Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has branded the 2013 Senate election result "an embarrassment" and the preference deals that delivered power to the micro-parties a "disgrace" as upper house crossbenchers came together to plot revenge for the Coalition's voting reforms.

In his strongest comments yet on the issue, Mr Turnbull told the NSW Liberal Party faithful on Saturday he was seeking to "restore democracy" with his bill to introduce optional preferential voting, which would purge Parliament of the micro-parties. The bill is expected to pass this month with Greens support.

“ ... on that Monday 24 March I watched Cardinal Pell being questioned in the royal commission and I woke up at 4.40 the next morning and thought, ‘It’s too disgusting, the way he threw his men to the wolves to protect himself.’”

In 2013 Lock the Gate launched a ground-breaking film which tell the stories of the impacts of unconventional gas extraction on families and communities across Australia.

This documentary captures in stark terms the personal heartache of Australians whose lives have been changed forever by gas mining and the heroic actions everyday people are taking to defend the country they love.

Chart from Desmog. Extrapolation by Gus

Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott break bread as sub row continues

Cardinal George Pell has told the child abuse royal commission he was deceived in a world of crime and cover-ups by people who did not want the status quo disturbed.

The Howard government had a ruthless class agenda, writes David Glanz, but it was Labor’s timid opposition that kept it in power.

History records that John Howard’s Liberals won government 20 years ago, on 2 March, 1996.

For all of the self-congratulatory stories we tell ourselves about moral progress and human betterment, sometimes we in the post-Christian West end up advocating some truly barbaric, inhumane positions.

Shadow Treasurer Michael Daley said New South Wales should be concerned by the Government's plan.

Case Study 28 deals with the response of the Christian Brothers in Victoria to allegations of child sexual abuse involving six brothers - all of whom spent time working at schools in the Diocese of Ballarat.

When asked if he had been approached by students with complaints of inappropriate touching by teachers or principles, Cardinal Pell said he could not recall any examples.