Big Tobacco is using the booming illicit market to relentlessly lobby government to undermine public health policies, writes Professor Christina Watts.

As long as billionaires dress down and speak rough, they can speak with a loud hailer and burn money to inflate their interests, writes Professor Graeme Orr…

The amount of proper research into the effect of political donations in Australia is "close to zero", as the nation prepares to implement the biggest reforms in decades, writes Professor Gabriele Gratton.

The National Party has claimed the “major party model” is “broken” and is being “replaced” — raising speculation it is preparing to merge with Gina Rinehart’s One Nation.

Media has been barred from a “public” event featuring National Party Senate leader Bridget McKenzie hosted by far-right lobby group Advance.

Members of the secretive Exclusive Brethren sect were highly active at remote, Indigenous polling booths in the Northern Territory at the last federal election, an inquiry has heard.

Bogus social media “news” pages aggressively spreading Pauline Hanson propaganda are lavishing praise on her multi-billionaire bankroller Gina Rinehart.

Australians are less engaged in their communities, lonelier, unhappier and less satisfied with life – but there is cause for hope, writes Dr James O’Donnell.

Many feel governments aren’t holding up their end of the deal, corroding support for democracy, writes Mario Peucker.

To understand the surge of the far-right, look at nationalism, authoritarianism and populism — and how much they already exist in Australia, says Dr Ibolya Losoncz.

News sources are increasingly fragmented — yet the gatekeepers are more concentrated. This presents a growing problem for democracies, writes Daniel Angus.

The question is not whether migration is “good” or “bad” — it’s how it’s managed, writes Professor Alan Gamlen.