Backbencher Andrew Hastie's recent opinion piece has caused ructions within the government, but Scott Morrison needs to articulate a clear policy on China that also allows for dissenting voices.
The government needs to be extremely wary of getting suckered into a militarised China containment policy that would further exacerbate regional tensions.
With the experience of hastily joining the US-lead invasion of Iraq in 2003 still fresh, the federal government must ensure it has a clear view of the limits of any new commitment.
The wisest course from here would seem to be reopening discussions with Tehran about Gulf security and an American-imposed sanctions regime. But this will be easier said than done.
How a man whose shambolic personal life goes beyond tabloid fodder is about to hold the same office as Churchill, Wilson and Thatcher is little short of astonishing.
Liberal senator James Paterson’s claim that a Religious Discrimination Act is needed because people like Israel Folau “feel like they are being crowded out of the public square’’ is at best dubious, and at worst scaremongering.
