Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne scrambled for the exits in the House of Representatives this morning as suspended Labor MP Craig Thomson lent his "tainted" vote to the Opposition.

The Zutbots is a new toon strip from Gus Leonisky. It will feature a family of robots and hopefully will be published on this site more or less daily. The Zutbots at times will be politically relevant, mostly subliminally... Please note that the terms Zutbot, Zutbots and The Zutbots are non-registered but activated by publishing herein trademarks of the Gus Leonisky Corporation.

Billionaire James Packer will reportedly ask shareholders to dump the head of Sydney's Star casino in favour of former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett.

Mr Packer, who is chairman of Melbourne's Crown Casino, has called for the chairman of Star operator Echo Entertainment, John Story, to be stood down over the company's management of the casino and handling of a recent public inquiry into its operations.

Apparently the Greeks (Athenians) invented the tax refund... When there was enough loot plundered from somewhere else, they would refund the taxes (used to fund the looting armies) accordingly... Unfortunately these days looting is far more sophisticated than war and one could say that the Greeks have been buggered by the US bonking (sorry Freudian slip: I mean banking) system...

The latest round of international climate change talks finished on Friday in discord and disappointment, with some participants concerned that important progress made last year was being unpicked.

At the talks, countries were supposed to set out a workplan on negotiations that should result in a new global climate treaty, to be drafted by the end of 2015 and to come into force in 2020. But participants told the Guardian they were downbeat, disappointed and frustrated that the decision to work on a new treaty – reached after marathon late-running talks last December in Durban – was being questioned.

adaptation of a Rembrant painting by Gus Raphael...

The flames of the eurozone crisis leapt higher yesterday, as fears spread about the state of the Continent's most vulnerable banks.

The Australian Labor Party is against the wall... It's time for Labor to fight back.

Anyone, especially anyone in Greece, hoping for a Franco-German showdown over “growth” when François Hollande meets Angela Merkel today will be disappointed.

JULIA Gillard's carbon tax budget bribe has backfired spectacularly, with the majority of voters believing they will be worse off despite thousands of dollars a year in extra handouts and tax cuts.