Former prime minister Tony Abbott says he is considering writing a sequel to his 2009 book Battlelines, which his publisher says would make the case for the Liberal Party to return to its conservative roots.

New Labor MP Emma Husar has opened up about her personal experience of domestic violence in a speech to Parliament that left her colleagues in tears.

Great courage shown by MP Emma Husar as she recounts her own experiences of domestic violence on white ribbon day.

We don't want to get into any kind of health shaming here. In truth, Barnaby Joyce looks like an Olympic athlete compared with some of his colleagues in the Nationals.
Still, on those days he's gone for a run or played touch footy, he looks to be a bucket of fries away from a cholesterol attack, which makes any advice he might have on public health to be a matter to be taken seriously. The man's a living miracle.

EXCLUSIVE: The Turnbull government has threatened to sue a retiree who established a little-visited website that campaigns against cuts to Medicare, accusing him of unauthorised use of the healthcare system's green and yellow logo.

"Take responsibility for yourself; the Australian Taxation Office is not going to save you," says Barnaby Joyce. "The ATO is not a better solution than jumping in the pool and going for a swim."

Cartoon of the Day: Alan Moir with The Strange Tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. More political cartoons here http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/cartoons

Soft drinks should be taxed in the same way as cigarettes and leaded petrol to boost the budget by $520 million per year and tackle Australia's obesity epidemic, according to a new report.

In a further sign of the deteriorating relationship between the two One Nation senators, Pauline Hanson and Rod Culleton cannot even agree on who failed to show up to last night's rendezvous.

BREAKING: Embattled One Nation senator Rod Culleton has been referred to Queensland police amid allegations he may have attempted to pervert the course of justice or even threatened a judicial officer.

EXCLUSIVE: Australia faces a "social time bomb" over the failure to process and integrate around 30,000 asylum seekers who are in the community on bridging visas after arriving by boat during the term of the former Labor government.

Australian whistleblowers could be paid a lavish "bounty" for exposing wrongdoing in companies, government departments and charities under reforms to be introduced to Parliament next year by the Turnbull government.

The government has agreed to introduce stronger whistleblower protections for both the public and private sector workers in a deal with Senate crossbenchers to secure support for one of its double dissolution trigger bills.

Some say the changes would give Australia some of the best whistleblower laws in the world.

"A lot of people are not here today - they're in cemeteries," said senator Rod Culleton, mounting his latest demand for a royal commission into the treatment by banks of farmers and rural business people.

A gaunt fellow with his pants tucked into high boots was there, however, all but back from the dead.

His name is Brett Fallon, who once owned a string of cane and beef properties in Queensland and who poured petrol over himself and walked into his open cooking fire in 2013 after a bank came and took it all away.