Blink and you would have missed it, but we had some good news this week: a record number of Australians are enrolled to vote. That’s 96.8% of the population.

Whether that number will usher in a change of government remains to be seen, but as Guy Rundle wrote this week, we’re unlikely to see a Labor leader like Bill Shorten again. Catch up with that Rundle piece, analysis of the thus-far overblown Clive Palmer effect and all the latest from Warringah bureau.

Also, thanks to Sydney Writers’ Festival, we have passes to Australia’s biggest celebration of writing and ideas to giveaway to Crikey readers. Events include: five double passes to Jill Abramson: Merchants of Truth, five double passes to Closing Address: Fatima Bhutto, and three double passes to Insiders Live at SWF. To claim yours, simply send an email to support@crikey.com.au with the subject line SWF and the name of the event you’d like to go to and we’ll give tickets to the first 13 readers to do so.

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

Across the world, the notion that progressive parties should accept a centrist and safe figure for the purposes of electability is going out the door.

WILLIAM BOWE and CHARLIE LEWIS 4 minute read

Abbott is going full local candidate this time because he's facing a genuine challenger — and the early polling was terrible for him.

HELEN RAZER 4 minute read

The dignity of private reflection has never been the case for us on Anzac Day. The silence I would like to afford the dead was shattered from the start.

CHARLIE LEWIS 5 minute read

There's a creeping belief that Warringah is a two-horse race between Tony Abbott and Zali Steggall, but independent candidate Susan Moylan-Coombs specialises in things that are often overlooked.

EMILY WATKINS 4 minute read

The ABC is the only Australian outlet with a correspondent in the Pacific. Have we stopped caring about our closest neighbours? And if so, why?

MICHAEL BRADLEY 4 minute read

There are broader questions that don’t have clear answers, of course. But it's not so complex when you keep your eye on the ball.

EMILY WATKINS 4 minute read

The New York Times' recent investigation into the Murdoch family described James and Kathryn's more progressive leanings as one of the reasons for tension within the family.

BERNARD KEANE 4 minute read

Suddenly Clive Palmer has displaced Pauline Hanson as the tribune of discontented Queensland voters. The polling basis for that is thin indeed — but Palmer's technique is a last-minute ad blitz that has shifted votes before and could do it again.