SPECULATION is swirling about the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, becoming Australia's next ambassador to Italy.

It doesn't matter whether Mike Kaiser is qualified for the $450,000-a-year job of chief of "government relations" in the National Broadband Network Co, charged with setting up the $43 billion network. The process of his appointment appears tainted by political interference. Governments and government corporations must not only avoid favouritism,..read more

PAUL Keating has launched a furious attack on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, accusing him of disloyalty to Labor in appointing Peter Costello, a "policy bum", to the Future Fund's board of guardians.

What's theirs is his, too

THE Rees Government is set to win an unprecedented agreement with the unions to delay hundreds of thousands of public sector wage rises already negotiated in existing awards in a bid to save government jobs in the state budget.