Tim Freedman explains the delicate balance between a band and an orchestra when they share a stage.

The Coalition is poised for a fresh debate over immigration, flagging deportations of unlawful migrants, and an Australian values test. It's an issue that’s emboldened right wing populists and brought violence to the streets of western democracies like Britain, the US and Europe. How can Australia have this debate without importing the divisions? 

With its climate change policy settled, the Opposition is turning attention to immigration. 

Dozens of Australian families have been left homeless after bushfires took hold this weekend in communities and towns across three states. But some homes survived the inferno, so how do we design and build for a fiery future?

America’s latest national security strategy has landed with a thud in world affairs. According to it, Europe is in civilisational decline, China can be managed economically, and immigration is America's major security threat. So where does this all leave Australia - for so long, the deputy sheriff to Washington in our region? 

After last week’s pit stop pandemonium can Australian Oscar Piastri is still in with a chance to claim the Formula 1 championship. But questions are being asked about team McClaren's strategy and priorities heading into the final flag. 

Australia's chief justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court, Will Alstergren has taken the unusual step of publicly convening a forum of male leaders across business, sport, government and the arts, urging them to step up and speak out against surging rates of violence against women and children. 

The anger is growing at pace with the death toll in Hong Kong after fire tore through seven apartment blocks last week. As more details emerge - of the defective building materials that fuelled the inferno and the alarms that were deactivated, there’s also signs Beijing is intent on extinguishing dissent in this grieving community.    

“It’s a beautiful day for fishing”, that was the final message sent by Colombian man Alejandro Carranza Medina to his family, just hours before he was killed in a US strike near Venezuela. America insists he was smuggling drugs, but his family is demanding compensation. 

He once boasted he would stuff cocaine right up the noses of the gringos, but the former Honduran president convicted and sentenced to 45 years for drug trafficking could soon walk out of his Manhattan jail cell with a pardon from Donald Trump. The same US President who’s currently pursuing Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro over his alleged involvement in drug trafficking. The decision has shocked the investigators and prosecutors who worked for years to build their case against Hernandez.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has formally asked for a pardon from President Isaac Herzog relating to corruption charges against him. The Prime Minister insists he’s innocent and that the long running trial is is preventing him from governing properly and tearing at Israel's social cohesion.