Mal Brough's mere presence as Special Minister of State is dragging down the Government. If the Prime Minister stands by him, he will have a lame duck - indeed, a next to useless minister - on his hands, writes Barrie Cassidy.

When it comes to action on climate change, the Government has permitted "big business" to take out public insurance against democracy, says Kellie Tranter.

Ian Macfarlane has revealed that within one week of being dumped from the Turnbull frontbench, he began looking to the Nationals for a way back in.

There is new force in Christendom. The unquestionable art of promoting the concept that trying to stop pollution is actually creating global warming. It's a new religiousdom theory tagging along with the older science of planetary geo-engineering. It's only a small weeny force yet, but, as the index of pollution goes up,  I am sure it will take, as it should, a momentum like the Christian crusades of the late 11th century AD... Apotheosis, here we come — as well as Asbestosis on the side, but it's a small price to pay to save the planet.

Fox Television has been cut to the bone by accusations the network cheated stars out of millions. 

The whistleblower who exposed wrongdoing at HSBC’s Swiss private bank has been sentenced to five years in prison by a Swiss court.

The "nice" atheists are out in force trying to prove to themselves, mostly, that Dawkins and Harris are pushing the atheist barrow too much too far too fast too nasty. Some, like Jeff sparrow, even will say that:

An Open Letter to the Prime Minister, the Honourable Malcolm Turnbull

Dear Prime Minister,

In the last four decades Australian writing has grown into a major force, popular with readers in Australia in its many forms — children's books, young adult fiction, thrillers, romance, fiction and non fiction — and acclaimed internationally.

It's quite dizzying trying to understand both sides of the argument. The Turks supposed to have warned the Russian plane of an incursion into their Turkish Airspace. The Russians claim they never received such warming.

When looking at the map of the supposed incident, in which a Turkish plane shot down a Russian plane, one would have to admit that even if the Russian plane had gone through Turkish airspace, it would have taken the Russian Plane less than 30 seconds to cross the sliver indicated by the Turks. There would have been very little time for any communication of value. By the time the Russian pilots could reply, they were shot down.