In using parliamentary privilege to name and shame an Adelaide priest accused of sexual abuse 50 years ago, Senator Nick Xenophon has pushed into new territory that raises troubling issues about his motives and judgment.

Arthur Sinodinos has today been endorsed as the candidate to fill the Liberal Party's vacancy in the Senate, after the departure of former senior minister Helen Coonan last month.

Barry O'Farrell has kept his election promise to become the first premier in Australian history to ban political donations from corporations and special interest groups. The question now is: will the other states and territories follow his lead?

For most billionaires, the idea of having anything much to do with politics is about as attractive as flying in economy class. The rich love governments most when they get out of the way.

Recent coalition victories in NSW and Victoria have been a boon for lobbyists with conservative credentials. Now a new Peter Costello-backed lobbying firm has entered the fray.

If there's one thing that Julia Gillard has on Kevin Rudd, it's that US president Barack Obama hasn't cancelled a visit to Australia on her – at least not yet.

If the numbers keep telling Labor MPs they can hold onto government (or their seats) with Rudd as leader, then the party's powerbrokers will eventually be flattened in the stampede. And right now the numbers do show that.

Powerbrokers stood their ground on opposing sides of the productivity debate, Gina Rinehart's legal woes hit the headlines and 35,000 public service workers protested in Sydney: these are The Power Index's top picks of people who mattered this week.

Social Inclusion Commissioner David Cappo has unloaded on the 'self-serving' South Australian government bureaucracy for being an unmovable obstacle against achieving real social reform.

ABC's new comedy is filled with heart and humanity, according to Dan Barrett, who hopes the real prime minister can stay in power long enough to see out the end of the short series.