FORMER Liberal senator for Queensland Russell Trood has been appointed the federal government's special envoy to eastern Europe, the Balkans and the C... Read more...

This morning the Lowy Institute officially launched its 7th annual poll of Australian public opinion with a fascinating and amusing panel di... Read more...

AS the Senate prepares to welcome new senators, three more Liberals have farewelled the Upper House.   Senators Russell Trood, Judith Troeth an... Read more...

A conference on public diplomacy has heard that Australia needs to do more to promote an international image that moves beyond narrow stereotypes. ... Read more...

As a result of the Australian Government tightening eligibility requirements for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Travel Card Sch... Read more...

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has denied that Australia's tough approach to Fiji is out of step with the United States. The oppositio... Read more...

Australia’s Senate has been told that their policies against Fiji seem to be falling into a ‘hole’ as no positive results have been attained – five ye... Read more...

Questions have been raised about just how much the government knew about the ill treatment of Australian cattle in Indonesian slaughterhouses. In a t... Read more...

BY DAVID ELLERY, DEFENCE REPORTER The democratic process was at least partly responsible for the Defence department's failure to achieve key goal... Read more...

Election caused delays in key projects: defence Naomi Woodley reported this story on Monday, May 30, 2011 12:10:00 The Defence Department says it's ... Read more...

Dylan Welch A FRONT line in the fight against terrorism - the Immigration Department's list of people who pose a possible security risk - has been la... Read more...

Travellers remain deeply concerned about security at regional airports, many of which don't even require passengers to present ID before boarding plan... Read more...

Source: AAP Travellers remain deeply concerned about security at regional airports, many of which don't even require passengers to present ID b... Read more...

Australia's national security adviser has defended Prime Minister Julia Gillard over claims she did not read briefing papers marked 'urgent'.  ... Read more...

The federal government denies its focus on national security is slowly melting away. Liberal senator Russell Trood is grilling senior bureaucrats i... Read more...

The inability of defence officials to answer questions posed by senators is infuriating the opposition. Liberal senator Russell Trood is a key member... Read more...

SERIOUSLY ill Papua New Guinea nationals visiting the Torres Strait have ignited a furious debate over Australia’s broader health responsibilities in ... Read more...

THE return of terror to the headlines will not impact on national security funding in the federal budget. Since September 11 the national security b... Read more...

SERIOUSLY ill patients from Papua New Guinea, often with family links to Australians, have become the latest category of boat people facing official r... Read more...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 19/04/2011 Reporter: Peter McCutcheon The Commonwealth and Queensland Governments have decided to ... Read more...

MORE than $4 million in taxpayer-funded legal aid will be provided to the crew members of asylum-seeker boats who are on trial in Australia this year ... Read more...

CANBERRA, April 18 AAP - Three states say they are struggling to deal financially with the growing numbers of people smugglers facing court in their j... Read more...

FEARS terrorists could easily obtain the floor plans of Australian embassies abroad has forced the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to review i... Read more...

  Concerns over the way ASIO handles its paperwork have been revealed by the spy agency's watchdog.   Since 2008, the Inspector Gen... Read more...

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has denied that Australia's tough approach to Fiji is out of step with the United States. The oppositio... Read more...

Immigration detention centres are overfl owing as ASIO struggles to complete security checks on asylum seekers. Is the spy agency up to the job? Russe... Read more...

ASIO is under pressure to explain why 900 asylum seekers are stuck inside detention centres waiting for months for security checks to be completed. T... Read more...

I nternational attention has again focused on WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange this week as he lost the first round of his efforts to avoid extradition... Read more...

Even before the earthquake in Christchurch on Tuesday swept aside most other news, the week’s additional estimates committee hearings were shaping up ... Read more...

The federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship head of border security, Garry Fleming, speaking at a Senate estimates hearing, said that busine... Read more...

THE Gillard government must declare its full confidence in the security of Australian embassies after it was revealed a security company involved in s... Read more...

The Chief of the Australian Defence Force will brief a Senate committee early next month on the initial results of an inquiry into an alleged sex ring... Read more...

THE kitchen cabinet may have ended alongside Kevin Rudd's prime ministerial career, but until the fun police arrived yesterday morning, it lived on ch... Read more...

The devastating floods in the Australian state of Queensland are expected to result in millions of dollars in losses for the coal industry. The Que... Read more...

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is facing calls for its incoming advice to the federal government to be made public. So-called "re... Read more...

KEVIN Rudd was rejecting the advice of the Australian intelligence agencies when he warned the US of the need to step up the containment of China, inc... Read more...

Residents on an Australian island next to PNG deal with a flood of unruly neighbours and immigration problems, writes Debra Jopson.   IT IS Far... Read more...

In October 2007 two unarmed Iraqi women were shot and killed by private military contractors working for Unity Resources Group (URG), the same firm th... Read more...

AN Australian-owned security company has been accused by a powerful US Senate committee of a shocking litany of abuses in Afghanistan, including theft... Read more...

An Australian-owned security firm operating in Afghanistan has been accused by a US Senate committee of theft and corruption. Compass Integrated Secu... Read more...

AN AUSTRALIAN-owned security company has been accused of a litany of abuses in Afghanistan - including theft and corruption - by a powerful US Senate ... Read more...

AN Australian-owned security company has been accused by a powerful US Senate committee of a shocking litany of abuses in Afghanistan, including theft... Read more...

KEVIN Rudd is demanding a large funding boost for his bureaucratic empire - despite overseeing Foreign Affairs cutbacks as prime minister. The Forei... Read more...

The Gillard government has given itself five days to convince the crossbench senators Steve Fielding (Family First) and Independent Nick Xenophon that... Read more...

AN intelligence analyst turned Iraq war whistleblower will today be appointed to one of the country's most secretive and important parliamentary commi... Read more...

Defence force chief Angus Houston has staunchly defended the way his organisation handled the prosecution of three former commandos over a fatal raid ... Read more...

THE head of Australia's foreign service admits his department made a mistake by posting confidential details of Australia's embassy building in Iraq o... Read more...

MOST Coalition MPs back the war in Afghanistan but with little optimism about the chance of victory, a Liberal senator says. ''We can't win it in any... Read more...

The head of ASIO says there was no breach of national security arising from documents mentioning the intelligence agency that were found during a drug... Read more...

LIBERAL MP Mal Washer will urge Australia to "get out" of Afghanistan during this week's parliamentary debate on the mission. Former Labor defence m... Read more...

Australia will pay a "significant proportion" of the cost of building a refugee processing centre in East Timor, a senior government official says. L... Read more...

Government officials have defended a decision to use a security company charged with fostering a culture of lawlessness among its employees to guard t... Read more...

AUSTRALIA will pay a "significant proportion" of the cost of building a refugee processing centre in East Timor, a senior government official says. ... Read more...

THE security company guarding the Australian embassy in Baghdad has been involved in at least 39 shootings - probably dozens more - and has fostered '... Read more...

AUSTRALIA needs a special minister of state responsible for overseeing national security issues that criss-cross traditional portfolios such as treasu... Read more...

A confidential document outlining details of the Australian embassy building in Iraq has been posted online by the Department of Foreign Affairs and T... Read more...

 THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is investigating how a confidential document was posted online. The document, part of a tender p... Read more...

A confidential document outlining details of the Australian embassy building in Iraq has been posted online by the Department of Foreign Affairs and T... Read more...

While the nation was waiting for a government, the Senate has been waiting for answers of a different kind. Parliament's upper house has been wai... Read more...

  On 22 August 2010 Radio Australia's Canberra correspondent Linda Mottram reviews the Australian election and its international implications wi... Read more...

From North Qld Register QUEENSLAND sugarcane growers are to be congratulated for their economic contribution to the Australian economy and their loca... Read more...

From: The Australian   THE Liberal National Party is negotiating with right-wing Senate candidates to prevent Russell Trood's seat bei... Read more...

The Morning Bulletin, Rockhampton  MAVERICK senator Barnaby Joyce says Central Queenslanders are the big losers from Prime Minister Julia Gillar... Read more...

Daily Mercury, Mackay: Supporting LNP candidate George Christensen, centre, yesterday are Senate candidates, from left, Brett Mason, Barn... Read more...

The Cairns Post Copyright 2010 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved       Diary - Day 5: The Cairns Show became a campaign battlegr... Read more...

Read more...

  Senator Faulkner is not giving a precise time frame for the troop drawdown (Defence Department: Hamish Paterson) Australian troo... Read more...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s dogged pursuit of his grand vision for an Asia-Pacific community (APc) is in tatters with revelations yesterday that he ha... Read more...

From: The Courier-Mail   THE campaign launch season has begun after the Liberals' Tony Abbott and Labor's Greg Combet jetted into Mackay a... Read more...

Canberra Times A message from the young son of one of the diggers killed in Afghanistan has been read out at his father's memorial service.   ... Read more...

ABC PM program 9 June 2010 With the bodies of two Australian soldiers on the way home, debate has turned to Australia's future in Afghanistan. The Gr... Read more...

DFAT's great hangover by Alex Duchen - 7 June 2010 3:04PM Interesting discussions last week at the Senate Estimates hearings on the Foreign Affair... Read more...

AS easy as it can be to be distracted by the clapped-out vaudeville of question time, one should never forget the fun to be had in Senate estimates, w... Read more...

Sydney Morning Herald: AUSTRALIA will dramatically increase its training role in Afghanistan in the coming months but will not take over from the Dutc... Read more...

THE AUSTRALIAN - FIRST-TERM Queensland senator Russell Trood is considering a bid for Michael Johnson's lower house seat of Ryan, complicating w... Read more...

TOWNSVILLE BULLETIN - THE beef industry in the northern inland could double if cattlemen were given better access to water, a leading cattle ind... Read more...

AAP - The cost of Kevin Rudd's much vaunted Asia-Pacific Community has reached $1.4 million. The prime minister's ambitious diplomatic plan aims to d... Read more...

Radio Australia: Asia Pacific News: Australia's being warned that Beijing will not surrender to ever increasing iron ore prices and that Canberr... Read more...

Townsville Bulletin       INDIGENOUS commentators Noel Pearson and Murrandoo Yanner will speak alongside Richmond cattleman A... Read more...

The Daily Mercury     AS part of his northern observation tour, Senator Russell Trood met with Canegrowers Mackay chief executive... Read more...

MACKAY DAILY MERCURY - TOWNSVILLE and Cairns have long been seen as the capitals of the north so why couldn’t Mackay be the capital of “mid-... Read more...

COURIER MAIL - FEDERAL MPs racked up more than 15 million frequent-flyer points in just six months last year, but their wings could soon be clipp... Read more...

TORRES NEWS ONLINE - The final report from the current Senate inquiry into matters relating to the Torres Strait region should be prod... Read more...

COURIER MAIL - TORRES Strait leaders want the top of Australia as a stand-alone territory with greater autonomy. Islanders are looking bey... Read more...

THE COURIER MAIL - Queensland's northern outpost is a gateway for gun-runners and drugs, and locals are feeling the stress of sharing a bor... Read more...

ABC News - Queensland Police Minister Neil Roberts has rejected criticism of the level of police resourcing in the Torres Strait.   Mr Roberts... Read more...

Some Papua New Guineans are travelling to the Torres Strait Islands to be treated for serious diseases including drug-resistant tuberculosis. (ABC TV ... Read more...

The head of a federal parliamentary committee reviewing the Torres Strait treaty says there is a need for greater recognition of the challenges facing... Read more...

MEDIA MONITORS - Sewell says that life in the Torres Strait can be tough, with one issue being its proximity to Papua New Guinea, with a num... Read more...

ABC News - The head of a Senate committee that is conducting an inquiry into the Torres Strait says it is important it finds out the extent of the pr... Read more...

  Defence may be in contempt of parliament over an internal document designed to deter personnel from coming forward with information about al... Read more...

 Australian Financial Review - The new head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has moved to reassert a weakened department's policy... Read more...

Linda Mottram, Canberra Last Updated: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:24:00 +1100 An Australian Senate committee has reported on its inquiry into security in th... Read more...

Updated February 25, 2010 17:51:16 An Australian Senate inquiry has found that if Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Island states did more to grow the... Read more...

CANBERRA – The risk of an Australian committing a terrorist act is one of this country’s key security threats, according to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.... Read more...

ABC Radio National - Asia Pacific Program The Australian government is turning up the heat on people smugglers with an announcement that it wants to ... Read more...

Australian Financial Review ASIO will get broader powers to deal with people smuggling and the federal government will toughen penalties for offender... Read more...

SBS World News - The federal government won't rule out the possibility that UK residents will be subject to tougher visa measures outlined in a new c... Read more...

The Australian & Canberra Times AUSTRALIA could face a diplomatic backlash over new terror measures which force foreign visitors from a handful o... Read more...

PEOPLE smugglers and those who finance them are to face a raft of new fines and extra jail time as the Rudd Government recruits ASIO to help combat th... Read more...

ABC Radio Australia: Asia Pacific Program Terrorism experts say the Australian Government's new counter-terrorism policy fails to act on the threats ... Read more...

The federal government has almost doubled aid spending on Africa since coming to office, opening Ausaid of- fices and triggering accusations of blata... Read more...

Conservationists applauded yesterday Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's promise to site Japan in the international courts if it does not agree to stop whalin... Read more...

New Foreign Affairs secretary, Dennis Richardson, seems to have set a new accountability record by appearing last Thursday at the Senate Foreign Affai... Read more...

Sydney Morning Herald & The Age  - AAP "We are going to these games." That's the defiant message from Australian Commonwealth Games off... Read more...

Australian Financial Review The Rudd government's counterterrorism white paper is 14 months behind schedule with cabinet further delaying its release... Read more...

The relationship between Australia and India has been damaged by a spate of attacks on Indian nationals in Melbourne in recent months, the head of the... Read more...

AUSTRALIAN diplomatic staff based in Kabul will relocate from the high-security US embassy compound to take up new leased premises within months, Sena... Read more...

A fresh inquiry has been called into allegations sailors were running a sex ring aboard HMAS Success after the initial investigation was found to be b... Read more...

THE top brass of the Australian Defence Force have come under fire for spending $22,000 on three helicopters to fly them less than 200km.   The... Read more...

Australia's highest military officer has admitted there was a lapse by his officers in the case of East Timorese woman Gracinda da Costa, who died las... Read more...

Australia's military chief has admitted there was a lapse by Australian forces in East Timor, in the case of a woman who died from injuries sustained ... Read more...

THE ADVERTISER - THE chairman of a Senate Committee has slammed Defence over its ``appalling'' treatment of three sailors accused of misconduct ... Read more...

From: AAP February 03, 2010 8:10PM THE Federal Opposition is demanding to know why the Government has published information it is holding on ... Read more...

    The ceremony was held at the Kooroomba Vineyard at Mt Alford and Member for Beaudesert Aidan McLindon and Logan Chamber of Commerce pr... Read more...

Letter to The Australian from the Minister for Defence: I’m concerned the article “Furious Faulkner revokes ban bid” (7/1) has given an incorrect acc... Read more...

THE AUSTRALIAN - A FURIOUS Defence Minister has been forced to countermand potentially unconstitutional orders from bureaucrats banning staff fr... Read more...

THE AUSTRALIAN - A Libs senator has already dismissed the white paper as `blancmange'   THE release of the Rudd government's long-awaited... Read more...

THE AUSTRALIAN - The long effort to come up with a future counter-terrorism policy has raised doubts whether Australia has fully faced the gritt... Read more...

Australia Network News Australian government figures on people using the Torres Strait to illegally enter the country have been questioned by the hea... Read more...

The Australian  THE Australian-led intervention in Solomon Islands shows no signs of ending even after six years and $1 billion spent. The fir... Read more...

Listen to Radio National's Pacific Beat program on Senator Trood's speech on the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee Report... Read more...

Brisbane Times: Australia's aid intervention in the Pacific doesn't always reach its mark, contributing to stunted economic growth in some island... Read more...

Australian Financial Review - The opposition has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of making "sneaky and underhanded" cuts to the Department of Forei... Read more...

AAP - The federal government has cut more than $100 million from the foreign affairs and trade budget. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade ... Read more...

Torres News The head of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) has repeated saying “sorry” about the Malu Sara. Andrew Metcalfe, Secr... Read more...

TORRES NEWS - The Department of Immigration (DIAC) has taken the first steps to adhere to its recent undertakings to achieve a quick and fair resoluti... Read more...

AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW - Prime Minister Kevin. Rudd is on the cusp of realising his dream of establishing an Asia Pacific Communi... Read more...

THE COURIER MAIL - Hospital schools have been excluded from the Rudd Government's computer and building programs and sick children told to ... Read more...

AM - ABC RADIO - 23 October 2009 TONY EASTLEY: Does the Federal Parliament sit for long enough, and would more sittings mean more gets done? Senator ... Read more...

THE CANBERRA TIMES - The Australian War Memorial still cannot say when the official history of the Vietnam War will be finished even though the f... Read more...

THE AGE - Coalition senators have attacked the appointment of former Nationals leader Tim Fischer as Australian ambassador to the V... Read more...

AAP APC CANBERRA, Oct 22 AAP - About $1 million will be spent ferrying foreign officials about on Sydney Harbour and accommodating them in top notch ... Read more...

THE AGE/SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - COALITION senators have vigorously attacked the role being played by the former National Party leader... Read more...

The Government has previously said it expected Australian troops to be in Afghanistan for another three to five years. (Defence Force: Corporal Hamish... Read more...

15th October 2009 IN CELEBRATION of the National Day of Older Australians, Ipswich residents can nominate older people who continue to be active and ... Read more...

Source: Torres News The Senate will hold what it describes as a “broad-ranging Inquiry” into the management and protection of Australia’s air, sea a... Read more...

Source: The Australian KEVIN Rudd has been accused of incompetence in managing foreign policy, indulging in international grandstanding and havi... Read more...

Source: The Australian KEVIN Rudd has talked down prospects of international agreement at a crucial climate change summit in Copenhagen in December, ... Read more...

Source: Radio National News: An Australian parliamentary inquiry will examine whether border protection in the Torres Strait is adequate. The... Read more...

Source - Courier Mail - FEARS Papua New Guinea's HIV epidemic could cross the Torres Strait have sparked a federal inquiry.   Australia's clos... Read more...

Source - ABC Southern QLD - Zonca says a boat carrying 48 asylum seekers and 4 crew was intercepted near waters in Darwin last night while the Senate... Read more...

Source: The Age September 14, 2009 - 9:49PM Native title claims are expected to be processed faster under new laws passed by parliament. The amend... Read more...

ABC Regional Radio - A Queensland Liberal Senator says the concept of another transcontinental road is gaining momentum, but there is a need for a sig... Read more...

A decade after it was promised, the final volume of Australia's official history of the Vietnam War has missed yet another publication deadline. All... Read more...

Queensland Senator Russell Trood spent time at RAAF Base East Sale in July as part of the ADF Parliamentary Program, which involves MPs from differing... Read more...

MARK COLVIN: It's emerged that China was so angry at Australia's decision to grant an exiled Uighur leader a visa, that it cancelled a high-level visi... Read more...

Source:   Australian Financial Review   Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday of mishan... Read more...

Article from:  The Australian   CHINA has launched a two-track strategy to manage its increasingly strained relationship with Australia, e... Read more...

  TORRES NEWS - Liberal Senator for Queensland Russell Trood says he will explore the idea of a broad ranging senate inquiry into Commonwe... Read more...

AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW - The federal opposition has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of "dangerous complacency", follow- ing an eight-... Read more...

AAP Attorney-General Robert McClelland has defended the federal government's delay in releasing its national security white paper. Liberal senator R... Read more...

ABC PM MARK COLVIN: There's been further fallout from yesterday morning's story in the Australian about the Melbourne counter-terrorism operation. Vi... Read more...

Australian police have arrested four people in the city of Melbourne after uncovering what they say was a plot to launch a suicide attack on an army b... Read more...

AAP - An alleged plot by a radical Islamist group to attack a Sydney army barracks is a sober reminder that there is an "enduring threat" of terrorism... Read more...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) News - A Queensland Senator says the Federal Government could be risking the country's security by refusing... Read more...

COURIER MAIL - One of Malcolm Turnbull's senior Liberal colleagues has placed the nuclear issue back on the political agenda, arguing that i... Read more...

AAP - The federal opposition is demanding the Rudd government release its promised counter-terrorism white paper, if it actually exists. Prime Minist... Read more...

CANBERRA TIMES Prime Minister Kevin Rudd moved last night to quash claims the Government is avoiding a clash with China over Stern Hu after it w... Read more...

Sydney Morning Herald ALL workers retrenched during the economic downturn will be eligible for a government-subsidised training place under an ex... Read more...

Canberra Times WHEN THEY'RE not making sick kids cry in hospitals, The Chaser boys like to pick on people their own size at Parliament House. Federal... Read more...

Australian Financial Review Perhaps buoyed by the tiny shift in the polls, or perhaps just finally accepting that they did not win the 2007 election,... Read more...

The Chaser team has managed to cause a bit of a hullabaloo in federal parliament - and they weren't even there. The funnymen are renowned for their s... Read more...

CHASER fever has extended to the Senate estimates committee, where Liberal senator Russell Trood was quizzing the Department of Foreign Affairs and Tr... Read more...

  THE Chaser tricksters have caused a hullabaloo in parliament and weren't even there. In a Senate estimates committee yesterday, Liberal backb... Read more...

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was accused last night of altering the priorities of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to satisfy his own vanity i... Read more...

Source: Sydney Morning Herald Cynthia Banham May 26, 2009    THE senior diplomat whose appointment as ambassador to Germany was ... Read more...

The Daily Telegraph   POLITICIANS who use taxpayer-earned frequent flyer points for private travel and shopping vouchers will be exposed under ... Read more...

West Australian   Federal MPs who don’t use their frequent flyer points to pay for official trips will be named and shamed under a new directiv... Read more...

By Mike O'Connor Courier Mail ABOUT 6 million Australians will travel overseas this year, each one happily expecting consular support should they fi... Read more...

Source: Geelong Advertiser FOR 12 years the Howard Government ruled the political landscape, overseeing a period of unparallelled wealth with, for th... Read more...

CUBAN cigars, French cognac, Penfolds Grange and even a silver spoon were among the Christmas gifts received by Kevin Rudd and his ministers. Liberal... Read more...

FEDERAL MPs and public servants could be stripped of their frequent flyer points if Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has his way and curbs access to th... Read more...

WHILE politics dominates the news due to the upcoming election, five Gladstone State High School students have put their hand up for a taste of the po... Read more...

POLLQLD By Gabrielle Dunlevy, State Political Correspondent BRISBANE, Feb 23 AAP - Observers of conservative politics will eye the Queensland electio... Read more...

ABOUT 6 million Australians will travel overseas this year, each one happily expecting consular support should they find themselves on the wrong side ... Read more...

Source: Canberra Times M ove over, Osama bin Laden. You're no longer top of the pops. The free-falling global economy is a bigger threat to the secur... Read more...

Matthew, 15, says Australia should become a republic. ROCKHAMPTON’S Matthew Wood shares something in common with one of Queensland’s leading senators... Read more...

Source: The Australian  IN a political first for Australia, a Liberal senator may be joining the parliamentary Nationals party in Canberra while... Read more...

Source: Published in “The Party Room” Summer 2009 The current global financial crisis serves once again to underscore the point that in an increasing... Read more...

Source: South West News VIETNAM veteran Alan Russell of Redbank Plains was one of a group of 34 local seniors who recently received official thanks f... Read more...

OH, to have Kevin Rudd's travel kitty. In the first seven months of the Rudd Government, the Prime Minister's overseas jaunts cost taxpayers just ove... Read more...

THE Australian Senate has declared its opposition to the proposed Traveston Crossing dam, in a motion supported by all Opposition Senators but not by... Read more...

STATE Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg, Sunshine Coast Regional Mayor Bob Abbot, his colleague Cr Lew Brennan, Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce a... Read more...

Queensland Liberal Senator, Russell Trood, has called for improved funding for Queensland's regions after visiting the Barcoo and Dismantina Shires la... Read more...

Queensland Senator Russell Trood visited the three communities in the Barcoo Shire on Wednesday October 29 to gain a better understanding of issues i... Read more...

Source: The Australian Kevin Rudd has been misjudged on his approach to Asia, especially China. He is a realist on regional politics and a firm belie... Read more...

A Queensland Senator has dubbed south-west Queensland as the "forgotten corner" of the state. Liberal Senator Russell Trood has visited the Diamantin... Read more...

IT is almost without precedent to find a comprehensive and objective study of international diplomacy by an Australian politician. To find one written... Read more...

A Liberal Senator says he is concerned the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) overseas service is in decline. Queensland Liberal Russel... Read more...

INSIDE CANBERRA ABC 612 Wednesday September 8 2008 Host: Madonna King Guests: Doctor Craig Emerson   Australian Labor Party Senato... Read more...

MEET THE PRESS PRESENTER PAUL BONGIORNO: Good morning and welcome to Meet the Press. 'Argy-bargy' became Kevin Rudd's battle cry as he put education b... Read more...

Source: Courier Mail ANGRY Queensland Nationals have launched a scathing counter-attack on Liberal Russell Trood after he blasted federal Nationals l... Read more...

Bipartisan political resolve stiffened yesterday for Australia not to be rushed into ratifying an agreement with Russia for the use of Australian ... Read more...

THE Liberal senator Russell Trood has criticised suggestions by US presidential nominee Barack Obama that he may increase policies designed to pro... Read more...

An influential Liberal senator says he is concerned by job protection policies outlined by US presidential nominee Barack Obama. Senator Obama accepte... Read more...

Source: Australian Associated Press General News US Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson had to "haul Senator Trood i... Read more...

Source: The Canberra Times The marriage of convenience between the Liberal and National parties in Queensland will face a strong test at next year's ... Read more...

Liberal Senator for Queensland Russell Trood learnt about the challenges facing the Charleville community when he visited last week.“The purpose of th... Read more...

W hen Australia first decided to buy the F-111, it looked like the answer to all our defence needs. Chests swelled with pride as we realised that Aust... Read more...

Source: Samantha Maiden Online political editor - Australian BRENDAN Nelson is under pressure from Liberal MPs to show "leadership" on an emissions t... Read more...

Greens leader Bob Brown has a battle on his hands to have Federal Parliament reverse its ban on the territories' ability to legalise euthanasia. ... Read more...

FEDERAL Parliament could soon find itself grappling once more with euthanasia after the leaders of both major parties gave permission for a conscience... Read more...

A PUSH to allow the Northern Territory and ACT to legislate for euthanasia has split a Senate inquiry, with Parliament set for a fresh battle over the... Read more...

A review of Australia's military court has heard the system is facing a significant challenge of having the resources to hold trials by jury. The Cou... Read more...

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has promised to be ``mindful'' of the resources needed by the foreign affairs department for its ambitious international age... Read more...

KEVIN RUDD has admitted his grand global plans are placing pressures on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which cut spending and staff ... Read more...

CANBERRA, June 16 AAP - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has promised to be "mindful" of the resources needed by the foreign affairs department for its ambit... Read more...

Source: By Ross Peake - National Affairs Writer The Foreign Affairs Department is losing more staff than usual, but puts the resignations down to hea... Read more...

THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is battling a policy paralysis in the minister's office. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has not appoin... Read more...

Source: The Australian KEVIN Rudd's department knew Japan would be upset at being left off the Prime Minister's first major overseas visit, but no mi... Read more...

  GOVERNMENTS have few greater responsibilities than custody of foreign policy. It is almost a sacred trust since a nation's security, economic ... Read more...

Labor's ambitious plans to give Australia a new voice on the international stage will come to nought because of the money ripped from the foreign aff... Read more...

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, deserves considerable credit for the forthright way in which he has raised concerns about human rights abuses in China... Read more...

The Rudd Government will review the operations of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which is already facing funding cuts. The budget is expe... Read more...

  THE Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade faces a $109million budget cut at the very time Kevin Rudd sees a more prominent role for Australi... Read more...

ON THE eve of the change of federal government in 1996, the soon-to-be foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said he would end Labor's long-held insist... Read more...

Sydney Morning Herald - Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent Brendan Nelson did little to shore up his shaky leadership yesterday by calling f... Read more...

LIBERAL frontbencher George Brandis has taken a swipe at the former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer declaring he has "had his time" and it is a lit... Read more...

Coalition senators are backing the right of a colleague to speak critically of the former Howard government's foreign policies, even if they don't agr... Read more...

Coalition senators are backing the right of a colleague to speak critically of the former Howard government's foreign policies, even if they don't agr... Read more...

A Liberal senator has criticised the former Howard government's record on foreign policy in an academic paper. A Liberal senator has criticised the f... Read more...

Liberal Senator George Brandis has warned former Howard government ministers to butt out and allow others within the party to have their say. Senato... Read more...

  AM - Tuesday, 18 March , 2008 08:18:00 Reporter: Hayden Cooper TONY EASTLEY: A row over foreign policy has erupted within the Federal Oppo... Read more...

  The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will cut back on entertainment expenses for diplomats as part of efforts to pare $32 million from ... Read more...

  The former Howard government has been criticised from within its own ranks for not putting enough money into Foreign Affairs. Liberal Senator ... Read more...

It has been a long and tortuous road to Parliament for a simple word, but Kevin Rudd has now given top priority to apologising to the stolen generati... Read more...

The West Australian The Liberal Party has long been proud of the fact that it is not riven by factionalism like the Australian Labor Party but Brenda... Read more...

KEVIN Rudd's decision to apologise to Aboriginal people as his first act in the new Parliament has exposed more divisions in the Liberal Party and eme... Read more...

NEW Queensland Nationals leader Lawrence Springborg has warned Liberal senators not to stand in the way of a `tsunami of support' for his plan to uni... Read more...

Source: The Mercury NEW Queensland Nationals leader Lawrence Springborg has warned Liberal senators not to stand in the way of the ``tsunami of suppo... Read more...

NATIONALS BRISBANE, Jan 24 AAP - New Queensland opposition leader Lawrence Springborg begins his "conversation with Queensland" on the Sunshine Coast... Read more...

Source: The Australian FEDERAL Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson yesterday declared he was ``very proud'' of the Liberal Party brand but a merg Nation... Read more...

The backers of a combined conservative party in Queensland say they are not deterred by strong opposition from leading Liberals. Liberal senators Geo... Read more...

The Courier-Mail - AN emerging backlash within the Liberal Party is determined to kill Lawrence Springborg's latest bid to create a new conservative ... Read more...

  PHILISTINES!" cried former foreign minister Alexander Downer, to news that the Rudd Government is to axe Australia on the World Stage, the fun... Read more...

Source: Australian Financial Review Now that it is in opposition, the Liberal Party must review all of its policy positions, not merely those that we... Read more...

QUEENSLAND MPs are backing Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal leadership in return for greater representation on the Opposition front bench. Several h... Read more...

RICHLANDS State School is holding court with the launch of its new sport and recreation facilities. The school last week opened its new multi-purpose... Read more...

IPSWICH will be at the cutting edge of weather research after a $2.5 million radar was commissioned at Redbank Plains. The state-of-the-art CP2 rad... Read more...

18 October 2007   Russell Trood.Trood said the facility would help validate satellite-based rainfall measurements undertaken by NASA as part of... Read more...

Source: By Ross Peake - National Affairs Writer - Canberra Times Prime Minister John Howard was criticised yesterday for waiting too long to appeal f... Read more...

Queensland emperor Peter Beattie's palace is under siege. But the veteran Labor premier has at least one thing up his sleeve - he doesn't have to fac... Read more...

FEDERAL Labor has backed a damaging Senate report that will put pressure on the State Government to scrap the Traveston Dam. In a major blow to the $... Read more...

Source: South West News IF you look at the smile on Christopher Bailey's face it is hard to imagine he has spent more than half of his eight years of... Read more...

THE public face of the Federal Government's new fairness test for workers, Barbara Bennett, changed her evidence to a Senate committee about meeting a... Read more...

Source: The Age AUSTRALIA is poised to take the landmark step of selling uranium to India, with the powerful national security committee of cabinet e... Read more...

Source: South West News LIVING in unity will be the theme of Saturday's Carole Park Come Together Festival. The event will feature live entertainmen... Read more...

QUEENSLAND has been warned it could face legal action by the commonwealth if it refuses to release documents to a Senate inquiry into the controversia... Read more...

Source: The Courier-Mail THE Senate's inquiry into the controversial Mary River dam got off to a shaky start today with protesters reacting angrily t... Read more...

WHEN the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra played in Milan in February, it was, apparently, doing more than showing an audience interested in classical mu... Read more...

Australians are being forced to face up to the scandal of black slavery in modern times, Ben Sandilands reports. MOST Australians would choke at the ... Read more...

JOHN Howard faces his third ministerial reshuffle this year after Ageing Minister Santo Santoro resigned yesterday revealing he had failed to declare... Read more...

Queensland Liberal Senator Russell Trood has called on state governments to follow the lead of New South Wales and compensate Indigenous Australians w... Read more...

'Schoolchildren regularly tour GoMA (renamed Gallery of Modern Aridity) and gasp at first sight of the colour green. Several reportedly faint at the ... Read more...

The controversial proposed Traveston Dam in south-east Queensland is to be the subject of a federal parliamentary inquiry. The Senate's rural and reg... Read more...

Source: Canberra Times - By BRAD WATTS AUSTRALIA spends a meagre 17c a person on ''cultural diplomacy'', compared with $19 a head in Britain, a ... Read more...

The controversy surrounding a Queensland dam proposal is having an effect at federal level. The $1.7 billion Traveston Crossing dam, proposed for the... Read more...

  STATE public servants are likely to be grilled by the Senate on the controversial Traveston Dam proposal. Deputy Premier Anna Bligh, pictured... Read more...

SOLUTIONS will be sought to southeast Queensland's water crisis in a wide-ranging Senate inquiry starting this month. The inquiry will consider "all ... Read more...

  Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has accused the federal government of trying to sabotage the Traveston Crossing Dam by ordering an inquiry in... Read more...

Source: Australian Associated Press Coalition senators are pushing for a senate inquiry into the controversial Traveston Dam proposal, designed to se... Read more...

A PETTY OFFICER in the navy has brought a constitutional challenge in the High Court which if successful, could bring undone fundamental aspects of t... Read more...

Source: Australian Financial Review - John Kerin Prime Minister John Howard wants the fate of David Hicks settled as soon as possible in an effo... Read more...

Source: Albert & Logan News A "G'DAY mates" welcome and an "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie - Oi, Oi, Oi" chant ensured the citizenship ceremony at Logan ... Read more...

 Source: The Australian Samantha Maiden, Dennis Shanahan Additional reporting: AAP AUSTRALIAN officials expect the case against terror suspect ... Read more...

Paul Williams looks behind the politics of water Will Kevin Rudd mimic Bob Hawke and promise to stop a dam? FEDERAL Parliamentary Secretary for Wate... Read more...

A CHRISTMAS card recycling campaign has gained the support of Queensland Senator Russell Trood. The Cards 4 Planet Ark campaign encourages people to ... Read more...

IN a setback for Premier Peter Beattie's plan to drought-proof southeast Queensland, his federal Labor colleagues have signalled they will not oppose... Read more...

Executions raise questions not easily explained to young minds. AS UNCOMFORTABLE as it is to accept, there will be some people who believed that the ... Read more...

Source: The Age GOVERNMENT MPs yesterday expressed little disquiet over the hanging of Saddam Hussein, even though the Government has signed a commit... Read more...

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald When the former US president Herbert Hoover came up with one of the great truisms of warfare in the 20th century, ... Read more...

Source: Samantha Maiden - Political correspondent - The Australian.  LIBERAL MPs have declared Iraq "a mess" and warned that Prime Minister... Read more...

SENATORS Ian Macdonald and Russell Trood visited Babinda on Thursday to take a tour of the devastation nine months on from Cyclone Larry. Senator M... Read more...

Source: Herbert River Express CARDWELL State School has been awarded $500 in funding for a display it plans to construct for Seafest 2007. Seafest i... Read more...

INALA'S ST Mark's School has received a $126,000 grant to refurbish footpaths and general learning areas. St Mark's is one of a number of schools in ... Read more...

Melbourne, Oct. 11 (PTI): Australia is not planning to sell uranium to India, its Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. His remark comes app... Read more...

Source: Australian Financial Review US President George Bush held his second full-scale press conference in a matter of weeks on Wednesday local time... Read more...

Source: Bulletin (ninemsn.com.au) A prominent Liberal senator has turned up the heat on the prime minister over Iraq, telling The Bulletin in an excl... Read more...

TONY EASTLEY: A Liberal Senator is warning the Howard Government that the North Korean nuclear test is a sign that the nuclear non-proliferation regim... Read more...

Source: Brisbane City News LET S hope Queensland Roar have a better season than their counterparts in rugby league and AFL.  Help get them off ... Read more...

Source: Courier Mail The resources boom is masking a collapse in investment in Australian mineral exploration, writes Russell Trood AUSTRALIA faces t... Read more...

Source: ABC Online Reporter: Catherine McGrath   ELEANOR HALL: The Government has delayed debate on its controversial Migration Bill, as it tr... Read more...

Source: Courier Mail HUGH DUNN Diplomat,academic Born Rockhampton, August 20,1923 Died Brisbane, November 5, 2005 HUGH Alexander Dunn, AO, was part ... Read more...

  China wants to mine our uranium. Russell Trood sees a role for Queensland. Queensland has massive reserves of uranium yet its potential weal... Read more...