Australian Labor Party

The acting head of Australia’s corruption watchdog says Labor’s invite-only election grant program has “piqued” her interest, as a Senate inquiry grills departmental staff and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defends his office’s dissemination of a “dirt file” about independent MP Helen Haines.

Internal frustration inside the federal Labor caucus is rising as entrenched cost-of-living pressures test the government's mid-term standing, with backbenchers increasingly voicing private concerns about the party's direction and economic message, according to ABC News reporting by Clare Armstrong.