The prime minister, Tony Abbott, says he wants to accelerate free trade talks with China, but he is in the country to “be a friend”, not to do a deal.

Make no mistake, Japan is the big winner from the slight reduction in agricultural trade barriers announced with so much fanfare from the Prime Minister's captive travelling trade troupe. And that's a perfectly good and very desirable thing.

There's also a strong chance that much of the immediate advantage Australia should enjoy won't last long.

Other beef exporters will be hot on the heels of our most favoured nation status – stand by for American trade negotiators to target the Australian beef tariff level as they seek their own deal. They've never stopped working on a better deal for themselves.

Palmer dismisses latest report from IPCC, calls for cut in nature's carbon emissions...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-04/clive-palmer-ross-garnaut-wa-senate-election-climate-carbon-tax/5366202

Critic: 'Frat-brother quality'

The Abbott government must do a better job to assure people about the future of the national disability insurance scheme, says a leading advocate, who argues the anxiety could encourage rushed purchases of once-in-10-year support items.

Developments this week should make many Australians apprehensive about their economic future. Alan Austin reports.

The Queen has met Pope Francis for the first time during a one-day visit to Rome.

Frontiers in Psychology last month retracted the paper, Recursive fury: Conspiracist ideation in the blogosphere in response to research on conspiracist ideation “in light of a small number of complaints”, the journal said on its website. 

A year-long investigation “did not identify any issues with the academic and ethical aspects of the study,” it said. However, the probe found “the legal context (to be) insufficiently clear”. 

The prophets of gloom, H G Wells and George Orwell got it right but rather than be obviously submissive to a Big Brother government, we are now submissive to a big brother government that tells us to be comfortable and relaxed — while the MMMM pre-munches the news and the NSA spies on what we say in our communication... Meanwhile there are drugs designed to stimulate a "man's" imagination but most of them are illegal. The BIG Brother government does not want you to be over-stimulated or have any imagination...

The Abbott Government is becoming more and more widely ridiculed, writes Clint Howitt, who says this is the litmus test of a failed government.