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It was a political rivalry so utterly self-destructive that one cabinet minister compared it to being "strapped to a suicide bomber".

"The Turnbull-Abbott tussle was very torrid, not just for the Liberal Party internally, but for the government more generally for years and years and years," says former Coalition minister Bridget McKenzie. "You knew something horrific and catastrophic was going to happen."

In interviews for the ABC political docuseries Nemesis, dozens of former Coalition ministers and MPs have spoken of the toxic rivalry between Liberal giants Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, and how their relentless internecine conflict crippled both men's governments and helped destroy each other's political careers.

Over months of filming and 60 on-camera interviews for the ABC's landmark political docuseries Nemesis, the free character assessments between former Coalition colleagues fly thick and fast. But as well as the blue language and invective, there are also moments of remorse and regret.

Watch the first episode of the ABC's political docuseries Nemesis on Monday at 8pm on ABC TV and iview.

Some choice quotes:

What [Barnaby Joyce] says next, referring to Turnbull, stuns me. Let's just say it's a four-letter word, connected to another four-letter word.

In one interview, Turnbull is called a "turd" by one of his former supporters.

For his part, the former prime minister recounts being told to "f*** off" by his predecessor Tony Abbott.

The last Coalition prime minister Scott Morrison is labelled "smug" and an "arrogant arsehole" during an interview with one of his former backbenchers.

ANU economist Ben Phillips ran the government's proposed stage 3 tweaks through his PolicyMod simulator to weigh up the winners and losers.

He finds about 6.2 million households will benefit from the Albanese government's changes, while just 1.1 million households will lose out compared to the tax laws passed under the Coalition.

The government's gamble is that nearly six-to-one winners to losers presents pretty good odds for the widespread financial benefits to outweigh the cost of a broken promise.

COVID-19 was detected in Australia four years ago today.

The government will halve the stage 3 tax cuts for the highest earners and use the money to deliver an $804 tax cut across the board.

The prime minister will tell press club the reversal was motivated by changing economic circumstances.

• Cabinet documents from 2003 have been unsealed [by the National Archives of Australia, after the documents' confidentiality period expired].
• The documents reveal some of the high-level discussions of the government, including on the Iraq War.
• Much of the deliberations on the war have been kept secret, despite the then-defence minister supporting their release.

We asked them:

• Do you believe the government you currently serve is doing enough to combat domestic violence? (For government MPs)

• What would you like to see the Albanese government do about this issue? (For opposition MPs)

• What active steps have you taken in your communities to help address women dying at the hands of their partners?

• What kind of cultural change do you think would help make a difference in your communities?

Just 20 out of the 92 MPs responded by the original publication time and only ten had answered the questions asked.

Once followed up, 25 responded and 21 answered questions.

(The article isn't that long, but its content is hard to summarize without significant information loss.)

Temporary migration has jumped sharply over the past year — largely driven by foreign students — leading to a record intake. This was previously described as a post-COVID 19 influx of returning foreign students, but the ABC understands the government believes this is more than a one-off surge.

As part of the new migration strategy — which has already been signed off by cabinet and follows months of consultation with the higher education sector, business groups and other stakeholders — steps will be taken to cut the intake of foreign students entering low-quality courses.

The ABC understands the government will not cap the number of foreign students allowed in but will crack down on low-quality training providers and limit opportunities for student visas to be used as a backdoor for low-skilled workers to stay in Australia.

The new strategy will also involve new efforts to retain the best-performing students in Australia and new pathways to attract more high-skilled permanent migrants.

"People are coming here, enrolling in courses that don't really add substantially to either their skills base or to the national interest here," Mr Albanese said.

Coverage from SBS has a bit more background on the "why" for those interested.

Edit: ABC has some followup coverage of its own, mostly on the "what".

While a new [Senate] inquiry looks set to examine [Coles and Woolworths'] profit margins, New Zealand offers a lesson in just how difficult it is to disrupt a duopoly. [They have] no Aldi or IGA, and the duopoly there has also faced allegations of price gouging.

The New Zealand competition watchdog has already held a market study into why food costs so much in Aotearoa and established a grocery commissioner to help implement its recommendations.

But 18 months down the line, Kiwis are still reporting their grocery bill as a major financial concern — for the first time, some families are struggling with the cost of putting food on the table.

Based on this experience, advocacy group Consumer NZ said an inquiry could be helpful to establish the facts around whether or not supermarket giants were making more than what was fair.

But they warned the process was slow, and ultimately if it did not lead to bold changes, the business of selling food to Australians was likely to continue being a very closed, and expensive, shop.

[Roads] are getting worse because we’re not spending enough to maintain them.

Three-quarters of our roads are managed by local councils.

Every year, those councils spend A$1 billion less on maintenance than is needed to keep those roads in their current condition – let alone improve them.

New Grattan Institute research finds the typical regional area has a funding shortfall of more 40%. In remote areas, it’s more than 75%.

One reason for this underspend is that untied federal government grants to local councils haven’t kept pace with soaring costs.

[...]

Tight budgets make it tempting to delay maintenance.

But delaying will only end up costing more in the long run, leaving taxpayers paying more to fix more badly damaged roads.