.

The teals’ gains were the Liberals’ losses in the last election – for the next one, the movement behind these successful independent campaigns is targeting vulnerable Nationals seats.

Following revelations in The Saturday Paper that Veterans’ Affairs shared personal medical records without consent with a university research project, the department has admitted to misleading the Information Commissioner about the extent of the breach.

The government’s welfare agency has been accused of ‘deliberately’ miscalculating payments, as it struggles to explain errors in aged-care refunds.

As the government launches another review of supermarkets’ conduct, the corporate watchdog is expected to announce its first full-scale supermarkets inquiry in 16 years.

The NDIS is on the brink of its biggest-ever restructure, and people in the disability community are concerned that the earliest reforms in a sweeping agenda may leave many who rely on the service unsupported.

A key Sydney hospital is on the precipice of insolvency, according to leaked internal memos, and will soon be unable to pay its staff.

The third week of evidence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten highlights the ugly collision of media and politics.

The unlawful use of robodebt-style income averaging to calculate welfare debts has been going on for decades and may require large-scale waivers, says the ombudsman in a scathing summary of Centrelink’s handling.

This week the defamation trial has revealed more of Bruce Lehrmann’s interactions with Brittany Higgins in the weeks before the alleged rape, and tensions between him and his former colleagues.

Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network Ten has been defined by an inability to recall key details and testimony that is contradicted by other evidence.

As minister Bill Shorten prepares to release the findings from a sweeping review of the NDIS, the head of its regulator faces allegations she was aware or should have been aware of abuse exposed by the media.

The attorney-general has ignored a ‘lynchpin’ recommendation of the robodebt royal commission, claiming it is not a recommendation at all.

The murder of a young woman at an elite private school, and the reaction from a former principal, has highlighted a broader culture of privilege in which young boys are protected from consequence or culpability.

A High Court victory for residents of a remote community who sued the Northern Territory government over the appalling condition of their rental properties has implications for renters with negligent landlords across the country.

A leaked review document shows the National Disability Insurance Agency used ‘legalistic brinkmanship’ to force disabled people to ‘bargain away their rights’.

A feature in the welfare system is allowing private businesses to suspend hundreds of thousands of welfare payments.

A decade of work for supporters of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament was struck down barely an hour after polls closed in the east of the country.

A census of staff morale provides an insight into the chaos engulfing the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, putting vulnerable people at risk.

As academics strike at multiple universities, so-called sector reforms have turned what were places of higher learning and research into corporatised money makers.

At the start of this campaign, the average ‘No’ voter was a man over 50. Since then, the ‘No’ vote has grown in almost every demographic – driven by distrust of the Voice and the belief that First Nations people don’t want it.

At the age of 92, Rupert Murdoch has finally stepped down as chair of News Corp. The ‘most dangerous man in the world’ has put his son in charge.

Services Australia staff say the agency is in chaos, blaming under-resourcing and poor decisions for ‘the worst culture, morale and treatment of employees ever seen’.

In an interview with The Saturday Paper, the ACCC chair details her plans to aggressively litigate major companies, with a particular focus on cost of living.

Following the resignation of Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, fresh details have emerged regarding his relationship with government.

As the national carrier faces increasing criticism of its conduct, a former minister likens the airline’s management to ‘terrorists’.

Briefing documents show employment providers are paying themselves more than $40 million a year to move welfare recipients through jobs and training within their own companies.

Staff at the aged-care regulator say complaints are being closed with copy-and-pasted findings, in some cases leading to preventable deaths.

More than 100,000 people have been affected by a second robo-debt-like scheme, which has run for two decades and could cost $1 billion to correct.

The controversial filling of a seven-figure-salary role at UNSW Sydney has been referred to the state’s anti-corruption body.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs has routinely shared confidential medical records with a cost-saving program.

Legal ramifications are sinking in for bureaucrats and former ministers after damning findings from the robo-debt royal commission.

The robo-debt royal commission has found the scheme was sustained by ‘venality, incompetence and cowardice’.

A billion-dollar private aged-care company is set to transition to a non-profit structure, while still charging rent to the charity for use of its facilities.

Staff have revealed internal divisions stemming from tensions between the CSIRO’s board and its departing chief executive, who put industry priorities ahead of science.

As Australia plans its inquiry into the pandemic response, there is still no evidence key recommendations to deploy the National COVID-19 Health Management Plan are in place, six months after its release.

As the NDIS regulator pushes to meet targets, its staff say they are pressuring disabled people to drop complaints and are missing serious abuse and neglect.

The agency that regulates the NDIS has engaged lawyers in an attempt to prevent being served with a complaint about its own dysfunctional workplace culture.

The death of Clare Nowland this week underscores the failings in aged-care policy and policing.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes has written to the attorney-general to ask that her findings be delivered after the National Anti-Corruption Commission is operational, so she can make direct referrals.

The end of Stuart Robert’s political career also marks the end of Bill Shorten’s campaign to push him out of parliament, leaving behind an incredible string of scandals.

Students will see their debt grow by almost $5 billion on June 1, in the largest inflation-related hike since the 1990s, as the government funding pool for tertiary places shrinks.

Peter Dutton claims his position on the Voice is informed by Indigenous communities, but the communities he names say they are being misquoted or that he refused to meet with them.

The agency responsible for advising the government on mental health is under investigation for alleged financial irregularities, dysfunction and workplace bullying.

In its last week of hearings, the robo-debt royal commission has found the moment when the scheme became an expression of unchecked political desire.

Former minister Stuart Robert says he wanted to end robo-debt but he had to support it because he was a cabinet minister. The evidence from senior public servants suggests the opposite.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

In the final hearings of the robo-debt royal commission, the net is tightening around the people responsible for the illegal scheme.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

As more terrible details emerge in the robo-debt royal commission, a case is being built of misfeasance in public office.

Fresh evidence to the royal commission shows how departments actively avoided legal precedents to keep robo-debt running for years.

Documents tendered in the robo-debt royal commission show how, as treasurer, Scott Morrison intended to use the punitive aspects of the illegal scheme to win more support from Pauline Hanson.

In the week before Scott Morrison gives evidence to the robo-debt royal commission, extraordinary details have emerged about how the public service shaped the ombudsman’s supposedly independent advice on the scheme.

Philip Lowe’s future as Reserve Bank governor looks in doubt – he’s short of allies as a major review looms, just months from a decision about his reappointment.

As senior staff at the National Disability Insurance Agency explain their role in establishing robo-debt, the agency is seeking to expand similar compliance programs targeting people with disability.

Insiders say hackers exploited a basic flaw in Medibank’s security. It’s part of a dramatic surge in attacks that’s forcing authorities to step up the hunt for cybercriminals offshore.

Fresh details have emerged about Scott Morrison’s first briefing on robo-debt, but notes that may reveal exactly what was said at the meeting have been destroyed.

Departmental and legal advice both showed the robo-debt scheme was unlawful – but once Scott Morrison had seen the proposal, he wouldn’t give up on it.

South Australia is hammering out what could be a model for preschool education nationally, with a royal commission headed by former prime minister Julia Gillard.

As the Bureau of Meteorology deals with cuts and delayed upgrades, it is breaching its international obligations for weather data.

Bureau of Meteorology staff have been hospitalised because of work conditions, as a loss of senior meteorologists means junior forecasters are trying to deal with natural disasters beyond their expertise.

A consulting firm responsible for a quarter of the aged-care sector has warned its providers to avoid high-needs patients or risk reducing ‘profitability’.

In a major speech to private welfare operators, Tony Burke has warned there is ‘flexibility’ in contracts signed by the Coalition to establish the current welfare system.

A standardised test for graduating teachers, informed by management consultancy firm McKinsey, is contributing to the crisis in schools.

Hospital developments are being announced across NSW, but the government has refused requests from its own department to adequately fund new medical staffing.

An inquiry has found alleged triad-linked junket operators were running a de facto casino at The Star, and the casino routinely misled regulators.

The 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II has ended with her death at Balmoral Castle.

In 2008 Labor pledged to halve homelessness, instead it exploded in a decade of Coalition leadership. Now a new national agreement must tackle a ‘vicious spiral’ of unaffordable housing and poverty.

The latest changes to Covid-19 rules – shortening isolation periods and removing some mask mandates – were made without any written advice and no modelling was provided to national cabinet.

The national hospitals crisis is pushing patients into ever-more desperate circumstances, and healthcare workers are demanding that the federal government act.

New revelations in the John Barilaro trade saga show how firing the woman first offered the New York role prevented her from accessing state whistleblower protections.

After a week of extraordinary testimony, former deputy premier John Barilaro argues he is the ‘unluckiest’ man in New South Wales.

Disabled students in public schools are missing out on $600 million a year, because of onerous and unfair funding arrangements.

The Labor government has left in place ‘mutual obligations’, as new tender documents show the punitive system channels billions of dollars into private companies.

Leaked documents show the Liberal Party cut more than half the national history curriculum to fit its ideology. Now Peter Dutton is using attacks on education to rebuild his base.

New research shows the latest Omicron strains are more able to infect people who have been vaccinated, and multiple infections can cause future serious illness.

Kate, 17, was taken to hospital for surgery to improve her life. It has led to a months-long battle with the hospital and the NDIS for a dramatically increased support plan.

As Qantas drops to become the worst performing airline in the country, staff and unions say years of outsourcing have turned it into a budget carrier.

As Labor ministers take up their portfolios, the party has uncovered a mess of unmade decisions and funding holes across Arts, Energy and the NDIS.

Threatened cuts to key support positions and research have sparked unprecedented protests at the University of Sydney and elsewhere and jeopardised the top-tier status that draws students.

Interviews with more than a dozen senior Liberals show how Scott Morrison’s belief in his own ‘genius’ and self-image as a ‘master strategist’ cost the party government.

The disability royal commission this week heard powerful testimony about a neglectful and mercenary approach to care at one of Australia’s longest-serving providers.

As the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case continues, his four star witnesses face their own difficulties in and out of the witness box.

The Coalition’s relationship with News Corp and its hostility towards the national broadcaster are influencing more than just the televised leaders’ debates.

As speculation mounts that Clive Palmer will seek a preference deal w ith the Coalition, his advertising spending in some markets is more than 200 times that of his rivals.

With founder Brian Houston resigning from Hillsong amid scandal and allegations, and his wife, Bobbie, being pushed out, the global megachurch is now facing its own day of reckoning.

In the days before the caretaker period, the Morrison government has made 19 appointments to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, many of whom have links to the Liberal Party.

As further floods tear through southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, communities are exhausted, devastated and searching for answers.

Tender documents show the government is tweaking the National Disability Insurance Scheme to exclude thousands of children with disabilities such as autism.

As blame-shifting continues over the slow response to the floods in northern NSW, Scott Morrison has gone quiet on a support package agreed to with the state’s premier.

As extraordinary stories emerge of the rescue efforts in northern New South Wales, with hundreds of people saved, residents describe being completely abandoned by the federal government.

Leaked documents show the NSW government’s plan to sell the Waterloo Estate to developers will deliver less than half the public housing stock initially deemed possible.

Secret documents show Dominic Perrottet’s office gave millions to a private project in the seat of a National Party defector, against advice and without the relevant department’s involvement.

The crisis in mental-health care has been exacerbated by a breakdown in the college responsible for accrediting new psychiatrists, pushing waitlists to as long as a year.

Behind the numbers of elderly people who have died of Covid-19, and the glib dismissal of them by politicians, are stories of rich lives ended in often terrible loneliness.

The hotline at the centre of the government’s new Covid-19 strategy is staffed by casual workers with almost no training, employed by the company behind robo-debt.

In October, the government made a new plan for hospitals – but it was never updated and one of the key drugs it was based on still hasn’t arrived.

A deal that allowed private pathology labs to claim government rebates up to 20 times for one procedure has contributed to the startling collapse of the testing system.

Covid-19 focused the world’s scientists and politicians like never before. The breakthroughs made to manage it could now lead to vaccines against HIV and even cancer.

In many ways the world was cruel to Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó, until she saved it.

For some young people, finishing school in a global pandemic was made more difficult by the compounding effects of disadvantage.

New details have emerged regarding the spread of Omicron to Europe, but it is still not clear how significant the Covid-19 strain will be.

Eight months after receiving the final report from the aged care royal commission, the Morrison government is spending millions of dollars on management consultancies rather than implementing key recommendations.

The agency tasked with oversight of Medicare billing is accused of ‘terrorising’ doctors as it recoups tens of millions in payments.

The shifting of liabilities between shell companies has left thousands of women harmed by transvaginal mesh implants with no one to sue for proper compensation.

As an honours student studying philosophy at Melbourne University, having just missed out on a Rhodes Scholarship, Warumungu man Ethan Taylor is interested in the production of knowledge and justice.

As the eastern states emerge from lockdowns, the pandemic isn’t over, it’s just changing shape.

Leaked documents show Covid-19 infections among Indigenous people are almost double the national average.

Since the Coalition came to power, outsourcing of policy work to management consultants has surged – to the point where the public service scarcely has the expertise to function.

Following the surprise resignation of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, four men are jockeying for the job.

A rush of government tenders to outsource Covid-19 responses shows who is most at risk as lockdowns end. The 20 per cent who will not be fully vaccinated when states begin to open are not anti-vaxxers but rather the most vulnerable.

As contact tracing collapses in NSW, differences are opening up in the key health modelling commissioned by government.

The ambulance service used to reach its ‘status three’ crisis band once a decade. It has hit it several times in the past few weeks alone.

As overwhelmed hospital staff prepare to triage patients based on age, a new briefing to national cabinet says the strain on the health system will last well into next year.

Victoria and NSW are at a crisis point, with Covid-19 hospitalisations being underreported and cascading impacts on ambulance services and medical staffing.

Analysis prepared for national cabinet shows that although states have built up surge capacity for ventilators during the pandemic, they do not have the medical staff to operate them.

A leaked document shows that national cabinet has shifted its focus from vaccinations to working out how well hospitals will cope with Covid-19 surges.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is cutting services without consultation, leaving those with disabilities in a continued fight for funding, while fraudulent providers face little scrutiny.

As Scott Morrison leans on ‘optimal’ vaccine modelling, the epidemiologists he commissioned say they can’t predict a return to normal.

The divisions and tensions inside national cabinet mirror the political forces that are gaining strength within the anti-lockdown movement.

Dr Kerry Chant is on the front line in the fight against Covid-19. She is described by colleagues as someone who abhors small talk and will give advice regardless of the impact on her career.

Australia’s vaccine rollout has been a series of decisions and sliding doors moments, all connected to one original failure.

A time line of the science behind the Covid-19 vaccines shows how close Australia came to its own breakthroughs, and how it backed the wrong candidates.

On Monday, chief health officers urged Scott Morrison to drop the AstraZeneca vaccine entirely. Instead, he broadened its usage.

As the government sets new ‘horizons’ for the vaccine rollout, questions are being asked about how decisions regarding supply were initially made.

The arrest of a Friendlyjordies producer on an intimidation charge is the latest strange turn in the life of the Labor-aligned YouTube star.

Looming changes to Medicare rebates have brought howls of protest and the potential for another ‘Mediscare’ campaign by Labor. But, experts say, the real problem is the rise of private health and the slow drift to a US-style system.

At the same time as the government was failing to deliver vaccines to aged-care homes, it scrapped the support payment designed to stop staff working at multiple sites – a key source of transmission.

The federal government has taken unprecedented control of Covid-19 vaccinations, but the rollout has been mired in politics, faulty numbers and unawarded tenders.

As yet another funding fight looms for the national broadcaster, the government has appointed three new members to the ABC board.

Refugees who have waited for years to have their cases for asylum heard are now being rushed through a new system that critics say erodes due process.

While the government works to reform the disability insurance agency and restart welfare debt collections, management consultancy McKinsey has amassed significant influence.

As the pandemic rages overseas, scores of major film and TV projects are moving production to Australia. But will this gold rush bring any lasting benefits to the local industry?

The struggling university sector will get no help from the Victorian government to set up quarantine facilities for international students, while similar plans in other states have also stalled.

A comprehensive study of more than 230,000 people by Oxford University researchers has linked neurological disorders, such as stroke and dementia, to Covid-19.

A secret taskforce set up to cut costs and reduce access to the NDIS is the tip of the iceberg in a suite of plans to dramatically reshape the scheme.

The National Disability Insurance Scheme is looking to limit new applicants and the amount allocated to existing users to control a cost blowout.

As the government pushes for major changes to the NDIS, The Saturday Paper can reveal key figures in the scheme’s fraud and compliance division were also involved in the robo-debt fiasco.

State and territory disability ministers have been sidelined from plans to strip back the NDIS. The legislation will hand the federal minister ‘God powers’ over the scheme.

Asylum seekers are being denied access to Covid-19 tests, Medicare and even schooling because of both deliberate and unintentional flaws in the visa system.

A win for the government in its push to deny people on the National Disability Insurance Scheme access to sex worker supports may hand the Commonwealth even greater power to control the scheme.

For years, the rise of the Bundaberg farmer’s son turned London banker seemed unstoppable. Then things started to fall apart.

Media commentators were quick to attack mention of a widely read self-help book in the dossier of Christian Porter's accuser. But the science of trauma is complicated, and we lack the nuance needed to understand it or its treatments.

After two-and-a-half years, the report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has landed. Its findings are clear: without a major overhaul and more resources, our elderly will continue to receive substandard care.

More than two years after it was first established, the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has called for systemic overhaul of an underfunded and under-regulated sector.

The AFP is investigating a report referred by Justice Patricia Bergin in the wake of her explosive inquiry into Crown Casino, as ASIC begins looking into the company’s current and former board appointees.

Afterpay produced Australia’s youngest self-made billionaire. The company is yet to report a profit, but has ambitious plans to grow overseas and outrun regulators here.

The government claims it thought debts raised by its robo-debt scheme were legal. But experts now point to two cases that went before the High Court and clearly highlighted the program’s risks.

The Family Court system has been struggling for years, yet a decision to merge it with the Federal Circuit Court has provoked both concern and support from stakeholders across the spectrum.

James Packer’s Crown Casino has been found unfit to hold a licence in NSW, following an 18-month inquiry. The findings call into question Crown casinos around Australia and have other state governments scrambling.

The NDIS minister is pushing for states and territories to agree on a ban on sex therapy under the insurance scheme. Disability advocates fear Stuart Robert’s plans to increase federal control are a cost-cutting exercise at heart.

As the face of the Coalition’s push to reshape super, Tim Wilson sees the early access to accounts offered during the pandemic as a blueprint for a more fundamental change to the system.

As the prime minister tries to calm concerns about tensions with China, Kevin Rudd says the idea Morrison is taking a consultative approach is ‘nonsense’.

As the realities of Australia’s vaccine choices set in, tensions are rising with the states and territories over the program’s rollout.

As a senate inquiry launches a scathing critique of the legislative failures that led to the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves, traditional owners in the Northern Territory are fighting a fracking project that threatens water sources and sacred sites.

With the NDIA appearing intent on downgrading funding for supported independent living, the lives of those relying on the scheme are being put at risk.

After years of careful manoeuvring, the Coalition government is readying to make radical changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme. The revised system will force new assessments and tighten eligibility.

After Victoria was ravaged by a second wave of Covid-19, Premier Daniel Andrews has targeted his state’s budget to address the crisis’s key drivers: insecure work and aged care.

A landmark Productivity Commission report into mental illness provides a road map to reduce harm, but it chafes against deep-seated government ideology.

This week, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced it had produced an effective vaccine for Covid-19. It is one of four vaccines to which Australia has now secured access.

As the NSW parliament debates amendments to family violence legislation, new research shows that some victim-survivors are being charged as offenders instead, while children are not being protected by apprehended violence orders.

As the US election looms, a shadow campaign is running to suppress votes, with Trump Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh using a disgraced argument he first tried as an adviser to George W. Bush.

Among all the hardships of Melbourne’s lengthy Covid-19 lockdown, not being able to get a haircut has been rated by many as one of the most psychologically taxing. With salons now reopened, a palpable sense of purpose and identity is returning to the city.

The mail carrier’s chief executive has been asked to stand aside after revelations of luxury watches gifted to executives, but the company is facing much deeper crises.

Without warning, the government has removed all support from hundreds of refugees in community detention – denying them housing and income support.

This year’s budget provides little support for those in greatest need, including the aged-care sector and people who are unemployed – with women over 40 bearing the heaviest burden.

Jacqui Lambie has made clear she will vote against the Coalition’s controversial higher education reforms, but the government appears to be angling for Centre Alliance’s vote.

New analysis reveals the government intends to cut billions of dollars from university research, while reannouncing funds from elsewhere in the budget.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted two decades of aged-care mismanagement, but at the heart of the sector is a pyramid scheme that exposes the taxpayer to billions in liability.

As the royal commission prepares findings that will likely recommend a return to an earlier system of aged care, the crisis in the sector can be linked to Howard-era reforms that stoked greed and lowered care standards, and have been worsened by successive governments.

Government policies have seen the ‘unemployment industry’ paid millions during the pandemic, while jobless rates soar.

As the coronavirus crisis in aged care worsens, the federal government is withholding key information and denying it is responsible for surge staff in nursing homes.

As the world doubts Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine announcement, there have been promising developments in trials from China and Britain.

Two months ago the government set its response for Covid-19 outbreaks in aged care – controversially, it was ‘about keeping the hospitals for the young’.

The Andrews government cannot identify any legislation it needed to override, but experts say that is the point.

New research shows coronavirus may have lasting impacts on cognitive ability.

A third of Covid-19 deaths in Australia so far have occurred in aged-care homes. An investigation finds an underfunded and underprepared sector.

Australia almost beat the first strain of coronavirus. New research shows that later strains, which had spread through Europe and America, slipped out through hotel quarantine.

A scan might have found the cancer now killing Daniel van Roo. Instead his doctor gave him 50 STI tests, which van Roo believes was because he is gay.

Of the thousands of young people with disabilities living in aged-care facilities, only a few hundred have been moved into the community since the NDIS rollout began in 2013.

Last week’s shock departure of the editor of The Age was sparked by discontent among staff over editorial direction and leadership. But it seems the warning shots claimed an unintended victim.

As the ABC announces massive job cuts, the Morrison government has commissioned a report that mirrors Murdoch concerns about the broadcaster.

As the National Disability Insurance Agency awaits the findings of research it has commissioned into autism support and treatment, members of the autism community are concerned the report may never be made public.

While Josh Frydenberg personally consulted the Merivale CEO about JobKeeper’s design, court documents detail the huge underpayment suit his pub empire is facing.

Victoria’s participation in China’s $US1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative has attracted widespread criticism and created conflict between the state and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

A Queensland town’s decades-long legal fight against being subsumed by a coalmine could end next week as the case reaches the High Court of Australia. But not before a final turn of the screws.

An Uber-like app that matches aged-care facilities with casual workers has won a government contract despite questions over what it provides.

Coronavirus has invigorated conspiracy theorists and brought together disparate groups, many of them flourishing as social media platforms stand down moderators.

With the aged-care watchdog looking into the Covid-19 cluster that has claimed 16 lives at Newmarch House in Sydney’s west, systemic flaws are being exposed. But what comfort is that to the distressed families of residents?

Many are still waiting to rebuild their homes that were destroyed during the Black Summer, but experts have told the bushfire royal commission and parliamentary inquiry that the climate crisis will leave more people vulnerable to disaster.

Covid-19 has opened up new disparities between students, as some states consider narrowing the scope of final-year exams in response.

While rumours swirl over how the North West Regional and Private hospitals became the epicentre of Tasmania’s Covid-19 battle, evidence has emerged of a severe shortage of personal protective equipment and encouragement of dubious practices throughout the state.

While the High Court this week quashed the cardinal’s conviction for child sexual abuse, there remain several fronts on which the legal battle may continue.

With the nation in near lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, family violence is on the rise, with many victims now unable to access the help and services they need.

While one Queensland laboratory readies a Covid-19 vaccine for human trials, Howard-era public servant Jane Halton is co-ordinating the global response.

In a world currently also contaminated with false information surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, the experts are here to unravel the truth.

The High Court decision on the fate of convicted cardinal George Pell may be delivered as early as next week.

“The truth, in Scott Morrison’s world, is like light. With the right forces, it can be fractured or bent out of shape. Sometimes it changes of its own accord, as the sun charts a course across the sky. As Immigration minister, he invented the notion …”

As Julian Assange’s fight against extradition to the United States finally came to court this week, allegations arose that he was bugged at the Ecuadorian embassy.

Experts in the aged-care sector warn that the government may reduce waiting lists for home-care programs by restricting their eligibility requirements, leaving thousands of older Australians in need.

For nearly a decade, Payam Saadat has fought for compensation over the trauma he endured in immigration detention. More than 60 other cases rely on the result of his trial.

Liberal insiders say Isaac Wakil was never present in high-end donor circles. So what prompted the reclusive 92-year-old to donate $4.1 million to the Liberal Party?

As the impact of the deadly coronavirus grows exponentially, health authorities are scrambling to contain the number of infections, while University of Queensland researchers are working day and night on a potential vaccine.

As the Australian Red Cross faces criticisms over its bushfire efforts, current and former employees question the broad scope of its fundraising appeal.

Australia is on fire and the volunteers on the front line are sounding an alarm. Lacking vital resources, they are exhausted and quickly draining their annual leave. And the season has no end in sight.

While Brian Houston celebrates Hillsong’s new multimillion-dollar church in New York, a victim of his father’s sexual abuse crowdfunds to pay for cancer treatment.

As the ACCC inquires into the data use of digital platforms, the government is caught in a faceoff between News Corp and the tech giants.

As Andrew Bolt attempts to start a culture war over Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu, a search of primary documents affirms the book’s accuracy.

A band of strange political bedfellows have united for a common cause – to fight for the return of Julian Assange to Australia.

Despite an early promise by the Morrison government to deliver better outcomes for Indigenous Australians, they remain no closer to being recognised in the constitution.

A wide-ranging review of Australian mental health has pointed to the welfare system, particularly the troubled jobactive program, as a key driver in the crisis.

While the aged-care royal commission’s interim report highlights the need for reform, experts warn the government’s plans to outsource health assessments may only add to the crisis.

A report that recommends turning forested areas of central west Victoria into national parks has been met with silence by the Andrews government, prompting fears of a return to logging.

While aiming to reduce sedative use in aged-care facilities, new government regulations may have the opposite effect, putting elderly residents at risk of dangerous – and potentially fatal – side effects.

New figures reveal the human toll of a five-year NDIS funding fight, with hundreds of families pushed to relinquish their children into state care.

Funding cuts made when Scott Morrison was treasurer have left parts of the aged-care sector on the brink of insolvency, propped up by a government bailout.

While Scott Morrison toured Trump’s America, the world’s top climate scientists fought it out over their latest warning of the coming disaster.

As a royal commission begins on the disability sector, correspondence reveals NDIA chair Helen Nugent has used an email account owned by Macquarie Bank to direct the $22 billion agency.

With an expansion of the welfare crackdown signalled this week in parliament, experts warn the government’s measures will lead to collateral damage.

In a major speech this week, the prime minister warned the public service that it is losing the trust of middle Australia. But data suggests the ‘quiet Australians’ are losing faith with their politicians.

A world-first study by Victorian academics shows inflammatory media reports – on race and Safe Schools – acted as a dog whistle to extremists seeking ‘permission’.