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Brett Worthington
Canberra, ACT
Brett is the federal political correspondent with ABC News Digital. He started his career in newspapers before joining the ABC as a rural reporter. Brett presented the South Australian Country Hour and was the ABC's Parliament House national rural reporter. His claims to fame are growing a backyard wheat crop as the western Victorian rural reporter and later baking scones with the CWA live on the radio.
Latest by Brett Worthington
Analysis
analysis:The 14 words that caused Clare O'Neil a whole lot of pain
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
It took just 14 words from Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil for ears to prick up. Innocuous to many, they were shocking to those in the know and again left Labor having to correct the record, writes Brett Worthington.
Government defends Anthony Albanese for not raising Chinese warship incident with Xi Jinping
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
The government has confirmed it was left to Defence Minister Richard Marles to raise concerns with Chinese officials after Australian Navy personnel were injured in an incident with a Chinese warship, despite Anthony Albanese speaking with Xi Jinping days after the incident.
'This is not over': Government facing the prospect of more people being released from immigration detention
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
The federal government expects it will have to do more to overhaul Australia's immigration detention system after a High Court ruling prompted the release of 93 people, including murderers and sex offenders, from immigration detention.
Updated
Analysis
analysis:Political players appear to be at war with their former selves
By Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington
The political week started with brisk assurances from the government of quiet competence, but went to custard quickly with the news that several sexual offenders had been released from immigration detention, writes Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington.
Analysis
analysis:In just 16 minutes, the High Court made a decision that put Albanese in a tight spot
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
With the Coalition on his right and a High Court ruling and the Greens on his left, Anthony Albanese finds himself in a fraught political position that could prove catastrophic to his government, writes Brett Worthington.
Updated
Analysis
analysis:Albanese got a jump start on the world stage thanks to his predecessor
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
When he gets off the plane in China, not being Scott Morrison will help Anthony Albanese, but it only goes so far in stabilising relations in the long term, writes Brett Worthington.
Updated
Analysis
analysis:With Albanese in the US, Israel-Gaza conflict is shining a light on the differences between his deputies
With the prime minister out of the country this week, clear differences emerged between the acting PM and the foreign minister, who diverged somewhat on the Israel-Hamas conflict, writes Brett Worthington.
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Analysis
analysis:Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is one of the big winners from the referendum — but can she dodge the awkward questions?
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was arguably one of the biggest winners from the referendum on a Voice to Parliament, but she faces an awkward truth back home, writes Brett Worthington.
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Analysis
analysis:Albanese will have questions to answer over the Voice, but the result also raises concerns for the opposition
This referendum will likely have hundreds, if not thousands, of untold stories about the toll it has taken on First Nations people. There's no denying it will have political implications, too, writes Brett Worthington.
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'Not the end of the road': PM accepts referendum result, maps path forward for Indigenous recognition
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
Anthony Albanese vows to forge a new way forward to close the gap in life outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, after voters resoundingly reject a Voice to Parliament.
PM says Australia must do better for first peoples as Voice referendum voted down
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
Australians have rejected recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the nation's first people in the constitution through the establishment of a Voice to Parliament advisory body.
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PM rules out legislating Voice if referendum fails
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
Anthony Albanese says the government will "respect the outcome of the referendum" if the Voice vote fails next weekend.
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Analysis
analysis:'Very angry': Two scenes this week show what it’s like to be a woman in public life
For decades, being a woman in the public eye has made you fodder for sexist attacks. There are some that take great delight in coming for women who dare lift their head about the parapet, writes Brett Worthington.
Updated
Analysis
analysis:'How long does it take to paint a plane?': The innocuous question to Qantas bosses that kicked off a grilling
It's gone unexamined how ministers likely don't need to be officially lobbied by Qantas to be making decisions in Qantas's interest. An unconscious bias for the former national carrier has long dominated Australian politics, writes Brett Worthington.
Infamously compared to a cockroach, former political powerbroker Mike Pezzullo is suddenly looking mortal
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
He's wielded unrivalled power for decades. A one-time Labor staffer turned senior bureaucrat who lobbied for hardline border policies, Michael Pezzullo has won favour and hatred in equal measures from politicians across the ideological spectrum.
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'Humiliating personally and professionally': Bridget McKenzie opens up about losing her dream job
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
One of the Coalition's most senior politicians says the way her government treated former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate was a defining moment for when women turned away from the Liberal-National government.
Analysis
analysis:Politicians may bemoan Murdoch's power but still they line up to kiss the ring
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
It's a well-worn path for Australian prime ministers to meet with the world's most powerful person while in the United States. They also usually meet with the US president, writes Brett Worthington.
Updated
Analysis
analysis:It's been an eventful week in politics and for some reason it all comes back to ... Adelaide?
By Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington
Week three of the referendum campaign and the PM found an excuse to return to Adelaide, where he announced a non-royal commission of inquiry into the handling of COVID. Many questions spring to mind, write Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington.
Updated
Analysis
analysis:The comments that reveal just how clearly the No campaign is leading the Voice debate
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
There are another four weeks until Australians will officially cast their votes in the first referendum in more than two decades. For the Yes campaign, there is a path to success, albeit a narrow one, writes Brett Worthington.
Updated
The harassment Karen Andrews endured inside parliament
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
Former Coalition cabinet minister Karen Andrews has revealed she endured harassment inside the House of Representatives, with a male colleague breathing heavily on the back of her neck.
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Analysis
analysis:At some point, love for Qantas died. What was the final straw?
By Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington
This week delivered a brutal lesson in how a political perception problem can suddenly become a spectacular, fridge-melting conflagration, write Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington.
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Analysis
analysis:'C'mon, guys, you know people are watching': When all hell broke loose in Question Time, an independent stood up
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
The heated discussion over why Qatar Airways' bid to increase flights to Australia was rejected has left the government juggling excess political baggage, writes Brett Worthington.
Updated
Dutton criticised by 'Liberals for Yes' group over pledge for second Indigenous recognition referendum
By political reporter Dana Morse and political correspondent Brett Worthington
A commitment by Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton to hold a second referendum on Indigenous recognition has been rubbished by one of the leading conservative Voice campaigners.
Updated
Million-dollar fines and jail time for employers caught stealing wages
By political correspondent Brett Worthington
Employers caught having deliberately underpaid workers could face jail time, under new laws the federal government is proposing.
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Analysis
analysis:As Malcolm Turnbull took to the train station, the temperature of the Voice debate reached new levels
By Annabel Crabb and Brett Worthington
As spring 2023 arrives and the referendum campaign begins, it's a far more treacherous landscape for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese than he imagined on election night, writes Annabel Crabb.
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