Early this morning, as Australians were lazing in the land of Nod, Pope Benedict XVI was busy blessing Cardinal Pell's new multi-million dollar pilgrim centre in Rome, known as Domus Australia.

And what a grand occasion it was. Not only was Il Papa there, dressed all in white, but the choir from Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral-comprising 13 men and 23 boys-was on hand to sing hymns and prayers.

On our rough head count, there were also three purple-capped Aussie archbishops, one red-capped cardinal, and more than two dozen bishops flown in from Down Under, making it an awesome display of ecclesiastical power.

Secret justice looks set to be a regular feature of British courts and tribunals when the intelligence services want to protect their sources of information.

Civil courts, immigration panels and even coroner's inquests would go into secret session if the Government rules that hearing evidence in public could be a threat to national security.

The proposals, which run counter to a centuries-old British tradition of open justice, were introduced to a sparsely attended House of Commons yesterday by the Justice Secretary, Ken Clarke - and met almost no opposition. The planned changes to the British justice system follow lobbying of the Government by the CIA.

Of all the objectionable lies that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has told, the latest load of nonsense about repealing the Clean Energy Future is the most damaging to Australia.

Business enterprise flourishes in an environment of certainty and predictability.The Gillard government has worked hard to provide business with the certainty to invest and innovate in a carbon constrained global economy.

David Cameron has been accused of allowing a secret rightwing agenda to flourish at the heart of the Conservative party, as fallout from the resignation of Liam Fox exposed its close links with a US network of lobbyists, climate change deniers and defence hawks.

What a weasel. The self-serving manoeuvrings of Bill Shorten have become excruciating in their transparency.

Shorten, the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, is one of the Labor Right factional powerbrokers who removed his own prime minister, Kevin Rudd. He has become the most ardent cheerleader for the beneficiary of his knife-work, Julia Gillard, even as her poll numbers remain mired in unelectable territory, lower than Rudd's poll numbers when he was deposed.

The Gillard government hoped to turn the asylum-seeker impasse to its advantage but the plan was doomed.

Thursday's cabinet debate on asylum seekers was the first big, long, hard-fought cabinet argument of the Gillard prime ministership. And the most important person in the debate wasn't even in the room.

The entire discussion, broken into two meetings and running close to three hours in all, was held in anticipation of how Tony Abbott would react to any government decision. And the final decision was made on the same basis.

Papua New Guinea is torn between customary rights and economic progress, writes Jo Chandler.

From 200 metres up, the jungles of Papua New Guinea's Western Province look like close-packed heads of broccoli. The canopy is so dense you can't see the trees for the forest.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott’s “blood pledge” to dismantle the carbon tax if he wins power would financially punish the vulnerable and reward the big end of town, Throsby MP Stephen Jones claims.

Labor has promised to defend the carbon tax if it loses government to the Coalition, which tried unsuccessfully to block the passage of the tax through the House of Representatives yesterday.

Mr Abbott believes the Parliament had no mandate to introduce a carbon tax, predicting it will lead to a higher cost of living and job insecurity. Yesterday, he reiterated his plan to repeal the tax if the Opposition wins government.

I may be wrong...

But I feel that Fran Kelly on Radio National ABC TV is not so secretly enamoured with Tony Abbott... She seems to hate Julia. It may be that she loves the sound of her own voice while talking with a man, but when talking with other journos, it's all in roundabouts based on politics rather than the importance of proper policies... Even this morning I think I heard her say something like "I don't trust this [Labor] government to achieve something worthwhile..." between two interview segments. Of course this comment does not appear on transcripts because the transcripts are focused on the interviews...

I could have heard wrong... but I don't think so...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has taken his campaign of fear and misinformation across the country but his latest stunt is a blood oath to make Australian families, pensioners, workers, industry and business worse off.

Mr Abbott would remove pension increases. That's the pension increase of $338 for singles and $510 for couples that the Gillard Labor government is introducing. He has promised to remove the extra payments that are going to families receiving family tax benefits and he has committed to remove personal tax cuts. And on top of this, Mr Abbott would put a $1300 tax on families and give the money to polluters.