Last year Bill Shorten’s budget reply turned the Liberals pale, as he lashed out at Abbott’s cuts and promised to block the worst attacks in the Senate. This year the Labor leader delivered a pathetic, uninspiring speech that showed why he’s widely considered useless.

Mental health experts and legal aid groups are alarmed by a proposal to strip welfare payments for psychiatric patients accused of serious crimes.

With Labor and the Greens opposed to the changes, the government will need to secure crossbench support to get them through the upper house.

On Monday Ms Ley distanced herself from the proposal to increase PBS patient contributions, describing it as "a separate measure I inherited from the last budget", and stressing the $1 discount and other measures to make medicines cheaper would not be contingent upon the proposal.

She said her focus was on delivering a new package of measures which would "balance the need for consumers to have affordable access to medicines now with the need to fund new drugs in the future".

Europe's largest oil companies are banding together to forge a joint strategy on climate change policy, alarmed they'll be ignored as the world works toward a historic deal limiting greenhouse gases.

Royal Dutch Shell, Total, BP, Statoil and Eni are among oil companies that plan to start a new industry body, or think tank, to develop common positions on the issues, according to people with knowledge of the matter. So far the largest US companies -- Exxon Mobil and Chevron -- have decided not to participate, the people said, asking not be named before a public announcement expected as early as next month.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said "nope, nope, nope" to Australia offering resettlement to any of the thousands of migrants caught up in South East Asia's refugee crisis.

"I'm sorry. If you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door," Mr Abbott said on Thursday.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nope-nope-nope-tony-abbott-says-australia-will-not-resettle-refugees-in-migrant-crisis-20150521-gh6eew.html

Kerry, a former U.S. senator and presidential candidate, confronted such objections as “empty protectionism” during his speech to a small audience of Boeing workers and pro-trade guests, including Gary Locke, the former governor and ambassador to China.

“There is nothing progressive about blaming trade or trade agreements for the inevitable economic shifts that are brought on by technology and time,” Kerry said.

That's right, even Rand Paul is proposing to increase defense spending. And the rest of them are sounding more like cartoon movie heroes than presidential candidates on the stump (perhaps lending some support to that American Sniper theory).

Today's Fairfax Ipsos poll shows the Abbott Government back on level pegging with Labor. Bob Ellis suggests the result was fraudulently achieved.

Hundreds of people have gathered in kayaks and small boats for a protest in the north-western US port city of Seattle against oil drilling in the Arctic by the Shell energy giant.

Paddle in Seattle is being held by activists who say the firm's drilling will damage the environment.

It comes after the first of Shell's two massive oil rigs arrived at the port.

The firm wants to move them in the summer to explore for oil off Alaska's northern coast.

Earlier this week, Shell won conditional approval from the US Department of Interior for oil exploration in the Arctic.

Chevron: A hornswoggler of the highest order

Unlike a Shell, a Caltex or a BP, Chevron is hardly a household name in this country. It soon will be though. 

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been accused of making a "calamitous captain's call" for deciding to throw his support behind a plan to set up another Australian medical school.

There is much speculation about US Secretary of State John Kerry’s rush visit to Russia in the wake of Russia’s successful Victory Day celebration on May 9. On May 11, Kerry, who was snubbing Russia on the 9th, was on his way to Russia, and Putin consented to see him on May 12.