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Annika Smethurst

Annika Smethurst

The Daily Telegraph

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Labor was politically savvy in targeting property investors and big business

The state budget has served as another reminder of how brilliant the Andrews government is at politics. With Victoria recording the highest debt...

25.05.2023 5

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Faced with a sea of red, Pallas needed villains. But spin and blame might not be enough

It’s easy to see why Treasurer Tim Pallas has described this – his ninth budget – as the most difficult he has had to deliver. Faced with a sea...

23.05.2023 8

The Age

Annika Smethurst

The Andrews government can build, but can it dig its way out of debt?

As Treasurer Tim Pallas prepares to bring down his ninth budget on Tuesday, it's important to reflect on what a responsible budget looks like in these...

19.05.2023 30

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Ghost of Deeming will continue to haunt the Liberals

Moira Deeming may have lost her bid to stay in the Liberal Party’s parliamentary team, but her ghost will continue to haunt the party room. Of the...

12.05.2023 10

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Liberal MPs are tiring of Deeming and her merry band of rebels

It has become a rite of passage for Liberal leaders to live with persistent internal treachery. Malcolm Turnbull had to contend with the Monkey Pod...

04.05.2023 10

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Greens’ free speech panic alienating members

It’s almost a year since the Australian Greens recorded their best result in a federal election, expanding their numbers in the House of...

28.04.2023 10

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Andrews knows how to twist a narrative to his favour – don’t fall for it

Watching Premier Daniel Andrews respond to a corruption probe, you’d be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about. Andrews’ unrivalled...

20.04.2023 5

The Age

Annika Smethurst

This line from IBAC’s latest scathing report should alarm Victorians

There is one paragraph in the corruption watchdog’s latest report into the Andrews government's actions that should trouble all Victorians. Found on...

19.04.2023 20

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Victoria’s ‘dire’ budget means brakes will be slammed on major road projects

The state budget is 5½ weeks away but Treasurer Tim Pallas is desperate for a miracle. Despite Jim Chalmers warning that slow economic growth and...

13.04.2023 2

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Waiting for Peter Dutton’s demise won’t be enough to help the Victorian Liberals

How do you solve a problem like Peter Dutton? The hard-headed federal opposition leader who’s apparently holding the Coalition back from the...

06.04.2023 5

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Andrews’ secret China trip is among his most flagrant acts of arrogance

Not since Henry Kissinger's secret mission to China in 1971 has a politician worked so hard to keep the media and voters in the dark about a trip...

30.03.2023 5

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Backflip on Deeming is a disaster for Pesutto

It was only a week ago that John Pesutto insisted there “wasn’t really any alternative” to expelling Moira Deeming from the Liberal Party...

27.03.2023 90

The Age

Annika Smethurst

In moving to expel Deeming, Pesutto failed in his most important job

It took just 100 days for John Pesutto’s Liberal Party leadership to be put at risk, and he has no one to blame but himself. In an attempt to appear...

23.03.2023 6

The Age

Annika Smethurst

A tight win in Aston won’t give Dutton the job security he craves

A status quo result at the Aston byelection – that is, a win for the Liberal Party – is unlikely to provide the job security Peter Dutton craves....

16.03.2023 7

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Andrews takes cautious approach to overdue bail reforms

The Andrews government has always been bloody good at politics. This should not minimise its obvious successes, but is simply an acknowledgment of its...

09.03.2023 7

The Age

Annika Smethurst

As political parallels, Andrews can heed lessons of Sturgeon’s downfall

Within minutes of Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announcing her resignation last month, she was hailed as one of the most dominant...

02.03.2023 5

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Progressives who love Andrews should be troubled by coroner’s finding

As Premier Daniel Andrews nears 3000 days in office, he has much to celebrate. Three election wins, an infrastructure pipeline that is radically...

09.02.2023 7

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Election won, Andrews will take out the trash. He needs to fix the roof

Victorian MPs – from all sides – seem to have collectively decided that nothing they do in the first few months of this term of parliament is...

19.01.2023 7

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Victorian Liberals hunt unicorn candidate to save party

The once-dominant Victorian Liberal Party is on the hunt for a new state director. The role, akin to that of a chief executive, comes with a...

12.01.2023 5

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Andrews on a tightrope as he balances competing interests in federal health fight

One of the great flash points of the otherwise dull Victorian election campaign came in late October when NSW Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet...

05.01.2023 6

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Progressives will hold the chips when bargaining with government over legislation

Just as Labor found political allies in Andy Meddick, Fiona Patten and Samantha Ratnam to help deliver its promises in the last parliament, the...

15.12.2022 7

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Pesutto will need to tread a fine line with the bitter and ambitious

Before the last Liberal MP left the opposition party room on Thursday, John Pesutto’s ascendancy to the opposition leadership was being hailed a win...

08.12.2022 10

The Age

Annika Smethurst

How the election result reset the political landscape

Victorian voters have given a jolt to the major parties and confirmed the resetting of the state’s political landscape. Voters in Melbourne’s...

26.11.2022 20

The Age

Annika Smethurst

A Labor win doesn’t mean a status quo election

It’s like climbing Mount Everest, backwards, in a blizzard and without oxygen. That’s the metaphor Opposition Leader Matthew Guy chose to describe...

24.11.2022 6

The Age

Annika Smethurst

Gloves stay on in genteel debate, but masterful Andrews comes out on top

The gloves stayed on in a genteel debate between Premier Daniel Andrews and Liberal leader Matthew Guy in Box Hill on Tuesday night. If the 100...

22.11.2022 30

The Age

Annika Smethurst

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