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Robert Menzies

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Major-General Jason Blain, the most senior Australian Defence Force officer in Melbourne, stands in the Cabinet War Room at Victoria Barracks.

The smoke-filled room where anxious men directed their nation at war

The War Cabinet Room at Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, was the heart of Australia’s defence administration during World War II.

  • Tony Wright

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Forgotten and ignored and, worse, reviled by their own tribe: Liberal leaders Malcolm Turnbull and Malcolm Fraser.

Liberals ignore, despise and knife their leaders – and drive their party over a cliff

Unlike the Labor Party, which mythologises even its pedestrian leaders, the Liberal Party celebrates only Menzies and Howard.

  • George Brandis
Sussan Ley arriving at Wednesday’s party room meeting.

Weak Liberal Party ‘moderates’ as shameless as internal net zero opponents

Any moderate with a shred of self-respect would step off the frontbench in protest at what has unfolded.

  • The Herald's View
A portrait of John Laws taken on the July 10, 2008

John Laws scores our PMs out of 10

There was no more familiar voice in Australian broadcasting than John Laws. At 90, he had lost none of his characteristic alpha male belligerence.

  • Peter FitzSimons
Mr and Mrs Harold Holt skiing at Thredbo Alpine Village on 13 June 1960.

What happened to Harold Holt? A new novel puts his widow in the spotlight

A page-turning new book covers the fabulous, forgotten life of Zara Holt and the disappearance of Australia’s playboy prime minister.

  • Nick Dent
Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley and her deputy, Ted O’Brien.

Sussan Ley can learn from the best, and worst, Liberal leaders

Successful political parties have a vision of what they stand for. The Liberals need that – and more.

  • George Brandis
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John Howard says the Liberal Party must be a broad church. Does Peter Dutton agree?

Is Peter Dutton a shape-shifting pragmatist or a true conservative?

  • Jacqueline Maley
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

This referendum folly is as mad an idea as I have heard in years. Dutton must rule it out

The last thing Australians want is the distraction of yet another ideologically inspired constitutional referendum.

  • George Brandis
Illustration: Simon Letch

Let’s rethink The Lucky Country. Australia’s fortune was never dumb luck

Donald Horne’s seminal book cast Australia as a mediocre country run by second-rate people. The truth is its brand of democracy has often led the world.

  • Nick Bryant
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‘Lifters, not leaners’: Analysing 123 years of Australia’s budget speeches

We’ve used artificial intelligence to analyse one million words from 124 budget speeches from 40 treasurers since 1901. Here’s what we found.

  • Shane Wright, Matt Malishev and The Visual Stories Team