OK, we are done with all of that now. To the real news.
Thu 28 Aug
Australia Institute Live: Albanese government condemns planned neo-Nazi march, ATO whistleblower Richard Boyle spared jail time. As it happened.
This blog is now closed.
Key Posts
The Day's News
The Midwinter Ball as seen by Mike Bowers
Here are some more arrivals for you:










Good morning
Hello and welcome to the last day of this sitting week! Some of you may have a sore head after last night’s Midwinter Ball, to which I say – have some avocado on toast, go for a walk outside and drink some flat lemonade and you’ll be fine. And headache tablets. Take them immediately.
From all accounts the ball was exactly what you would expect – lots of flippery and bigwigs, but pretty boring. It’s time has most likely come and gone, but it will take another few years for the gallery to work that out.
Mike Bowers stayed back for The New Daily and took some of the arrival photos – everyone wants a photo in their finery on the marble hall stairs, so expect to see a lot of pfp with this backdrop for the next little while if you follow political types (the journalists and staffers mostly – MPs usually refrain) on the socials

We’ll bring you some more of that in a moment.
Early this morning, David Pocock will be hosting back to back press conferences with Australian cricketer Usman Khawaja and advocates and other MPs on the situation in Gaza, and then the need for gambling reform. That starts from 9am, so if you were at the ball and your job is covering this sort of stuff, better get going finding those avocados.
We will bring you more of the day as it unfolds – you have Amy Remeikis this morning and so far, it is only a two-coffee-morning, but I might have to add a bit of sweetened condensed milk to one to get things going (it’s the last day of a long parliament week and we have a whole other week to go after this, so allow me my vices)
Ready? Let’s get into it.
Past Coverage
- Australia Institute Live: 'I'm very proud of the team I lead' says Sussan Ley as she's forced to fend off party room woes for the third day - as it happened. 8 Oct
- Australia Institute Live: Senate estimates continues, Opposition still struggling for relevancy. As it happened. 7 Oct
- Parliament Live: Senate estimates gets underway. All the day's events, as it happened. 6 Oct
- Australia Institute Live: RBA decision time, as it happened. 29 Sep
- Australia Institute Live: Parliament wraps. Record Robodebt settlement, Aged Care deal, the real cost of the Nauru plan revealed and Daniel Andrews' trip to Beijing. As it happened. 3 Sep
- Australia Institute Live: Government gives in on aged care packages, Anthony Albanese warns Coalition over stunts. As it happened. 2 Sep
- Australia Institute Live: Albanese government facing questions on aged care, Nauru deal, climate targets and population, as domestic issues return to the fore. As it happened. 1 Sep
- Australia Institute Live: Sussan Ley conflates anti-genocide protests with the weekend neo-Nazi supported rallies. As it happened. 31 Aug
- Australia Institute Live: Coalition chooses politics over bipartisanship on Iran in fiery question time. As it happened. 26 Aug
- Australia Institute Live: PM: Iran directed attacks in Australia. Ambassador expelled. As it happened. 25 Aug
